Joan Turner

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Joan Turner (born Belfast, Northern Ireland, November 24, 1922) is a comedienne and singer who, in the 1960s and 1970s was a major star in the UK. She had her own television show, topped the bill at the London Palladium[1], appeared in the 1963 Royal Variety Show [2] and topped the bill over The Beatles[3] She appeared in the London stage musical Oliver! for two years, was romantically linked to Peter Sellers and was one of the highest-paid women in British showbiz.[2]

In later years, it was reported that, after two divorces,[2] she "drank and gambled away her fortune"[1]and she was declared bankrupt in 1977.[2]

In 1991, she was a guest of honour at the Queen Mother's 90th birthday celebrations.[2] and, in the early 1990s, attempting to revive her career, she had a role as Auntie Lou in the Channel 4 series Brookside and a cameo role in the BBC TV series EastEnders.[2] In 1996, she went to California to attempt to give it "one more try".[2]

In March 2001, the Sunday Mirror newspaper reported that she was living "among the winos, drug addicts and down-and-outs in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles... dressed in charity shop clothes and surrounded by her worldly possessions - with barely a penny to her name."[2] She was interviewed in situ as a "bag lady" on Sunset Boulevard[4] in the August 2001 Channel 4 documentary Celebrity: The Rise and Fall[5] and it was reported elsewhere that she had spent five years as a "down-and-out" in LA. [1] Later that year, she returned to the UK. [1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Daily Telegraph, 26th October 2001.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Sunday Mirror, 11th March 2001.
  3. ^ The Stage, 31st August 2008.
  4. ^ New Statesman, 27th August 2001.
  5. ^ Guardian, 27th August 2001.

[edit] External links