You’d have to try really hard to forget the gorgeous Varla in Russ Meyers’ film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
That’s because she played by Tura Satana and one has to look around real hard to find a woman as stunning as she was. She had a voluptuous body, a badass attitude, and a feminine charm that made her one of the sexiest women to ever grace the screen.
But did you know that Tura Satana had an on-set affair against her director’s orders? And that was just one of the many crazy incidents that defined her wild and exciting life!
Tura Satana was an incredible actress and is an inspiration to anyone pursuing their dream. Her life and legacy should never forgotten…
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EARLY LIFE AND CAREER
Tura Satana was born on the tenth of July, 1938, in Hokkaido, Japan. Her birth name was Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi. Tura Satana’s father was a prominent Japanese film actor though he was ethnically Filipino. Her mother was a circus performer and was of Scots-Irish and Cheyenne background.
This rather unique ethnic mix is what gave Tura her unique and beautiful look. It was her beautiful face that drew men in. As she grew older, her gorgeous physique would draw men in, and her particularly large bust was part of her incredible sex appeal.
But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves…
At a young age, Tura and her family moved to the United States where her mother was originally from. During the Second World War, she and her father placed in Manzanar internment camp – a terrible fate that many Japanese citizens and Japanese-Americans alike had to endure.
As her mother wasn’t Japanese, Tura and her father kept in the internment camp and Tura wasn’t allowed to see her mother until the end of the Second World War. Following the end of the War, the family moved to Chicago.
Tura recalled in various interviews that she grew up in a multiracial neighborhood and name-calling and fights were a huge part of her growing up. She became used to hearing racial epithets hurled at her and would get into fights on the way to school and on the way back!
One of the most horrific incidents in her life happened just before her tenth birthday. She was walking home from school when she was kidnapped and later sexually assaulted by 5 men. These 5 men never punished for their horrendous crime and the incident naturally haunted Tura for her life.
However, her father raised her to be tough and decided she needed to learn how to fight so that she wouldn’t experience such horrors ever again. She studied martial arts including Karate and Aikido. It’s reported that as an adult she hunted down those men and gave them a thrashing they deserved!
As she grew older, she often got into trouble as she formed a gang with many of the local girls from the neighborhood. She had a brief marriage during her teens which her parents arranged for her. Tura Satana left her husband after only nine months.
She spent a few months in Los Angeles when she was fifteen to try her luck at burlesque dancing. Naturally, she had a fake ID and somehow managed to fool the clubs. She also appeared as a model briefly and some of her photos used in a Harold Lloyd film.
She returned to Chicago and became an exotic dancer at the Club Rendezvous. It’s reported that she even had a brief relationship with Elvis Presley who saw her dance one night.
She gained a reputation as a beautiful and talented exotic dancer and soon began traveling the country to perform. Harold Lloyd was particularly fond of her and encouraged her to pursue a career in cinema.
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TURA’S ACTING CAREER
Adopting the stage name Tura Satana, she decided to pursue a film career as the 1960s approached. And she couldn’t have chosen a better time to get started.
Films that revolved around sexuality were becoming more popular during the decade and a buxom beauty such as Tura was perfect for such films. Her debut was in the small role as Suzette Wong in the Billy Wilder film Irma La Douce. While not the main role, her appearance was enough to get her noticed by more filmmakers and producers alike.
She had a brief role as a stripper in the film Who’s That Sleeping in My Bed? She also appeared as a showgirl in the TV series The Greatest Show on Earth.
But perhaps one of the earliest roles to showcase her talents was in the 1964 episode “The Finny Foot Affair” in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. In this episode, she played a character named ‘Tomo’ and this was one of her first speaking parts. It brought her greater recognition not just for her acting but also her ravishing beauty.
It was clear that she was destined for more than supporting roles alongside big name actors or the occasional TV appearances. She HAD to become the star of a feature length film.
Her fate changed in 1965, when she cast as Varla in the now cult classic “sexploitation” film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Directed by Russ Meyer. Russ Meyer made many over-the-top sexploitation films which became huge hits and are now widely regarded as classics. Many great directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Pedro Almodvár have cited Russ Meyer as an inspiration. As one can expect, anyone who starred in a Russ Meyer film bound to become a star.
And that’s exactly what happened with Tura Satana after the film released. While Russ Meyer known to be a rather strict director, Tura wasn’t afraid to challenge him and offer her own input with the film. In fact, against his orders she even had an on-set affair with the assistant cameraman Gil Haimson!
However, her stubbornness didn’t affect her relationship with Russ Meyer and the two clearly loved working together and had a great chemistry. Varla is arguably one of the best characters to feature in an American B-movie and Tura Satana became an icon for women in film. In the film she was tough and beautiful – a combination that was becoming increasingly popular among female characters in the 1960s and would continue in the 1970s – particularly with blaxploitation cinema.
Four years later, she acted in the exploitation film The Astro Zombies directed by Ted V. Mikels. Her character, Satana, was a supporting character but she managed to steal the show and was still a huge star. While critics have dismissed the film with some even deeming it as the worst film ever made, it remains a cult classic.
In 1973, Tura Satana rejoined Ted V. Mikels and appeared in the film The Doll Squad. This film was a huge hit among B-movie fans and it’s often touted as the inspiration for the TV series Charlie’s Angels!
Tura retired from acting following this film. However, even with her short career, she had become such a huge star that she made cameo appearances in the 2000s! She appeared in a remake of The Astro Zombies in 2004 called Mark of the Astro-Zombies. She also appeared as a Judge in the exploitation film Sugar Boxx which inspired by many of the great exploitation films of the 60s and 70s.
Her final film role in Astro Zombies: M3 – Cloned which released in 2010. She would often make appearances at conventions and events to discuss her life and career. And yes, till the day she died, she remained a sex symbol. She’s still one now…
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TURA’S LIFE AND LEGACY
While not much is known about her personal life as her stardom grew, it’s clear that she had a few tumultuous relationships. Tura shot by a former lover following the release of The Doll Squad. She luckily survived but decided to step out of the limelight. She spent a few years working as a dispatcher for the LAPD.
In the early 1980s, she suffered from severe back injuries due to a car accident. She spent several years in and out of hospitals to treat her back. Tura had two children from one relationship and married to a LAPD officer for almost 20 years until his death in the year 2000.
She died on February 4, 2011, in Reno, Nevada due to heart failure. Tura was 72 years old. She survived by her daughters and her sisters.
Tura Satana had a rather short entertainment career but she made the most of it and managed to make her mark. While she’s often associated with Russ Meyer – she only appeared in 1 of his films! But that was one of his biggest hits and he often gave her the credit for it’s success. He would later state in interviews that he regretted not hiring her for more projects.
But while we didn’t get to see more projects from Tura Satana she gave her all to her work and was truly a remarkable entertainer and human being…
Oh, by the way – if you’re a fan of Tura Satana’s there’s an upcoming film about her life coming up – based on her own memoirs. It’s written and directed by Cody Jarrett who directed Sugar Boxx. Keep your eyes out for the film!
So, now let’s hear from you:
Are you a fan of Tura Satana? Was she your favorite of the pussycats?
Here’s what we’d like to know:
Do you think Tura Satana widely known by the younger generations?
Or do Tura’s fans need to promote her incredible body of work to introduce her legacy to a newer audience?
Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments.
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