IMITATION OF LIFE
WHO IS THE real star of Imitation Of Life, the crowning glory of director Douglas Sirk’s long-misunderstood Hollywood career, Lana Turner’s biggest pay day and for a long time Universal’s highest-grossing film?
Turner, who shared top billing with the now mostly forgotten John Gavin (the poor woman’s Rock Hudson) seems the obvious answer. By 1959, however, the 38-year-old Turner was ‘The Sweater Girl’ no longer. At least a decade past her 1940s heyday, she’d been dropped by MGM after a series of flops, and though her career briefly revived with a 1958 Best Actress Oscar, her personal life was mired in scandal. A matter of months before production began, Turner’s Mafioso boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, was stabbed to death by her 14-year-old daughter, and the ensuing media attention revealed some uncomfortable parallels with her latest picture.
