Thursday, April 23, 2009

Tura Santana Is Bigger! Better! Than Us All

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JA from MNPP here, directing y'all over to a brief interview with the legendary cult-lady Tura Santana (thanks to Aaron for the heads-up). She's best known for playing Varla in Russ Meyer's classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, but just take a gander at this introductory paragraph to her life beyond that film:

"Having survived Japanese internment camps, a horrific rape, reform school, a gunshot to the stomach and a brutal car wreck that left her hospitalized for years, Satana has also managed to squeeze in being a gang member, martial artist, burlesque dancer, stunt woman, nurse, police radio operator, bodyguard, wife and mother. Not to mention a couple of legendary off-screen love affairs, with such American luminaries as Elvis Presley and Joe DiMaggio."

They just don't make 'em like this any more.

Check out the interview for more; she talks pretty extensively about Meyer, Presley and DiMaggio. Classic.
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6 comments:

Nick M. said...

I wish she was still young enough to play Saraghina in Nine.

Anonymous said...

Holy crap. Only Leni Riefenstahl has a resumé to rival that one.

Wayne B. said...

Does anyone else smell a possible bio-pic?

Jason Adams said...

God I wish, Wayne! That'd be incredible. I don't get why we haven't gotten more bio-pics of these z-movie people. Ed Wood is AMAZING, and I guess you could sort of count Bettie Page (sort of) but I'm reaching here...

It's like the Susan Cabot biopic called Black Oasis, starring Rose McGowan that I've been waiting for for ages to show itself. Susan Cabot was the star of Wasp Woman who was KILLED BY HER DWARF SON WITH NUNCHUCKS (!!!), and Stephan Elliot (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) is supposed to be directing... it's been listed as "IN Production" at IMDb for ages, but I've not seen or heard anything. Here are all the posts I've done on it at MNPP.

NATHANIEL R said...

Nick M -- good call!

JA -- i totally agree. If there must be five biopics a year, and apparently there must, why can't at least one of them be about somebody with an incredibly weird life story instead of just the people with fame, talent and an addiction and/or premature death.

Wayne B. said...

JA - nice posts on the Susan Cabot movie. That sucks that these ignorant production companies are keeping you waiting like this. "It makes Godot look punctual." I find it so sad that a lot of careers depend on height. Really, who cares if an actress is 4'10?