Kathleen Turner | Home

Biography

After making a stunning feature-film debut as the sultry schemer in Body Heat (1981), this sensual, throaty-voiced leading lady earned a reputation for willingness to try virtually anything on-screen. A University of Maryland graduate and former gymnast (a skill she used in The War of the Roses by the way), Turner began acting in the 1970s and enjoyed a stint on the daytime soap "The Doctors" before her Body Heat breakthrough. She confounded expectations by next appearing as a comic femme fatale in a goofy farce, The Man With Two Brains (1983), and in 1984 she continued expanding her screen persona as an environmentalist in A Breed Apart and a woman who moonlights as a hooker (named China Blue) by night in Ken Russell's Crimes of Passion (1984). But it was the sleeper hit Romancing the Stone (also 1984) that cemented her stardom with mainstream moviegoers; as a mousy romance novelist who "lives" one of her own stories, she won a legion of fans. She followed it with a bravura turn as a Mafia hit lady, opposite Jack Nicholson, in Prizzi's Honor (1985), reteamed with Michael Douglas for a Stone sequel, The Jewel of the Nile (1985), then earned an Oscar nomination playing a time-traveling housewife in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986). She went on to play a woman living out two lives in Julia and Julia (1987), a feisty TV anchorwoman in Switching Channels (1988), the seductive voice of Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (also 1988, followed by two subsequent short cartoons), and William Hurt's frigid wife in The Accidental Tourist (1988). She again reteamed with Mi chael Douglas as their Romancing the Stone costar Danny DeVito moved behind the camera for the very black divorce comedy The War of the Roses (1989), then came a cropper as the solo lead of the poorly made adaptation of Sara Paretsky's Chicago private eye story V.I. Warshawski (1991). She electrified Broadway as Maggie in the 1989 revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," but her return to films in 1993 was less salutary for her career: House of Cards and Undercover Blues were both seen as failures. Her most recent credits: Naked in New York and John Waters' Serial Mom (both 1994).

- Leonard Maltin

Actress - filmography

Prince of Central Park (2000) .... Rebecca Cairn
Beautiful (2000) .... Verna Chickle
Cinderella (2000/I) (TV) .... Claudette
Love and Action in Chicago (1999) (V) .... Middleman
Virgin Suicides, The (1999) .... Mrs. Lisbon
... aka Sofia Coppola's the Virgin Suicides (2000) (USA: complete title)
Baby Geniuses (1999) .... Elena
"Stories from My Childhood" (1998) TV Series .... The Snow Queen
... aka "Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories from My Childhood" (1998) (USA: complete title)
Legalese (1998) (TV) .... Brenda Whitlass
Bad Baby (1997) (voice) .... Mom
... aka Disney's Bad Baby (1997)
Real Blonde, The (1997) .... Dee Dee Taylor
Simple Wish, A (1997) .... Claudia
... aka Fairy Godmother, The (1997) (Canada: English title)
Best of Roger Rabbit, The (1996) (V) (voice) .... Jessica Rabbit
... aka Disney and Steven Spielberg present The Best of Roger Rabbit (1996) (V) (USA: complete title)
Moonlight and Valentino (1995) .... Alberta Trager
Friends at Last (1995) (TV) .... Fanny Connelyn
Leslie's Folly (1994) (TV)
Serial Mom (1994) .... Beverly R. Sutphin
Naked in New York (1993) .... Dana Coles
Undercover Blues (1993) .... Jane Blue
House of Cards (1993) .... Ruth Matthews
Trail Mix-Up (1993) (voice) .... Jessica Rabbit
V.I. Warshawski (1991) .... Victoria 'V.I.' Warshawski
Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990) (voice) .... Jessica Rabbit
War of the Roses, The (1989) .... Barbara Rose
Tummy Trouble (1989) (voice) .... Jessica Rabbit
Accidental Tourist, The (1988) .... Sarah Leary
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) (voice) (uncredited) .... Jessica Rabbit (speaking)
Switching Channels (1988) .... Christy Colleran
Giulia e Giulia (1987) .... Julia
... aka Julia and Julia (1988) (USA)
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) .... Peggy Sue
GoBots: War of the Rock Lords (1986) (voice)
... aka GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986) (USA: video title)
Jewel of the Nile, The (1985) .... Joan Wilder
Prizzi's Honor (1985) .... Irene Walker
Breed Apart, A (1984) .... Stella Clayton
Crimes of Passion (1984) .... Joanna Crane/China Blue
Romancing the Stone (1984) .... Joan Wilder
... aka 2 bribones tras la esmeralda perdida (1984) (Mexico)
Man with Two Brains, The (1983) .... Dolores Benedict
Body Heat (1981) .... Matty Walker
"Doctors, The" (1963) TV Series .... Nola Dancy Aldrich (1978-1979)

Producer - filmography

Friends at Last (1995) (TV) (producer)

Director - filmography

Leslie's Folly (1994) (TV)

Herself - filmography

Women on Top: Hollywood and Power (2003) (TV) .... Herself
In Bad Taste (2000) .... Herself
Audience with Elton John, An (1997) (TV) (uncredited) .... Herself/audience member
Love in the Ancient World (1997) (TV) .... Host
"American Cinema" (1995) TV Series .... Narrator
All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever! (1994) (TV) .... Herself
... aka Sesame Street's All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever! (1994) (TV) (USA: complete title)
John Barry: Moviola (1993) (TV) .... Herself
Day at a Time, A (1992) (voice) .... Recitations
Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts, The (1988) (TV) .... Herself
Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toon Town (1988) (TV) .... Herself
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987) (TV) (voice) .... 1st Lt. Lynda Van Devanter
... aka Dear America (1987) (TV)

Notable TV Guest Appearances

"Friends" (1994) playing "Charles Bing" in episode: "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding: Part 1" (episode # 7.23) 17 May 2001
"Friends" (1994) playing "Charles Bing" in episode: "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding: Part 2" (episode # 7.24) 17 May 2001
"Friends" (1994) playing "Charles Bing" in episode: "The One with Chandler's Dad" (episode # 7.22) 10 May 2001
"King of the Hill" (1997) playing "Miss Liz Strickland" (voice) in episode: "Hanky Panky: Part 1" (episode # 4.13) 6 February 2000
"King of the Hill" (1997) playing "Miss Liz Strickland" (voice) in episode: "Rodeo Days" (episode # 4.12) 16 January 2000
"Simpsons, The" (1989) playing "Stacy Lavelle" (voice) in episode: "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy" (episode # 5.14) 17 February 1994
"Saturday Night Live" (1975) playing "Host" (episode # 15.3) 21 October 1989
"Saturday Night Live" (1975) playing "Host" (episode # 10.10) 12 January 1985