Lana Turner Movies

Want to know the best Lana Turner movies?  How about the worst Lana Turner movies?  Curious about Lana Turner’s box office grosses or which Lana Turner movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Lana Turner movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which movie got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Gotta make mama happy. Since I started writing movie pages, my mother, BERN1960 , has been asking me for a Lana Turner page. So after putting her request off for for almost 2 years…. now…finally my Lana Turner tribute page is complete and published.

Lana Turner (1921-1995) was an Oscar® nominated actress that appeared in over 50 movies from 1937 to 1991. In 1937 Turner got her big break when she went to a Hollywood drug store for some soda pop and was discovered by a movie producer who happened to be in the same drug store. She would appear in her first movie, They Won’t Forget, later that year and immediately was noticed by the movie going public because of the tight sweater she wore in the movie. She became known as the “sweater girl”….a label that she strongly disliked. It only took her four years to go from supporting roles to leading roles in low budget movies to leading roles in the most prestige movies being made at the time.

By 1941 was sharing top billing with superstars James Stewart, Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable. Her peak movie years happened between 1941 and 1959. During this time frame she appeared in many blockbuster hits and numerous critical hits and was one of the biggest stars working in movies. Her IMDb page shows 61 acting credits from 1937 to 1985. This page will rank Lana Turner movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that received limited North America releases were not included in the rankings.

Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner in 1952's The Bad and the Beautiful
Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner in 1952’s The Bad and the Beautiful

Lana Turner Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.

Lana Turner Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In Ther Table

The really cool thing about ther table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Lana Turner movies by the co-stars of her movies.
  • Sort Lana Turner movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Lana Turner movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Lana Turner movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Lana Turner movie received.
  • Sort Lana Turner movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR).  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Lana Turner Table

  1. Twenty-three Lana Turner movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 46.00% of her movies listed. Peyton Place (1957) was her biggest box office hit.
  2. An average Lana Turner movie grossed $118.40 million in adjusted box office gross
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  26 of Lana Turner’s movies are rated as good movies…or 52.00% of her movies.  The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) is her highest rated movie while Bittersweet Love (1976) was her lowest rated movie.
  4. Nine Lana Turner movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 18.00% of her movies.
  5. Three Lana Turner movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 6.00% of her movies.
  6. A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00.  35 Lana Turner movies scored higher that average….or 70.00% of her movies.  Peyton Place (1957) got the the highest UMR Score while Bittersweet Love (1976) got the lowest UMR Score.
John Garfield and Lana Turner in the classic film noir movie...The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).
John Garfield and Lana Turner in the classic film noir movie…The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

Possibly Interesting Facts About Lana Turner

1. Lana Turner was born Julia Jean Turner in Wallace, Idaho in 1921. Throughout her life family members called her Judy. It was not until she was discovered that she became Lana.

2. Lana Turner’s list of co-stars is pretty impressive……4 movies with Clark Gable, 2 movies with Spencer Tracy, once with James Stewart, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Richard Burton and Anthony Quinn. She even appeared opposite two James Bonds years before they became Bond….Sean Connery and Roger Moore.

3. Lana Turner received one Oscar® nomination in her career. She was nominated for Best Actress in 1957’s Peyton Place. She never received a Golden Globe® nomination.

4. Lana Turner was married 8 different times to 7 different men. They included a rancher, a hypnotist, a movie producer, an actor, a restaurant owner, a department store owner and a millionaire socialite. Lana Turner had one daughter, Cheryl.

5. In 1958 Lana Turner and her boyfriend at the time, gangster Johnny Stompanato, were in a heated argument. In an effort to protect her mother, Cheryl Turner, killed Stompanato. The amount of media coverage of the killing has been compared to the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995. It was ruled a justifiable homicide.

6. Roles Lana Turner turned down or was seriously considered for: Anatomy of a Murder, Mogambo, The Sound and the Fury, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. On the other side of this fact….she did however get the role of one of her biggest hits, Green Dolphin Street, when Katharine Hepburn dropped out of the movie.

7. The first agent that had contact with Lana Turner was Zeppo Marx, Groucho’s brother.

8.  Check out Lana Turner‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

But wait….we have a few more Lana Turner Movie Stats….Adjusted Worldwide Gross on 22 Lana Turner Movies

Lana Turner Box Office Grosses – Adjusted World Wide

Jump to Domestic Box Office

Steve’s Updated Lana Turner You Tube Video

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86 thoughts on “Lana Turner Movies

  1. Ah, yes, Lana Turner . . . loved “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” You brought back a ton of memories here. Wow, you really do a lot of research and it is very obvious how much work you have put into your hubs. So detailed and interesting. They really do not make those great movies nowadays it seems. Voted Way up That is sweet to do this for your mom. You are a good son no doubt. In His Love, Faith Reape

    1. Hey Faith Reaper…..I finally saw The Postman Always Rings Twice the other day….I can see why she was so popular back then….her first appearance in the doorway was very memorable. I felt sorry for her at the end of the movie….she was an angel compared to Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity….lol.

      Glad you enjoyed the result of my research….I have figured out ways to do a hub faster…but some of these older actors require lots of research….but it is like finding lost treasure when I find a lost statistic that has been buried for many years…thanks for stopping by and thanks for the comment….both are greatly appreciated.

  2. Hey Bruce, I do enjoy the comments on all your PAGES but your MOVIE PAGES are so very interesting and such wonderful information about the movie stars and their movies – but good personal information too. Just doing the research takes lots of time and effort. Debbie Reynolds and Rita Hayworth would be good. DID YOU DO GLENN FORD YET? He and Rita Hayworth made a couple of movies together…….there are so many PAGES – you might have already done Glenn Ford………….thanks again. MOM

    1. Hey BERN1960…thanks for the kind words….even if we are related…lol. I have not done Glenn Ford….and he is probably a ways away from having one done….Rita Hayworth might be soon….and I am currently doing some research on Debbie Reynolds. I think the next page will be on a current actor like Ben Stiller or the director Ridley Scott….as many of my followers do not remember many actors from the golden age of movies. As always thanks for the revisit and the comments..you are the bomb….that is a good thing…lol.

  3. A legendary and beautiful woman. Pity about her daughter and her boyfriend too..that was tragic. Nonetheless, a talented actress who made waves then! I am sharing!

    1. Hey Michelle….thanks for visiting my Lana Turner movie page….a great movie career filled with a tragic personal life…I think it is amazing that she was married 8 times….yet still was unmarried for the last 20 years of her life….so from 18 to 55 she was married those 8 times….that is only a little over 4 years for each marriage. I appreciate the comment.

  4. Your mom has great taste, Coge, I am a Lana Turner fan, too. I’ve seen all but her earliest movies in the 30s and enjoyed every one. She was a movie star when there were genuine movie stars larger than life. Peyton Place is one of my favorites together with The Postman Always Rings Twice and Imitation of Life.

    I can remember the newspaper headlines when her gangster boyfriend (at the time) was killed. Very tragic for her and her daughter.

    Thanks for bringing her to life with your excellent hub. And give your Mom a hug for her excellent taste in films.

    1. Hey drbj…. I will be sure to tell my mom…although I think she will read it first before I can that chance to tell her…as she seems to like the comments more than the hubs I write…lol.

      Glad your two favorites did so well in my ranking system…with Postman Always Rings Twice being 2nd and Imitation of Life coming in 3rd. Thanks for the memories about the headlines back then….can you image the media frenzy if that happened today? Thanks for the very kind words in your comment.

  5. THIS IS BRUCE’S MOM. BETTER LATE THAN NEVER AS THE OLD SAYING GOES……As I mentioned I did not know that Lana Turner was married 8 times either. I will put my thinking cap on and see what else I would like to see as a new MOVIE PAGE. Bruce, you have done so many now…….Thanks so much for all your MOVIE PAGES Looking forward to so many more. Love Mom

    1. Hey BERN1960….thanks for the return visit to your Lana Turner page. I know you have mentioned Rita Hayworth before…and Debbie wants a Debbie Reynolds page….so anybody else you can think off…just let me know. You are very welcome…it is the least I can do for you after all the great things you have done for me.

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