Kathleen Turner

Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress known for her deep, husky voice. Over the course of her career, she has won two Golden Globe Awards and earned nominations for an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and two Tony Awards. After making her professional stage debut off-Broadway and appearing on television in the soap opera The Doctors, she achieved widespread prominence with her lead film role in Body Heat (1981).

Turner was born on June 19, 1954, in Springfield, Missouri. The third of four children, she grew up in Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, and England due to her father's career as a U.S. Foreign Service officer. She graduated from The American School in London in 1972, after which her family returned to Missouri. Turner studied theater at Southwest Missouri State University for two years before transferring to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977.

After moving to New York City in 1977, Turner made her off-Broadway debut in Mister T and her Broadway debut in Gemini that same year. In 1978, she secured her first television role as Nola Dancy Aldrich on NBC's The Doctors. Her breakthrough film debut arrived in 1981 with the thriller Body Heat, establishing her as a major leading actress and box-office draw throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

Turner's notable 1980s film credits include The Man with Two Brains, Romancing the Stone, Crimes of Passion, Prizzi's Honor, The Jewel of the Nile, Peggy Sue Got Married, Switching Channels, The Accidental Tourist, and The War of the Roses. She also provided the uncredited speaking voice for Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Her subsequent screen credits include V.I. Warshawski, Serial Mom, The Virgin Suicides, Baby Geniuses, Beautiful, Marley & Me, and Dumb and Dumber To.

During the early 1990s, Turner was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, which restricted her physical activities, altered her appearance, and impacted her career trajectory. Following newly available treatments, the condition went into remission after roughly eight years, allowing her to take on more frequent screen and stage roles. Her later television work includes guest and recurring appearances on Friends, Nip/Tuck, Californication, The Path, Dolly Parton's Heartstrings, Mom, and The Kominsky Method.

Throughout her career, Turner has maintained an active stage presence, earning Tony Award nominations for her work in Broadway productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, while also starring in a West End stage adaptation of The Graduate. Her extensive voice acting includes animated series such as The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy, and Rick and Morty, as well as radio dramas and film narrations.