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Tura Satana

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Occupation
  
Actress

Role
  
Actress

Name
  
Tura Satana


Website
  
turasatana.com

Years active
  
1963–2011

Children
  
Kalani Jurman

Tura Satana Tura Satana

Full Name
  
Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi

Born
  
July 10, 1938 (
1938-07-10
)
Hokkaido, Japan

Died
  
February 4, 2011, Reno, Nevada, United States

Spouse
  
Endel Jurman (m. 1981–2000), John Satana (m. 1951–1952)

Movies
  
Faster - Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, The Astro‑Zombies, The Doll Squad, Irma la Douce, Sugar Boxx

Tura satana luna official video


Tura Satana (July 10, 1938 – February 4, 2011) was a Japanese American actress, vedette and exotic dancer. From 13 film and television credits, some of her work includes the exploitation film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965), and the science fiction horror film The Astro-Zombies (1968).

Contents

Tura satana eternalux


Early life

Satana was born Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi in Hokkaidō, Japan. Her father was a Japanese silent movie actor of Filipino descent, and her mother was a circus performer of American Indian (Cheyenne) and Scots-Irish background. After the end of World War II and a stint in the Manzanar internment camp in Lone Pine, California, she and her family moved to Chicago.

Tura Satana Tura Satana Character Comic Vine

Walking home from school just before her tenth birthday, she was reportedly gang raped by five men. According to Satana, her attackers were never prosecuted, and it was rumored that the judge had been paid off. She tells how this prompted her to learn martial arts, such as aikido and karate. Over the next 15 years, she tracked down each rapist and exacted revenge. "I made a vow to myself that I would someday, somehow get even with all of them," she said years later. "They never knew who I was until I told them." Around this time, she formed a gang, "the Angeles", with Italian, Jewish, and Polish girls from her neighborhood. In an interview with Psychotronic Video, she said, "We had leather motorcycle jackets, jeans and boots...and we kicked butt." Because of frequent delinquency, she was sent to reform school. When she was 13, her parents arranged her marriage to 17-year-old John Satana in Hernando, Mississippi, which lasted nine months.

Tura Satana Tura Satana Pictures Images amp Photos Photobucket

Satana moved to Los Angeles and by 15, using fake identification to hide the fact she was a minor, began burlesque dancing. She was hired to perform at the Trocadero nightclub on the Sunset Strip, and became a photographic model for, among others, silent screen comic Harold Lloyd, whose photos of her appear in Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3-D.

She returned to Chicago to live with her parents and started dancing at the Club Rendevouz in Calumet City, Illinois, where she was known as Galatea, "the Statue that Came to Life." She was offered a raise to become a stripper. After singer Elvis Presley saw her perform at Chicago's Follies Theater, the two began a romantic relationship that some reports say ended in a marriage proposal she declined. She eventually became a successful exotic dancer, traveling from city to city. She credited Lloyd with giving her the confidence to pursue a career in show business: "I saw myself as an ugly child. Mr. Lloyd said, 'You have such a symmetrical face. The camera loves your face...You should be seen.'"

Acting career

Satana's acting debut role was a cameo as Suzette Wong, a Parisian prostitute in the film Irma la Douce, which starred Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Her next role was as a dancer in Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963), which starred Dean Martin and Elizabeth Montgomery; Soon after, Satana appeared in the television shows Burke's Law (1964) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964).

Satana then starred as "Varla" in the 1965 film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!—a very aggressive and sexual female character for which she did all of her own stunts and fight scenes. Renowned film critic Richard Corliss called her performance "the most honest, maybe the one honest portrayal in the Meyer canon and certainly the scariest". Originally titled The Leather Girls, the film is an ode to female violence, based on a concept created by Russ Meyer and screenwriter Jack Moran. Both felt at her first audition that Satana was "definitely Varla." The film was shot on location in the desert outside Los Angeles during days when the weather was more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit and freezing nights, with Satana clashing regularly with teenage co-star Susan Bernard due to Bernard's mother's reportedly disruptive behavior on the set. Meyer said Satana was "extremely capable. She knew how to handle herself. Don't fuck with her! And if you have to fuck her, do it well! She might turn on you!"

Satana was responsible for adding key elements to the visual style and energy of the production, including her costume, makeup, usage of martial arts, dialogue and the use of spinning tires in the death scene of the main male character. She came up with many of the film's best lines. At one point the gas station attendant was ogling her extraordinary cleavage while confessing to a desire to see America. Varla replied "You won't find it down there, Columbus!" Meyer cited Satana as the primary reason for the film's lasting fame. "She and I made the movie", said Meyer. Meyer reportedly later regretted not using Satana in subsequent productions.

After Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, she primarily worked with film director Ted V. Mikels in such films as The Astro-Zombies (1968), and The Doll Squad (1973). After making Mikels' The Doll Squad in 1973, Satana was shot by a former lover. She later found employment in a hospital, a position she kept for four years. She had studied nursing at Firmin Desloge Hospital. She was then briefly employed as a dispatcher for the Los Angeles Police Department. In 1981, her back was broken in a car accident. She spent the next two years in and out of hospitals, having two major operations and approximately fifteen others.

In 2002, she returned to acting, reprising the role of Malvina Satana in Mark of the Astro Zombies (2002), the sequel to The Astro Zombies.

Personal life

Satana dated Elvis Presley but turned down his marriage proposal, although she did keep the ring. Satana married a retired Los Angeles police officer in 1981, and remained married until her husband died in October 2000. She had two daughters from a previous relationship.

Death

Satana died on February 4, 2011, in Reno, Nevada, and was survived by her daughters, Kalani and Jade, and her sisters, Pamela and Kim. Her long-time manager, Siouxzan Perry, gave the cause of death as heart failure.

Tributes

  • The alternative metal band Tura Satana is named after Satana.
  • The Argentine rock band Babasónicos created a song honoring her, titled Viva Satana!.
  • "Song For Tura Satana" is the sixteenth track on Zopilote Machine by The Mountain Goats.
  • Australian punk-pop band Ratcat had a b-side called Tura Satana in 1989.
  • Seattle industrial band Kill Switch...Klick released a four song EP in 2008 featuring Super Amanda on vocals performing four different mixes of the Tura Satana Tribute song, Hemi Charger.
  • Las Vegas burlesque performer Elaina Satana adopted her stage surname as a tribute to Tura Satana.
  • Filmography

    Actress
    2010
    Astro Zombies: M3 - Cloned as
    Malvina
    2009
    The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (Video) as
    Varla (voice)
    2009
    Sugar Boxx as
    Judge #1
    2004
    Mark of the Astro-Zombies (Video) as
    Malvira Satana
    1973
    The Doll Squad as
    Lavelle Sumara
    1968
    The Astro-Zombies as
    Satana
    1967
    The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (TV Series) as
    Rabbit / Toulouse's Elite Guard #1
    - The Moulin Ruse Affair (1967) - Rabbit / Toulouse's Elite Guard #1
    1966
    Our Man Flint as
    Stripper (uncredited)
    1965
    Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! as
    Varla
    1964
    The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV Series) as
    Tomo
    - The Finny Foot Affair (1964) - Tomo
    1964
    Burke's Law (TV Series) as
    Peach Petal
    - Who Killed the Paper Dragon? (1964) - Peach Petal
    1963
    Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? as
    Stripper (uncredited)
    1963
    The Greatest Show on Earth (TV Series) as
    Showgirl
    - Lady in Limbo (1963) - Showgirl
    1963
    Irma la Douce as
    Suzette Wong
    1961
    Hawaiian Eye (TV Series) as
    Receptionist
    - Concert in Hawaii (1961) - Receptionist (uncredited)
    Miscellaneous
    2002
    Cleavage (TV Movie documentary) (archive material provider)
    Thanks
    2016
    Year of Fear (in memory of)
    2009
    Frankenpimp (special thanks)
    2009
    Sugar Boxx (special thanks)
    2007
    Midnight Mass with Your Hostess Peaches Christ (TV Series) (special thanks)
    2005
    Go, Pussycat, Go! (Video short) (special thanks)
    Self
    2010
    Let's Spend the Night Together (Documentary) as
    Self
    2008
    The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels (Documentary) as
    Self - Actress
    2008
    The Last Doorway Show with Miss Misery (TV Series) as
    Self
    - Comic Con San Diego Part 1 (2008) - Self
    2008
    Bump & Grind: The Making of a Burlesque Diva (TV Movie documentary) as
    Self
    2006
    Phone Sex (Video documentary) as
    Caller
    2005
    Strip de velours (TV Movie documentary) as
    Self
    2005
    Go, Pussycat, Go! (Video short) as
    Self
    2002
    Cleavage (TV Movie documentary) as
    Self
    2002
    SexTV (TV Series documentary) as
    Self
    - Big, Bold & Busty/David Sterry/Jane's Guide (2002) - Self
    1996
    Reel Wild Cinema (TV Series) as
    Self
    - Muscles and Monsters (1996) - Self
    1988
    The Incredibly Strange Film Show (TV Series documentary) as
    Self
    - Russ Meyer (1988) - Self
    - Ted V. Mikels (1988) - Self
    Archive Footage
    2011
    TCM Remembers (TV Series short) as
    Self / actress
    2011
    The Orange British Academy Film Awards (TV Special) as
    Self - Memorial Tribute
    2004
    Striptease: The Greatest Exotic Dancers of All Time (Video documentary) as
    Self
    1991
    Jean Park: Soultwister (Music Video) as
    Varla
    1987
    Faster Pussycat: Don't Change That Song (Music Video) as
    Varla
    1986
    Zombiethon (Documentary) as
    Satana (uncredited)
    1975
    V.I.P.-Schaukel (TV Series documentary) as
    Suzette Wong
    - Episode #5.1 (1975) - Suzette Wong

    References

    Tura Satana Wikipedia