Actress Lana Turner was one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1940s and 1950.
Back in the day, it was nearly impossible to find a man who wasn't crushing on her.
She turned heads when walking down the street, stole the screen whenever she made an entrance
and attracted the affections of many a-suitor.
Over the course of her five-decade career, she not only achieved fame as an actress but
also as a pin-up model.
Largely because of her almost universal appeal, in the mid-40s, Turner was one of the highest-paid
American actresses.
During the 18 years that she was under contract with MGM, Turner's films earned the studio
more than $50 million.
While dazzlingly beautiful and ever-so sultry, Turner was still known to be exceptionally
classy.
Because of this delicate balance that she achieved seemingly effortlessly, Turner was
considered an icon of Hollywood Glamour and is still revered as a legend of Holywood's
Golden Age.
While we could easily devote a video to just listing her many career accomplishments, credits,
and achievements, today we're going to be taking a closer look at Lana Turner's love
life.
She married a total of 8 times to 7 different men, and beyond that, she had quite a few
lovers and affairs – but really, who in Hollywood didn't back then.
Ronald Reagan
Long before he became the 40th president of the United States, Reagan held the honor of
becoming the first romance arranged for Lana Turner by the studio they both were contracted
to.
It's generally believed, however, that their relationship never got serious.
They went on a couple of horseback riding dates together, but who knows, maybe things
got a lot steamier than that behind closed doors.
Mickey Rooney
In 1938, Lana and Rooney appeared in the film Love Finds Andy Hardy.
Rooney later claimed that he had taken Turner's virginity and ended up impregnating her.
He further insisted that she had an illegal abortion to cover up what had happened.
Lana, however, denied that any of this ever actually happened.
Greg Bautzer
Another individual who is said to have possibly taken Lana's V-card is Greg Bautzer, a man
who was a notorious womanizer and attorney for some of Hollywood's most influential players.
Lana was 17 when Greg became her first serious love interest.
Being the 'ladies' man' that he was, Bautzer was also hooking up with Joan Crawford behind
Lana's back.
When she found out about his cheating ways, Turner immediately kicked him to the curb.
Robert Slack
Throughout World War II, Bob Slack and Turner were on-again-off-again lovers.
He normally swooped in whenever she was between more serious relationships.
Eventually, though, he grew tired of always being the second choice.
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Artie Shaw
After being stood up by Greg Bautzer for the last time, Lana ran away to Vegas with bandleader
Artie Shaw.
She had met Shaw once before but never really felt a strong connection to him.
While driving to Sin City, Shaw and Turner discussed philosophy and shared their outlooks
on life.
Turner fell madly in love with him and they got married later that night.
Four months later, after learning that they had little in common, Shaw and Turner got
divorced.
During the brief time they were together, Turner got pregnant, but Shaw doubted that
he was the father of the baby, so Lana ended up having another abortion.
Victor Mature
Lana and Mature dated shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941.
Their relationship never went anywhere, though, because Mature met and fell in love with Rita
Hayworth.
Tony Martin
Not long after divorcing Alice Faye, singer Tony Martin met Turner while on the set of
the 1941 film Ziegfeld Girl.
After things started getting serious, Martin proposed to her, but they never actually ended
up getting married.
Martin would later wed the beautiful Cyd Charisse in 1948.
Gene Krupa
One of the things that attracted Turner to Artie Shaw was that he was a musician.
One of Lana's biggest loves in life was music, and during the second world, she spent many
nights in the company of well-known musicians – many of whom she ended up dating.
A few of her musically-inclined lovers included Tommy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, and Benny Goodman,
but perhaps her most serious musical romance was with drummer Gene Krupa.
The two met while Krupa was going through a pretty hairy divorce.
Sources close to her speculated that she might have married him if it weren't for his preoccupation
with marijuana, which she found off-putting.
Robert Taylor
While filming 1941s Johnny Eager, Turner and Taylor became very infatuated with each other.
Their fellow cast and crew members were astounded when they would engage in hot and heavy love
scenes that would continue on for minutes after the cameras stopped rolling.
After Taylor's wife Barbara Stanwyck caught wind of what was going on, she went to the
set to tell Turner to back off her man.
But after Taylor told Turner that he was fully prepared to leave his wife to be with her,
Lana got spooked and put a stop to things.
George Montgomery
A year before he married Dinah Shaw, George Montgomery, and Lana Turner briefly dated.
Before he dated her, Montgomery was engaged to the gorgeous Hedy Lamarr, but he decided
to put off getting married instead fight in the war.
While he was overseas, Lamarr got married to actor John Loder.
Frank Sinatra
While still married to Nancy, Ol' Blue Eyes and Turner had an affair.
After he and Nancy divorced, the 'High Hopes' crooner married Ava Gardner.
While Lana adamantly denied hooking up with Frank while he was married to her dear friend
Ava, it's speculated that they still enjoyed each other's intimate company.
After Frank and Gardner divorced in 1957, it's well-known that Turner and Sinatra continued
to see each other.
Stephen Crane
After dating briefly, Lana married struggling actor Stephen Crane in July 1942.
At the time that they tied the knot, Crane had yet to finalize his divorce from his first
wife.
While pregnant with her and Crane's daughter Cheryl, Lana got the marriage annulled.
In July 1942, she married Crane once again to prevent her daughter from being stigmatized
as illegitimate.
She and Crane would divorce a little over a year later, in August 1944.
Turhan Bey
Lana and Bey dated for a short spell in 1944, but he broke things off with her because his
mother didn't approve of their relationship.
Fifty or so years later, Turhan ran into Lana at a party and told her that she had been
the love of his life.
You would think, however, if that were true, he wouldn't have let his mother's disapproval
get in the way of his love life.
He was, after all, a grown man when they dated.
Tyrone Power
After Power and French film star, Annabella, finalized their divorce in 1946, he quickly
got into a romance with Turner.
Not long after they started seeing each other, Lana became pregnant.
She desperately wanted to be Tyrone's wife, but he was much less eager to become a father.
Turner eventually agreed to get an abortion while he was on a 12-week tour.
When he was away, he learned that Lana had been seeing Frank Sinatra.
Feeling betrayed, Power informed Turner that he had fallen for Linda Christian, whom he
would later marry.
Lana was devastated and would later say that Power was the greatest love of her life.
Peter Lawford
In the late 40s, Turner and actor, producer, and socialite Peter Lawford briefly dated,
but it's said that he was a lot more in love with her than she was with him.
Lawford would later marry Patricia Helen Kennedy.
Bob Topping
Lana married this wealthy man after he won over her affections with lavish gifts.
After walking down the aisle, Turner and Topping went on a glamorous 5-month honeymoon.
At first she absolutely loved living the super-rich lifestyle, but after a while she grew tired
of it.
In 1949, the couple lost a baby.
In 1952, she and Topping finalized their divorce.
Lex Barker
Lana and Barker started dating in 1942.
A year later, they got married.
After losing a third child, Lana confided in her mother that her daughter Cheryl had
told her that Barker was sexually abusing her.
After ordering him to get out of their shared home, Barker insisted that whatever Cheryl
had told her was a lie.
At that point, Cheryl's name had yet to come up, so he did a pretty good job at incriminating
himself.
Fred May
After fleeing a rather abusive relationship with mobster bodyguard Johnny Stompanato,
Lana got married to a much more pleasant fellow named Fred May.
The two lived together for a year before exchanging their vows in 1960.
Two years later, they divorced, and another two after that, May passed away.
Robert Eaton
When Turner and Eaton walked down the aisle in 1965, Lana was ten years his senior.
Turner's friends insisted that he was using her, but she wouldn't listen.
That changed, however, when she came home from filming a movie to find him in bed with
another woman.
They got divorced in 1969.
Ronald Peller
Lana's seventh husband was quite an interesting character.
Peller had long hair, rode a motorcycle, and worked as a hypnotist at area nightclubs.
Turner probably married the guy because he made her feel young again.
Four years later, after finding out that Peller was just a fraudster who was stealing her
money and jewelry, Lana filed for divorce.
Peller would later be convicted of several crimes, including mail fraud for running a
fraudulent diploma mill operation and attempted murder for trying to hire someone to kill
another hypnotist.
Throughout his life, he went by as many as 40 different aliases including Earl Clevenger,
Bonnie Ritchie, Phil Harris and Ronald Dante.
After Peller, Turner claimed to be celibate for the remainder of her life.
She died of cancer on June 29, 1995, at the age of 74.
Which one of Lana Turner's relationships do you think was the most scandalous?
Can you think of anyone else that she dated?
Let us know in the comments.
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