Trivia / Lana Turner

• Billing Displacement: In Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, she's given third billing, despite her playing a supporting role.
• Beauty Inversion: She remarked that Green Dolphin Street was a rare role that allowed her to appear with Messy Hair, and looking extremely unglamorous as she runs around New Zealand during a natural disaster.
• Creator Backlash:
  • She hated the Sweater Girl nickname. The film that earned it, They Wont Forget, she describes watching with embarrassment at the sight of herself.
  • The musical Mr Imperium, something she didn't want to do and was forced by contract.
• Dyeing for Your Art: For the historical drama Green Dolphin Street, she darkened her hair from blonde to brown and lost fifteen pounds.
• Playing Against Type: For Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, she and Ingrid Bergman swapped their usual casting types around; the latter played the bad girl, while Lana was The Ingenue. They had been in the running for the other roles, but Ingrid Bergman requested they switch.
• Reality Subtext: Imitation of Life (1959) had her playing a single mother, whose relationship with her daughter is especially strained. Critics at the time noted how the film seemed to mirror Lana's relationship with her own daughter Cheryl.
• Romance on the Set:
  • She got significant press for eloping with Artie Shaw, her costar in Dancing Co-Ed. They divorced after only four months.
  • Defied when the gossip columnists tried to claim she was having an affair with Clark Gable, based off the four films they did together. She insisted they were Just Friends.
• Star-Making Role: Dancing Co-Ed saw her first top billed role, and it was such a success that she was featured on the cover of Look magazine. Ziegfield Girl also marked a significant shift in her fame as well.
• Tom Hanks Syndrome: After World War II, she properly shifted towards dramatic roles, with The Postman Always Rings Twice.
• Typecasting: Best known as a Femme Fatale and usually a Ms. Fanservice too. The latter came first.
• What Could Have Been:
  • She was supposed to star alongside Clark Gable in an adaptation of The Sea Wolf in 1938, but the project was shelved. It would have been her first film for MGM.
  • The Harvey Girls was planned as a dramatic Lana Turner vehicle, but ended up a light-hearted Judy Garland musical instead.