Turner in 1999 | |
| Born | June 19, 1954 (age 64) Springfield, Missouri, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Education | American School in London |
| Alma mater | Missouri State University University of Maryland, Baltimore County(BFA, 1977) |
| Occupation | Actress, singer, theatre director |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 1 |
| Website | KathleenTurner.net |
Mary Kathleen Turner (born June 19, 1954), better known as Kathleen Turner, is an American film and stage actress and director. Known for her distinctive husky voice, Turner has won two Golden Globe Awards and has been nominated for an Academy Award.
Turner rose to fame during the 1980s, after roles in Body Heat (1981), The Man with Two Brains (1983), Crimes of Passion (1984), Romancing the Stone (1984), and Prizzi's Honor (1985), the last two earning her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In the later 1980s and early 1990s, Turner had roles in The Accidental Tourist (1988), The War of the Roses (1989), Serial Mom (1994), and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Turner later had roles in The Virgin Suicides (1999), Baby Geniuses (1999), and Beautiful (2000), as well as guest-starring on the NBCsitcomFriends as Chandler Bing's drag queen father Charles Bing, and in the third season of Showtime's Californication as Sue Collini, the jaded, sex-crazed owner of a talent agency. Turner has also done considerable work as a voice actress, namely as Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), as well as Monster House (2006), and the television series The Simpsons and King of the Hill.
In addition to film, Turner has worked in the theatre, and has been nominated for the Tony Award twice for her Broadway roles as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Turner has also taught acting classes at New York University.[1][2]
Turner was born June 19, 1954, in Springfield, Missouri, the daughter of Patsy (née Magee 1923–2015)[3] and Allen Richard Turner, a U.S. Foreign Service officer[4] who grew up in China (where Turner's great-grandfather had been a Methodist missionary). She has a sister, Susan, and two brothers.[5][6][7]
Turner was raised in a strict conservative Christian household, and her interest in performing was discouraged by both of her parents: 'My father was of missionary stock', she later explained, 'so theater and acting were just one step up from being a streetwalker, you know? So when I was performing in school, he would drive my mom [there] and sit in the car. She'd come out at intermissions and tell him, 'She's doing very well.'[6][8]
Owing to her father's employment in the Foreign Service, Turner grew up abroad and graduated from The American School in London in 1972.[5] Her father died of a coronary thrombosis that same year, and the family returned to the United States. At the age of 19, Turner began volunteering at a local Planned Parenthood office.[1]
She attended Missouri State University in Springfield for two years, then studied theater at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977.[9]
During that period, Turner acted in several productions directed by the film and stage directorSteve Yeager.[10]
In 1978, Turner made her television debut in the NBC daytime soap The Doctors as the second Nola Dancy Aldrich. She made her film debut in 1981 as the ruthless Matty Walker in the thrillerBody Heat; the role brought her to international prominence. Empire Magazine cited the film in 1995 when it named her one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in Film History.[11]The New York Times wrote in 2005 that, propelled by her 'jaw-dropping movie debut [in] Body Heat .. she built a career on adventurousness and frank sexuality born of robust physicality'.[8] Turner ultimately became one of the top box office draws, and most sought-after actresses of the 1980s and early 1990s.
Turner stated in 2018 that: 'Body Heat was a blessing because I went straight to being a leading actor and I didn't have to suffer any of this predatory male behaviour like many young actresses. It doesn't frustrate me that nearly four decades after that film I'm still referred to as a sexual icon. I got over that a long time ago.'[12]
The brazen quality of Turner's screen roles was reflected in her public life. With her deep voice, Turner was often compared to a young Lauren Bacall. When the two met, Turner reportedly introduced herself by saying, 'Hi, I'm the young you.'[13] In the 1980s, she boasted that 'on a night when I feel really good about myself, I can walk into a room, and if a man doesn't look at me, he's probably gay.'[11]
Several months after moving to New York City in 1977, Turner took over the female lead in Michael Zetter's play Mister T, which co-starred Jonathan Frakes and played at Soho Repertory Theatre. That production marked her off-Broadway debut. Several months later, Turner made her Broadway debut as Judith Hastings in Gemini by Albert Innaurato, staged at The Little Theatre (now known as the Helen Hayes Theater) and starring Danny Aiello. It opened May 21, 1977, during the time when she was appearing in the soap The Doctors.[14]
After Body Heat, Turner steered away from femme fatale roles to 'prevent typecasting' and 'because femme fatale roles had a shelf-life'. Consequently, her first project after this was the 1983 comedy The Man With Two Brains. Turner co-starred in Romancing the Stone with Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito. The film critic Pauline Kael wrote of her performance as writer Joan Wilder, 'Turner knows how to use her dimples amusingly and how to dance like a woman who didn't know she could; her star performance is exhilarating.'[15]Romancing the Stone was a surprise hit: she won a Golden Globe for her role in the film, and it became one of the top-ten-grossing movies of 1984.[16] Turner teamed with Douglas and DeVito again the following year for its sequel, The Jewel of the Nile. Pre-production for the movie was fraught with conflict, because Turner refused to commit to the 'terrible' script she had been delivered. When she said no, 20th Century Fox threatened her with a $25 million breach of contract lawsuit. Eventually Michael Douglas, also the film's producer, agreed to undertake rewrites on the script to make it more acceptable to Turner, which led to much back-and-forth between the two as the script was re-tooled right up to when shooting started in Fez, Morocco.[17]
Several months before Jewel, Turner starred in Prizzi's Honor with Jack Nicholson, winning a second Golden Globe award, and later starred in Peggy Sue Got Married, which co-starred Nicolas Cage. For Peggy Sue, she received the award for Best Actress from the U.S. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures[18] as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
In 1988's toon-noir Who Framed Roger Rabbit, she was the speaking voice of cartoon femme fataleJessica Rabbit, intoning the famous line, 'I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way.' Her uncredited, sultry performance was acclaimed as 'the kind of sexpot ball-breaker she was made for'.[19] (Amy Irving provided Jessica Rabbit's singing voice in the scene in which the character first appears in the movie.) That same year Turner also appeared in Switching Channels, which was a loose remake of the 1940 hit film His Girl Friday; this, in turn, was a loose remake of the Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur comedy The Front Page.[20]
Turner appeared in the 1986 song 'The Kiss of Kathleen Turner' by Austrian techno-pop singer Falco. In 1989, Turner teamed with Douglas and DeVito for a third time, in The War of the Roses, but this time as Douglas's disillusioned wife, with DeVito in the role of a divorce attorney who told their shared story. The New York Times praised the trio, saying that 'Mr. Douglas and Ms. Turner have never been more comfortable a team .. each of them is at his or her comic best when being as awful as both are required to be here .. [Kathleen Turner is] evilly enchanting.'[21] In that film, Turner played a former gymnast and, as in other roles, did many of her own stunts. (She broke her nose two years after filming 1991's V.I. Warshawski.)[22][23]
Turner remained an A-list film star leading lady until the early 1990s, when rheumatoid arthritis seriously restricted her activities and her movie career went into rapid decline. She turned down lead roles in Ghost and The Bridges of Madison County, both of which became big hits. The arthritis diagnosis was made in 1992 after Turner had suffered 'unbearable' pain for about a year. By the time she was diagnosed she 'could hardly turn her head or walk, and was told she would end up in a wheelchair'.[8]
As the disease worsened and the medication greatly altered her looks, along with excess alcohol consumption that Turner said she used to kill her physical pain, her career as a leading lady went into a steep decline and she was seen in fewer and fewer very successful films – though she also blamed her age, stating, 'when I was forty the roles started slowing down, I started getting offers to play mothers and grandmothers.' She appeared in the low-budget House of Cards, experienced moderate success with John Waters's black comedy Serial Mom, and had supporting roles in A Simple Wish, The Real Blonde, and Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides. She also provided the voice of Malibu Stacy's creator, Stacy Lovell, in the episode 'Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy' on The Simpsons.
Despite drug therapy to help her condition, the disease progressed for about eight years. Then, thanks to newly available treatments, her arthritis went into remission. She was seen increasingly on television, including three episodes of Friends where she appeared as Chandler Bing's estranged, gay father, who works as a drag queen in Las Vegas.
In 2006, Turner guest starred on FX's Nip/Tuck, playing a phone sex operator in need of laryngeal surgery. She appeared in a small role in 2008's Marley & Me and also played a defense attorney on Law & Order.
Anaconda filmworks. In 2009, she played the role of Charlie Runkle's sexually hyperactive boss in season 3 of the television series Californication.
In the same year as her Nip/Tuck cameo role, 2006, Turner provided the voice of Constance in the animated film Monster House. After, she provided radio commercialvoice-overs for Lay'spotato chips. BBC Radio 4 produced three radio dramas based on the V. I. Warshawski novels by Sara Paretsky. The first two, Deadlock and Killing Orders, featured Turner reprising her 1991 movie role which had been based on Paretsky's novel Deadlock; however, the third, Bitter Medicine, saw Sharon Gless take over the part. Turner also provided the voice of Jessica Rabbit in the 1988 live action/animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and again in the Disneyland attraction spinoff, Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.
After 1990s roles in Broadway productions of Indiscretions and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (for which she earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress), Turner moved to London in 2000 to star in a stage version of The Graduate. The BBC reported that initially mediocre ticket sales for The Graduate 'went through the roof when it was announced that Turner, then aged 45, would appear naked on stage'. While her performance as the infamous Mrs. Robinson was popular with audiences, with sustained high box office for the duration of Turner's run, she received mixed reviews from critics.[24] The play transferred to Broadway in 2002 to similar critical reaction.
In 2005, Turner beat a score of other contenders (including Jessica Lange, Frances McDormand, and Bette Midler)[8] for the role of Martha in a 2005 Broadway revival of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Longacre Theatre. Albee later explained to the New York Times that when Turner read for the part with her eventual co-star Bill Irwin, he heard 'an echo of the 'revelation' that he had felt years ago when the parts were read by [Uta] Hagen and Arthur Hill.' He added that Turner had 'a look of voluptuousness, a woman of appetites, yes .. but a look of having suffered as well.'[8]
Ben Brantley praised Turner at length, writing:
As the man-eating Martha, Ms. Turner, a movie star whose previous theater work has been variable, finally secures her berth as a first-rate, depth-probing stage actress .. [A]t 50, this actress can look ravishing and ravaged, by turns. In the second act, she is as predatorily sexy as she was in the movie Body Heat. But in the third and last act she looks old, bereft, stripped of all erotic flourish. I didn't think I would ever be able to see Virginia Woolf again without thinking of Ms. Hagen [Uta Hagen]. But watching Ms. Turner in that last act, fully clothed but more naked than she ever was in The Graduate, I didn't see the specter of Ms. Hagen. All I saw was Ms. Turner. No, let's be fair. All I saw was Martha.[25]
As Martha, Turner received her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play, losing to Cherry Jones. The production was transferred to London's Apollo Theatre in 2006. She starred in Sandra Ryan Heyward's one-woman show, Tallulah, which she toured across the U.S.
In August 2010, Turner portrayed the role of Sister Jamison Connelly in Matthew Lombardo's drama High at Hartford TheaterWorks.[26] The production transferred to Broadway at the Booth Theater where it opened in previews on March 25, 2011, officially on April 19, 2011, and an announced quick closing on April 24, 2011.[27] However, in a rare move, the production was revived, still headed by Turner, to undertake a national tour which began in Boston in December 2012.[28]
From August to October 28, 2012, Turner appeared in Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, a play about the legendary liberal Texas columnist Molly Ivins, at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.[29] In December 2014 and January 2015, Turner performed the same show at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.[30] She appeared again at Arena Stage in the title role of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage which opened in February 2014,[31] and playing Joan Didion in the one-woman show The Year of Magical Thinking, based on Didion's memoir of the same name, in October and November 2016.[32] In February 2019, Turner made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in the speaking role of The Duchess of Krakentorp in Donizetti's opera La fille du régiment.[33]
Turner married the real estate entrepreneur Jay Weiss of New York City in 1984, and they had one child, their daughter, Rachel Ann Weiss, who was born on October 14, 1987. Turner had been born into a Methodist family, but she has said that she has 'taken on a certain amount of Jewish tradition and identity' since marrying her Jewish husband and raising their daughter in Judaism.[7] In 2006, Turner announced that she and Weiss were planning a trial separation.[11] Turner and Weiss carried this forward to a divorce that became official in December 2007, but Turner has said, '[Jay]'s still my best friend.'[34]
By the late 1980s, Turner had acquired a reputation for being difficult: what The New York Times called 'a certifiable diva'. She admitted that she had developed into 'not a very kind person', and the actress Eileen Atkins referred to her as 'an amazing nightmare'.[8] In 2018, she commented on her reputation, stating that: 'The 'difficult' thing was pure gender crap. If a man comes on set and says, 'Here's how I see this being done', people go, 'He's decisive.' If a woman does it, they say, 'Oh, fuck. There she goes.'[17]
Turner has defended herself against Atkins' claim that Turner was 'an amazing nightmare', saying that Atkins harbored animosity towards her because she was having trouble memorizing her lines, which Atkins found very unprofessional. Turner would later realize that it was the new medication for her arthritis she was taking which was making her 'fuzzy'. She added that on days where the arthritis in her wrist was especially bad and she warned the other cast members not to touch it, Atkins would intentionally sit on it during a scene where Turner had to play dead, causing Turner extreme pain.[17] Turner slammed Hollywood over the difference in the quality of roles offered to male actors and female actors as they age, calling the disparity a 'terrible double standard'.
As a result of her altered looks and weight gain from her rheumatoid arthritis treatment, The New York Times published this statement in 2005, 'Rumors began circulating that she was drinking too much. She later said in interviews that she didn't bother correcting the rumors because people in show business hire drunks all the time, but not people who are sick.' Turner has had well-publicized problems with alcohol, which she used as an escape from the pain and symptoms of acute rheumatoid arthritis. Turner has admitted she drank to relieve the constant pain that resulted from her illness, and that the drinking made her difficult to be around.[35] A few weeks after leaving the production of the play The Graduate in November 2002, Turner was admitted into the Marworth hospital in Waverly, Pennsylvania, for the treatment of alcoholism. 'I have no problem with alcohol when I'm working', she explained. 'It's when I'm home alone that I can't control my drinking .. I was going toward excess. I mean, really! I think I was losing my control over it. So it pulled me back.'[8]
Turner has worked with Planned Parenthood of America since age 19, and later became a chairperson. She also serves on the board of People for the American Way, and volunteers at Amnesty International and Citymeals-on-Wheels. She was one of John Kerry's first celebrity endorsers. She has been a frequent donor to the Democratic Party. She has also worked to raise awareness of rheumatoid arthritis.[36]
In the mid-2000s, Turner collaborated with Gloria Feldt on the writing of her memoirs, Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles. The book was published in 2008.[37] In the book, Turner claimed that Nicolas Cage had gotten drunk, and stole a chihuahua that he liked.[38] In turn, Cage filed a lawsuit against Turner and her book publisher in the UK who took an excerpt from the book and posted it on their website (pre-publication).[38] Cage argued defamation and damage to character and won the case, resulting in retractions, legal fees, and a donation to charity.[38] Turner later publicly apologized.[39] During an interview on The View, Turner apologized for any distress she might have caused Cage regarding an incident that took place 20 years earlier.[40][41] On August 7, 2018, Vulture published an in-depth interview with Turner, where she expressed her opinion on a wide range of issues, from Elizabeth Taylor's acting skills to what it was like meeting Donald Trump in the 1980s.[42] Turner's frankness and certain revelations she made caused the article to be widely shared in different media outlets, which led to her name trending on Google.[43]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Body Heat | Matty Walker | Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer Nominated—Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress |
| 1983 | The Man with Two Brains | Dolores Benedict | |
| 1984 | Romancing the Stone | Joan Wilder | Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress (2nd place) |
| A Breed Apart | Stella Clayton | ||
| Crimes of Passion | Joanna Crane / China Blue | Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress | |
| 1985 | Prizzi's Honor | Irene Walker | Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress |
| The Jewel of the Nile | Joan Wilder | ||
| 1986 | Peggy Sue Got Married | Peggy Sue Bodell | National Board of Review Award for Best Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress (2nd place) New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (2nd place) Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Actress Nominated—Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress |
| 1987 | Julia and Julia | Julia | Nominated—Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress |
| 1988 | Switching Channels | Christy Colleran | |
| Who Framed Roger Rabbit | Jessica Rabbit (voice) | ||
| The Accidental Tourist | Sarah Leary | ||
| 1989 | Tummy Trouble | Jessica Rabbit (voice) | Short film |
| The War of the Roses | Barbara Rose | Nominated— David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | |
| 1990 | Roller Coaster Rabbit | Jessica Rabbit (voice) | Short film |
| 1991 | V.I. Warshawski | Victoria 'V. I.' Warshawski | |
| 1993 | Trail Mix-Up | Jessica Rabbit (voice) | Short film |
| Naked in New York | Dana Coles | ||
| Undercover Blues | Jane Blue | ||
| House of Cards | Ruth Matthews | ||
| 1994 | Serial Mom | Beverly R. Sutphin | |
| 1995 | Moonlight and Valentino | Alberta Trager | |
| 1997 | Bad Baby | Mom (voice) | |
| A Simple Wish | Claudia | ||
| The Real Blonde | Dee Dee Taylor | ||
| 1999 | Love and Action in Chicago | Middleman | |
| The Virgin Suicides | Mrs. Lisbon | ||
| Baby Geniuses | Elena Kinder | ||
| 2000 | Beautiful | Verna Chickle | |
| Prince of Central Park | Rebecca Cairn | ||
| 2006 | Monster House | Constance (voice) | |
| 2008 | Marley & Me | Ms. Kornblut | |
| 2011 | The Perfect Family | Eileen Cleary | |
| 2013 | Nurse 3D | Head Nurse Betty Watson | |
| 2014 | Dumb and Dumber To | Fraida Felcher | |
| 2015 | Emily & Tim | Narrator (voice) | |
| 2017 | Someone Else's Wedding[44] | Barbara Haines | Released as Another Kind of Wedding[45] |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | The Simpsons | Stacy Lavell (voice) | Episode: 'Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy' |
| 1995 | Friends at Last | Fanny Connelyn | Television film |
| 1998 | Legalese | Brenda Whitlass | Television film |
| 2000 | Cinderella | Claudette | Television film |
| 2000 | King of the Hill | Miss Liz Strickland (voice) | 3 episodes |
| 2001 | Friends | Charles Bing/Helena Handbasket | 4 episodes |
| 2006 | Law & Order | Rebecca Shane | Episode: 'Magnet' |
| 2006 | Nip/Tuck | Cindy Plumb | Episode: 'Cindy Plumb' |
| 2009 | Californication | Sue Collini | 10 episodes |
| 2016–2017 | The Path | Brenda Roberts | 2 episodes |
| 2017 | Family Guy | Herself (voice) | Episode: 'Foxx in the Men House' |
| 2019 | Heartstrings | Mary 'Old Bones' Shaw | Episode: 'These Old Bones'[46] |
| Body Heat | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Lawrence Kasdan |
| Produced by | Fred T. Gallo Robert Grand George Lucas(uncredited) |
| Written by | Lawrence Kasdan |
| Starring | William Hurt Kathleen Turner Richard Crenna |
| Music by | John Barry |
| Cinematography | Richard H. Kline |
| Edited by | Carol Littleton |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date | August 28, 1981 (US) |
| 113 minutes | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $9 million[1] |
| Box office | $24 million[2] |
Body Heat is a 1981 American neo-noirerotic thriller film written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. It stars William Hurt, Kathleen Turner and Richard Crenna, and features Ted Danson, J. A. Preston, and Mickey Rourke. The film was inspired by Double Indemnity.[3]
The film launched Turner's career—Empire magazine cited the film in 1995 when it named her one of the '100 Sexiest Stars in Film History'.[4]The New York Times wrote in 2005 that, propelled by her 'jaw-dropping movie debut [in] Body Heat .. she built a career on adventurousness and frank sexuality born of robust physicality.'[5]
The film was the directorial debut of Kasdan, screenwriter of The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
During a particularly intense Florida heatwave, inept local lawyer Ned Racine (William Hurt) begins an affair with Matty (Kathleen Turner), the wife of wealthy businessman, Edmund Walker (Richard Crenna). One night Ned arrives at the Walker mansion and playfully propositions a woman who he mistakenly thinks is Matty. The woman is Mary Ann Simpson (Kim Zimmer), Matty's visiting high school friend. Soon after, Matty tells Ned she wants to divorce Edmund, but their prenuptial agreement would leave her with little money. Eventually Ned suggests murdering Edmund so Matty can inherit his wealth. He consults a shady former client, Teddy Lewis (Mickey Rourke), an expert on incendiary devices, who supplies Ned with a bomb while strongly encouraging him to abandon whatever he is scheming.
Ned, aided by Matty, kills Edmund and moves the body to an abandoned building connected to Edmund's business interests. Ned detonates the bomb to look like Edmund died during a botched arson job. Soon after, Edmund's lawyer contacts Ned about a new will that Racine supposedly drafted for Edmund and was witnessed by Mary Ann Simpson. The new will was improperly prepared, making it null and void, resulting in Matty inheriting Edmund's entire fortune while disinheriting his surviving blood relatives. Matty later reveals to Ned that she forged the will, knowing it would be nullified.
Two of Ned's friends, assistant deputy prosecutor Peter Lowenstein (Ted Danson), and police detective Oscar Grace (J.A. Preston), begin to suspect that Ned is involved in Edmund's death. They inform Ned that Edmund's eyeglasses, which he always wore, are missing. Mary Ann Simpson has also disappeared. Nervous over the mounting evidence implicating him, and questioning Matty's loyalty, Ned happens upon a lawyer who once sued him over a mishandled legal case. The lawyer says that to make amends, he recommended Ned to Matty Walker, and admits he told her about Ned's modest legal skills.
Lowenstein informs Ned that on the night of the murder, hotel phone records show that repeated calls to Ned's room went unanswered, thereby weakening his alibi. Teddy tells Ned about a woman wanting another incendiary device, and that he showed her how to booby trap a door. Matty calls Ned and says Edmund's glasses are in the Walker estate boathouse. Ned arrives later that night and spots a long twisted wire attached to the door. When Matty arrives, Ned asks her to retrieve the glasses. Matty walks toward the boathouse and disappears from view; the boathouse explodes. A body found inside is identified through dental records as Matty Walker (née Tyler).
Now in prison, Ned, having realized Matty duped him, tries to convince Grace that she is still alive. He lays out for him the scenario that the woman he knew as 'Matty' assumed the real Matty Tyler's identity in order to marry and murder Edmund for his money. The 'Mary Ann Simpson' that Ned met had discovered the scheme and was blackmailing Matty, only to also be murdered. Had Ned been killed in the boathouse explosion, the police would have found both suspects' bodies. Ned obtains a copy of Matty's high school yearbook. In it are photos of Mary Ann Simpson and Matty Tyler, confirming his suspicion that Mary Ann assumed Matty's identity, eventually becoming Matty Walker. Below Mary Ann's is the nickname 'The Vamp' and 'Ambition—To be rich and live in an exotic land'.
The real Mary Ann (Matty) is last seen wearing a nonchalant facial expression, while lounging on a tropical beach, alongside a Brazilian Portuguese-speaking man.
Kasdan 'wanted this film to have the intricate structure of a dream, the density of a good novel, and the texture of recognizable people in extraordinary circumstances.'[6]
A substantial portion of the film was shot in east-central Palm Beach County, Florida, including downtown Lake Worth and in the oceanside enclave of Manalapan. Additional scenes were shot on Hollywood Beach, Florida, such as the scene set in a band shell.
There was originally more graphic and extensive sex scene footage, but this was only shown in an early premier, including in West Palm Beach, the area it was filmed, and was, apparently, edited out for wider distribution. In an interview, Body Heat film editor Carol Littleton says, 'Obviously, there was more graphic footage. But we felt that less was more.'
In late 1980, Lawrence Kasdan met with four composers whose works he had admired, but only John Barry told him of ideas which were close to the director's own. 10 demos were recorded on March 31 and Barry wrote the whole score during April and early May 1981. The composer provided several themes and leitmotifs—the most memorable was 'Main Theme', heard during the main titles and representing Matty.[7]
Barry worked closely with recording sessions engineer Dan Wallin to mix the soundtrack album, but for several reasons J.S Lasher (who produced the limited-edition LP and CD) remixed multitracks himself without Barry's or Wallin's participation.[8]
J.S Lasher's album was released several times: as a 45 RPM (Southern Cross LXSE 1.002) in 1983 and as a CD (Label X LXCD 2) in 1989. Both editions also included 'Ladd Company Logo' composed and conducted by John Williams.
In 1998, Varèse Sarabande released a re-recording by Joel McNeely and the London Symphony Orchestra. This CD contains several new tracks (versus J.S Lasher's editions), but still was not complete.
In August 2012, Film Score Monthly released a definitive two-disc edition: complete score with alternate, unused and source cues on disc 1 and original, Barry-authorized album and theme demos on disc 2.[9]
Body Heat was a commercial success. Produced on a budget of $9 million, it grossed $24 million at the domestic box office.[2]
Upon its release, Richard Corliss wrote 'Body Heat has more narrative drive, character congestion and sense of place than any original screenplay since Chinatown, yet it leaves room for some splendid young actors to breathe, to collaborate in creating the film's texture'; it is 'full of meaty characters and pungent performances—Ted Danson as a tap-dancing prosecutor, J.A. Preston as a dogged detective, and especially Mickey Rourke as a savvy young ex-con who looks and acts as if he could be Ned's sleazier twin brother.'[6]Variety magazine wrote 'Body Heat is an engrossing, mightily stylish meller [melodrama] in which sex and crime walk hand-in-hand down the path to tragedy, just like in the old days. Working in the imposing shadow of the late James M. Cain, screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan makes an impressively confident directorial debut'.[10]Roger Ebert included the film on his '10 Best List' for the year.[11]
Janet Maslin wrote that Body Heat was 'skillfully, though slavishly, derived' from 1940s film noir classics; she stated that, 'Mr. Hurt does a wonderful job of bringing Ned to life' but was not impressed by Miss Turner:
Sex is all-important to Body Heat, as its title may indicate. And beyond that there isn't much to move the story along or to draw these characters together. A great deal of the distance between [Ned and Matty] can be attributed to the performance of Miss Turner, who looks like the quintessential forties siren, but sounds like the soap-opera actress she is. Miss Turner keeps her chin high in the air, speaks in a perfect monotone, and never seems to move from the position in which Mr. Kasdan has left her.[12]
Pauline Kael dismissed the film, citing its 'insinuating, hotted-up dialogue that it would be fun to hoot at if only the hushed, sleepwalking manner of the film didn't make you cringe or yawn'.[13] Ebert responded to Kael's negative review when he added the film to his 'Great Movies' list:
Yes, Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat (1981) is aware of the films that inspired it—especially Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944). But it has a power that transcends its sources. It exploits the personal style of its stars to insinuate itself; Kael is unfair to Turner, who in her debut role played a woman so sexually confident that we can believe her lover (William Hurt) could be dazed into doing almost anything for her. The moment we believe that, the movie stops being an exercise and starts working.[3]
In a home video review for Turner Classic Movies, Glenn Erickson called it 'arguably the first conscious Neo Noir'; he wrote 'Too often described as a quickie remake of Double Indemnity, Body Heat is more detailed in structure and more pessimistic about human nature. The noir hero for the Reagan years is ..more like the self-defeating Al Roberts of Edgar Ulmer's Detour'.[14]Body Heat received mostly positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 97% approval rating, based on 39 reviews, and an average rating of 8/10. The site's consensus states, 'Classic film noir gets a steamy, '80s update with Body Heat.'[15]
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
Warner Bros. released a 25th anniversary Deluxe Edition DVD of Body Heat, including a documentary about the film by Laurent Bouzereau, a 'number of rightfully deleted scenes',[14] and a trailer.
Notes
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