Kathleen Turner became well-known in the 1980s due to her beauty and strength; she is regarded by many as one of the most beautiful actors in Hollywood.
The actress has experienced both good and difficult circumstances throughout the years, and her tenacity has seen her through them all.Despite her challenging history, Kathleen Turner was raised in a home with four other children.
She was raised in Venezuela as well as in London with her siblings. She unfortunately witnessed her father’s untimely demise as a small child as he was mowing the lawn of their Hampstead home.
Kathleen and her family were expelled from the United Kingdom by the foreign service one month after his death. Turner moved her family to Springfield, Missouri, where everyone was still in mourning for their father and their former house.
After relocating to New York to pursue an adult acting career, Tuner felt at last at peace. Despite her success on stage, her big break came when she was cast as the femme fatale in the 1981 movie “Body Heat.”
Three years after starring alongside William Hurt in “Romancing the Stone,” Turner received a chance to co-star with Michael Douglas. Douglas was going through a challenging divorce from his wife Diandra when the movie was being filmed, and he began to bond with Turner.
We were intensely flirting and exchanging intense, yearning glances as we were falling in love. Kathleen remarked, “Then Diandra came down and reminded me he was still married.”
She ultimately married the real estate developer in the film, Jay Weiss, in 1984. The couple’s sole daughter was born not long after. Rachel Ann Weiss was born on October 14, 1987.
Unfortunately, the couple’s relationship began to unravel as they took on the role of raising their daughter.
“I would insist on longer weekends or extra passes from the movie studios in order to bring my wife and children to visit me. But I felt horrible because there was a perception in the marriage that he did all the effort. That was one of the many reasons it ended. I started to feel really oppressed. “I thought, ‘Hang on a minute, you’ve done very well out of being married to me also,'” remarked Kathleen.
Their marital issues escalated after Turner played Martha in the Broadway version of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in 2005. Weiss didn’t seem to want to spend much time with Turner at home as she got very busy doing eight gigs a week.
The two got along well at that period, when Turner was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance as Martha.
The actress was nominated for an Oscar in 1987 for her role in “Peggy Sue Got Married.” In the 1980s, she produced a number of movies, including three successful blockbusters with Michael Douglas.
But in the 1990s, Kathleen experienced a medical setback when her neck locked, making it impossible for her to turn her head. Additionally, the swelling in her hands prevented her from using them.
Kathleen stated, “It was crippling.” When something is gone, even for a little while, you stop taking it for granted. What I took for granted was my athleticism, my capacity for forceful movement, and my freedom to move however I pleased. I had a genuine identity crisis when I lost that: “Who am I if I can’t do this?”
She was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, which is characterized by swelling of the lining of our joints, and this was the tragic reason for her circumstances. Managing chronic pain caused by this illness can be difficult.
“When it was first diagnosed, I was terrified because they said I’d be in a wheelchair,” said Kathleen. I reasoned that if I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything. Acting is not the only thing I want to do. This was my destiny. It has been a part of my life the entire time. The most horrifying part was the feeling that I might not be able to complete it, in addition to the continuous pain.
Kathleen used booze and drugs to dull her agony. Her habit of drinking vodka led her to faint during dress rehearsals for plays such as the 2002 stage version of “The Graduate,” even if they made her job simpler.
The actress really checked herself into rehab after the show concluded, and it was found that she was not an alcoholic. Instead, she was told to just remember to take more notes on when she took her medications and any unfavorable side effects.
The actress now does pilates and yoga to help her stay flexible and manage her discomfort.
The famous person began to focus more intently on her career in theater while also improving her pain management. As she grew older, she largely returned to her roots, even taking the lead in a stage production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in her forties, even though she still worked sometimes in film and television.
“It was a little foresight on my part of which I am justly proud, because I knew that the better roles as I got older would be in theatre, which is absolutely true,” Kathleen remarked.
The actress has more time to follow her passions, such as volunteering for Amnesty International and working for Planned Parenthood of America, because she is concentrating on the theater.
Turner has dedicated her life to supporting other women and has been an enthusiastic feminist for the majority of her life. Send Yourself Roses, Gloria Feldt’s 2008 biography of the actress, does a superb job of capturing her ideas.
Being female-led, we are the first generation to attain financial autonomy. According to Kathleen, women are going back into the workforce. They are redefining themselves. I thought I could do even more to help with that. As such, it includes a great deal of my personal beliefs along with philosophy.
