Kathleen Turner

Acting

Kathleen Turner

Born 1954-06-19 · Springfield, Missouri, USA

Mary Kathleen Turner (born June 19, 1954) is an American actress. Known for her distinctive deep, husky voice, she receives two Golden Globes and nominations for an Academy Award, a Grammy, and two Tony Awards. After debuting both off and on Broadway in 1977, followed by her television debut as Nola Dancy Aldrich on the NBC soap opera The Doctors (1978–1979), Turner rose to prominence with her portrayal of Matty Walker in Body Heat (1981), which brought her a reputation as a sex symbol. She worked solidly throughout the 1980s in films such as The Man with Two Brains (1983), Crimes of Passion, Romancing the Stone (both 1984), Prizzi's Honor, The Jewel of the Nile (both 1985), Switching Channels, The Accidental Tourist (both 1988), and The War of the Roses (1989). For her portrayal of the title character in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Turner was nominated for the 1987 Academy Award for Best Actress. Subsequent credits include V.I. Warshawski (1991), Serial Mom (1994), Baby Geniuses, The Virgin Suicides (both 1999), Beautiful (2000), Marley & Me (2008), and Dumb and Dumber To (2014). Outside film, Turner guest-starred as Sue Collini on Showtime's Californication (2009) and Roz Volander on Netflix's The Kominsky Method (2019–2021). She also played Charles Bing, the drag queen father of Chandler Bing, on the seventh season of Friends (2001). Turner's voice work includes Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Constance in Monster House (2006), as well as characters on television series such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, King of the Hill, and Rick and Morty. In addition to her work on stage and screen, Turner has taught acting classes at New York University.

Acting credits

Monster House poster
6.7

Monsters under the bed are scary enough, but what happens when an entire house is out to get you? Three teens aim to find out when they go up against a decrepit neighboring home and unlock its frightening secrets.

Monster House

2006

Who Framed Roger Rabbit poster
7.5

Toon star Roger is worried that his wife Jessica is playing pattycake with someone else, so the studio hires detective Eddie Valiant to snoop on her. But the stakes are quickly raised when Marvin Acme is found dead and Roger is the prime suspect.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

1988

Marley & Me poster
7.2

A newly married couple, in the process of starting a family, learn many of life's important lessons from their trouble-loving retriever, Marley. Packed with plenty of laughs to lighten the load, the film explores the highs and lows of marriage, maturity and confronting one's own mortality, as seen through the lens of family life with a dog.

Marley & Me

2008

The Virgin Suicides poster
7.1

A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.

The Virgin Suicides

2000

Romancing the Stone poster
6.8

Though she can spin wild tales of passionate romance, novelist Joan Wilder has no life of her own. Then one day adventure comes her way in the form of a mysterious package. It turns out that the parcel is the ransom she'll need to free her abducted sister, so Joan flies to South America to hand it over. But she gets on the wrong bus and winds up hopelessly stranded in the jungle.

Romancing the Stone

1984

Dumb and Dumber To poster
5.6

20 years since their first adventure, Lloyd and Harry go on a road trip to find Harry's newly discovered daughter, who was given up for adoption.

Dumb and Dumber To

2014

Serial Mom poster
6.7

Beverly is the perfect happy homemaker, along with her doting husband and two children, but this nuclear family just might explode when her fascination with serial killers collides with her ever-so-proper code of ethics.

Serial Mom

1994

Animal Farm poster
6.4

A group of farm animals rise up against their neglectful owner, dreaming of equality and freedom. But as the pigs take control, the revolution turns into tyranny, with truth rewritten and dissent crushed.

Animal Farm

2026

Body Heat poster
7.0

During an extreme heatwave, a beautiful Florida woman and a seedy lawyer engage in an affair while plotting the murder of her rich husband.

Body Heat

1981

The Jewel of the Nile poster
6.2

Joan Wilder is thrust back into a world of murder, chases, foreign intrigue... and love. This time out she's duped by a duplicitous Arab dignitary who brings her to the Middle East, ostensibly to write a book about his life. Of course, he's up to no good, and Joan is just another pawn in his wicked game. But Jack Colton and his sidekick Ralph show up to help our intrepid heroine save the day.

The Jewel of the Nile

1985

The War of the Roses poster
6.9

Barbara and Oliver Rose live happily as a married couple. When Barbara starts to wonder what life would be like without Oliver and likes what she sees, the two begin a campaign to force each other to leave their house, with their divorce lawyer D'Amato caught in the middle.

The War of the Roses

1989

Nurse 3-D poster
5.3

Abby Russell, a beautiful, dedicated nurse with a sinister side, has a secret life in which she targets and punishes dishonest men.

Nurse 3-D

2013

Prizzi's Honor poster
6.4

Charley Partanna is a hitman who works for the Prizzis, one of the richest crime families in the US. When he sees Irene Walker, it's love at first sight. But he soon finds that she, too, is a killer for hire. Charley can overlook his suspicions, but he can't turn off his heart. And the couple must remember that even if they love each other, the Prizzis love only money.

Prizzi's Honor

1985

The Estate poster
5.4

Down-on-her-luck divorcee Macey and her fickle sister Savanna attempt to win over their terminally ill, difficult-to-please Aunt Hilda in hopes of becoming the beneficiaries of her wealthy estate, only to find the rest of their greedy family members have the same idea.

The Estate

2022

Crimes of Passion poster
6.3

Fashion designer Joanna Crane leads a double life. By night she is China Blue, a prostitute who's attracted the attention of a sexually frustrated private detective, and a psychopathic priest in possession of a murderous sex toy.

Crimes of Passion

1984

Peggy Sue Got Married poster
6.1

At her 25th high school reunion, Peggy Sue faints and awakens in 1960—back in her senior year, before her marriage and all her regrets. Given a second chance to relive her youth, she must decide whether to change the choices that shaped her life or embrace the past that made her who she is.

Peggy Sue Got Married

1986

The Man with Two Brains poster
6.2

A brain surgeon marries a femme fatale, causing his life to turn upside down. Things go more awry when he falls in love with a talking brain.

The Man with Two Brains

1983

Emily & Tim poster
5.6

The movie is comprised of six vignettes. A look at the tumultuous marriage of Tim and Emily Hanratty over half a century.

Emily & Tim

2015

The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful poster
10.0

A documentary reflecting on women in film and the entertainment industry through the ages led and hosted by some of its most beloved female icons.

The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful

1996

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam poster
7.1

Real-life letters written by American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines during the Vietnam War to their families and friends back home. Archive footage of the war and news coverage thereof augment the first-person "narrative" by men and women who were in the war, some of whom did not survive it.

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

1987

A Simple Wish poster
5.5

Murray is a male fairy godmother, and he is trying to help 8-year-old Anabel to fulfil her "simple wish" - that her father Oliver, who is a cab driver, would win the leading role in a Broadway musical. Unfortunately, Murray's magic wand is broken and the fairies convention is threatened by evil witches Claudia and Boots.

A Simple Wish

1997

Baby Geniuses poster
4.1

BabyCo is the world's leading manufacturer in baby products. However, what the public doesn't know, is that Drs Kinder and Heep, two of its most brilliant scientists, are tirelessly working in complete secrecy to crack the indecipherable code to 'baby talk': a highly sophisticated language, and the key to the secrets of the universe. Before long, problems arise when mischievous Sly, the smartest of the toddlers, escapes confinement, bent on uniting all babies to free those trapped in the laboratory. Now, Kinder and Heep must find Sly before it is too late.

Baby Geniuses

1999

The Accidental Tourist poster
6.3

After the death of his son, travel writer Macon Leary seems to be sleep walking through life. Macon's wife is having similar problems. They separate, and Macon meets a strange, outgoing woman who brings him 'back down to earth', but his wife soon thinks their marriage is still worth another try.

The Accidental Tourist

1988

Julia and Julia poster
5.1

A grieving woman, haunted by the loss of her husband on their wedding day, suddenly finds herself slipping between two realities—one where she remains a widow and another where he is alive with their son. As she struggles to distinguish truth from illusion, she becomes entangled in love, betrayal, and mystery, questioning her sanity while searching for answers in a world that keeps shifting.

Julia and Julia

1988

Behind the camera