Tura Satana | Cult actress
Tura Satana, whose authoritative presence, exotic looks, and buxom frame commanded the attention of viewers of Russ Meyer's 1965 cult movie Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, died Friday in Reno, Nev.
Tura Satana, whose authoritative presence, exotic looks, and buxom frame commanded the attention of viewers of Russ Meyer's 1965 cult movie
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!,
died Friday in Reno, Nev.
The cause was heart failure, said her longtime manager, Siouxzan Perry. She said Ms. Satana was 72, though other sources listed her birthdate as July 10, 1935, which would have made her 75.
Born Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi on the Japanese island of Hokkaido to a father of Japanese and Filipino descent and a mother who was Cheyenne and Scots-Irish, she spent part of her childhood in the World War II Manzanar internment camp for Japanese Americans in California before her family settled in Chicago.
Her Asian background and appearance and the fact that her physique developed early led to frequent harassment and assaults, and she lived an itinerant life, working as an exotic dancer and nude model.
After playing a supporting part in the 1963 Billy Wilder comedy Irma la Douce, she found her breakthrough role in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, a Meyer exploitation film that, in stark opposition to his later works, had no nudity. In the film she played Varla, the leader of a gang of go-go dancers who kidnap a couple, kill the boy, and force the girl to follow them on lawless adventures.
- N.Y. Times News Service























