- Joan Turner
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 theUK . She had her own television show, topped the bill at theLondon Palladium cite web |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2001/10/26/dp03.xml|title= Daily Telegraph, 26th October 2001] , appeared in the 1963Royal Variety Show cite web |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20010311/ai_n14521933|title= Sunday Mirror, 11th March 2001] and topped the bill overThe Beatles cite web |url=http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/feature.php/13993/chit-chat-turning-back-time|title= The Stage, 31st August 2008] She appeared in theLondon stage musical "Oliver! " for two years, was romantically linked toPeter Sellers and was one of the highest-paid women in British showbiz.In later years, it was reported that, after two divorces, she "drank and gambled away her fortune"and she was declared
bankrupt in 1977.In 1991, she was a guest of honour at the Queen Mother's 90th birthday celebrations. and, in the early 1990s, attempting to revive her career, she had a role as Auntie Lou in the
Channel 4 seriesBrookside and a cameo role in theBBC TV seriesEastEnders . In 1996, she went toCalifornia to attempt to give it "one more try".In March 2001, the "
Sunday Mirror " newspaper reported that she was living "among the winos,drug addicts and down-and-outs inBeverly Hills ,Los Angeles ... dressed incharity shop clothes and surrounded by her worldly possessions - with barely apenny to her name." She was interviewed in situ as a "bag lady " onSunset Boulevard cite web |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200108270028|title= New Statesman, 27th August 2001] in the August 2001 Channel 4 documentary "Celebrity: The Rise and Fall"cite web |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/aug/27/tvandradio.television2|title= Guardian, 27th August 2001] and it was reported elsewhere that she had spent five years as a "down-and-out" in LA. Later that year, she returned to the UK.References
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*imdb name|id=0877647
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