Kathleen Turner

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the "100 Sexiest Stars" in film history (#73).

Education: Southwest Missouri State University (SMSU), Springfield, Missouri; transferred after two years University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland; B.F.A., 1977. She was involved in SMSUs Tent Theatre in the same summer as Tess Harper.

Suffers from rheumatoid arthritis.

Was immortalized in the 1980s song, "The Kiss of Kathleen Turner," by techno-pop singer Falco.

She performed some of her own stunts in Romancing the Stone , Undercover Blues and V.I. Warshawski . Her nose was broken while filming V.I. Warshawski .

Spoke the voice of sexy Jessica Rabbit in the toon-noir Who Framed Roger Rabbit .

Lobbied hard for the lead role in Nine 1/2 Weeks but lost out to Kim Basinger.

Attended the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England.

Ex-sister-in-law of fashion designer Donna Karan.

Somewhat resembles Lauren Bacall (looks and voice).

Her father, Richard, was a foreign service diplomat who was imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II.

Upon meeting the legendary Lauren Bacall , to whom she has often been compared, she reportedly introduced herself by saying, "Hi, Im the young you.".

Gave birth to her only child at age 33, a daughter Rachel Ann Weiss (aka Rachel Ann Weiss ) on October 14, 1987. Childs father is her ex-husband, Jay Weiss.

On December 3, 1999, she checked herself into Marworth in Waverly, Pennsylvania, for alcohol abuse.

Speaks Spanish fluently.

(October 2004) Received a lifetime achievement award from the Savannah College of Art and Design at the Savannah Film Festival.

Was nominated for Broadways 1990 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for portraying Maggie the Cat in a revival of Tennessee Williams "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. At the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, she presented Quentin Tarantino with the Palme dOr for Pulp Fiction .

Was nominated for Broadways 2005 Tony Award as Best Actress in a Play for portraying Martha in the 2005 revival of Edward Albee s "Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".

Was awarded the 2006 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for her performance in "Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".

Ranked #1 in Fotogramas magazines "Favourite Foreign Actress" poll .

Ranked #1 in Fotogramas magazines "Favourite Foreign Actress" poll .

Referenced by Jack Black in High Fidelity . He says that his bands name is very close to being called "Kathleen Turner Overdrive".

She discovered she had developed rheumatoid arthritis in 1992, but did not publicly disclose her illness until 1994, during filming for Serial Mom in Baltimore.

Companions with David Guc [1977 - 1982].

Was raised in Canada, Cuba and England where her father was a diplomat.

Her former assistant was Polly Brown.

Former accomplished gymnast.

Referenced by Emma Surez in Una casa en las afueras .

Despite playing her mother in Peggy Sue Got Married , Turner was just 9 years older than Helen Hunt.

Drama classmates at Missouri State University included John Goodman and Tess Harper.

As in 2012, she said the director she has learned the most from is Francis Ford Coppola.

By her own admission, she turned down every role offered of a victimized, weak woman.

In the early 1990s, as Rheumatoid Arthritis began impacting her acting career and her personal life in a significant way, she also began to see a decline in the number of acting roles she was being offered. When the diagnosis was finally made in 1992, she had already been suffering with "unbearable" pain for over one year. By that time, she could not easily turn her head, and was already having difficulty walking, and her doctors told her that she was most likely going to be needing a wheelchair to remain mobile. By the mid to late 1990s, the progression of the illness and the medications (steroids, among others) to treat the illness quickly began to change her appearance. All of this caused her once vibrant acting career to slow considerably. Due to newly available drugs and other treatments, her Rheumatoid Arthritis has been in remission since 2006.

Has been a long time member of the People For the American Way Foundation Board of Directors, and was previously on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of America.

Was 9 months pregnant with her daughter Rachel Ann Weiss when she completed recording Who Framed Roger Rabbit ; she actually went into labor on the final day of recording.

Delivered her daughter Rachel Ann Weiss via emergency Caesarean section after the midwife was concerned that her lungs had not developed properly.

Has played Chandler Bings (Matthew Perry) cross-dressing father Charles Bing in three episodes of "Friends" in 2001. To this day, Matthew Perry still calls her "Dad".

Turner became pregnant by her husband, Jay Weiss , in November 1985 shortly after filming on Peggy Sue Got Married was completed. However, she went on to suffer a miscarriage in January 1986 during a flight to Italy, where she was to begin filming Giulia e Giulia .

(October 2007) Presiding the international jury of this 34th edition of the Ghent Film Festival (Flanders, Belgium).

Turner named Guess Whos Coming to Dinner as her favorite film in an American Film Institute poll.

(October 9-23, 2014) Presided over the 50th Chicago International Film Festivals International Feature Competition Jury. She also received a tribute.

Is one of 20 actresses who did not receive an Oscar nomination for their Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical Golden Globe-winning performance; hers being for Romancing the Stone and Prizzis Honor . The others, in chronological order, are: June Allyson for Too Young to Kiss , Ethel Merman for Call Me Madam , Jean Simmons for Guys and Dolls , Taina Elg and Kay Kendall for Les Girls , Marilyn Monroe for Some Like It Hot , Rosalind Russell for A Majority of One and Gypsy , Patty Duke for Me, Natalie , Twiggy for The Boy Friend , Raquel Welch for The Three Musketeers , Barbra Streisand for A Star Is Born , Bernadette Peters for Pennies from Heaven , Miranda Richardson for Enchanted April , Jamie Lee Curtis for True Lies , Nicole Kidman for To Die For , Madonna for Evita , Rene Zellweger for Nurse Betty , Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky , and Amy Adams for Big Eyes .

Her mother, Patsy (Magee) Turner, passed away on February 13th, 2015, aged 91.

A woman my age is not supposed to be attractive or sexually appealing. I,just get kinda tired of that.

I feel I get recognized for my voice more than for my face.

I often play women who are not essentially good or likable, and I often,go through a stage where I hate them. And then I find the reasons why,they are that way, and end up loving and defending them.

[on what is the most important lesson life has taught her] That you are,not the center of the world.

[on her looks] You know, I was so naive. Still am. When I arrived in,L. A.

[on Hollywood (1995)] We need women producers, writers and executives.

Otherwise, it is like expecting male senators to write legislation for,us. Hollywood in general is at least 10 to 15 years behind the times.

[on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences] I would encourage,more young people to join, because the average age now is over 60. Not,to sound sour grapes, but I think there is a lot of politics involved.

I feel different, better, about my personal life as well as my professional life. So much confidence comes simply because I have reached this very good age. Women my age today are forging new ground. Society stops defining us by our reproductive capacity, sexual attractiveness, or other traditional measures, so we become liberated from stereotype. We are freed to grow into our full selves. I couldn’t have allowed myself to feel so positive in the past. When I was at the height of my film career, I didn’t have the kind of respect I now have from the theatrical community. I hadn’t yet proved that I have the chops for the stage. But now I have a stature I’ve never before enjoyed. Virginia Woolf herself observed that when her Aunt Mary left her enough money to live on, her financial independence meant she “need not hate” or “flatter any man. ” She said this was of even more value to her freedom and autonomy than the right to vote.

The big gap between the ability of actors is confidence.

A woman can plan when to have her family and how to support a family.