Barbara Turner

Background

Turner was born Gloria Rose Turner in New York City, the daughter of Pearl (née Zisez) and Alexander Turner. Her parents were both from Austrian Jewish families (her father was an immigrant, as were her maternal grandparents).

Career

Turner performed a cameo role in the family drama-comedy Margot at the Wedding, with daughter Jennifer, released in the fall of 2007. Work

Turner generally writes complex, emotionally charged human dramas which focus on character interaction and personal relationships. She had several minor acting roles in obscure film and television productions of the 1950s and 1960s before co-writing with then-husband Morrow.

In 1966, Morrow directed their screen adaptation of the Jean Genet play Deathwatch.

In 1973, she wrote the screenplay for the television movie The Affair, starring Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner. Praised as a sensitive depiction of a disabled woman coming to grips with her first romantic experience, the film developed a cult following after it lapsed into public domain status.

Turner later served as a script consultant on The Anniversary Party (2001), a film that Leigh wrote, produced and directed with Alan Cumming. In June 2010, it was announced that Turner and Jerry Stahl had written a screenplay for an Home Box Office film about Ernest Hemingway and his relationship with Martha Gellhorn entitled Hemingway & Gellhorn.

The film starred Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman when it aired in 2012.

James Gandolfini was executive producer of the film, which was directed by Philip Kaufman.

Achievements

• Turner later received accolades for her work, including a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for her adaptation of Petulia (1968), an Emmy nomination for the 1977 television movie The War Between the Tates, and the Christopher Award for the 1987 television movie Eye on the Sparrow. In 1995, she teamed up with daughter Jennifer Jason Leigh to produce Turner’s screenplay for Georgia, a film depicting the troubled relationship between two singing sisters (played by Leigh and Mare Winningham, who both won praise and several awards for their performances). In 2000, Turner’s screenplay for the Jackson Pollock biopic Pollock became a successful film which won an Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for Marcia Gay Harden and a Best Actor nomination for Editor Harris.

Connections

friends:

Reza Badiyi

Friend:

Neve Campbell