Joan Turner

Joan Turner
Born	24 November 1922 Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died	1 March 2009 Banstead, Surrey, England

Joan Turner (24 November 1922 – 1 March 2009) was a British comedian and singer born in Belfast and brought up in London. She appeared on stage and TV and had her own radio show, becoming the highest-earning female singer in Britain. But she proved difficult to work with, largely through her drinking habit, and lived for years as a down-and-out in Los Angeles.

Her father was Leonard Turner, who became a London bus driver and subsequently taxicab driver after serving with the British Army in Ireland. At the age of 11, Turner won a talent competition at a cinema in Peckham, South London, doing impressions of Shirley Temple and Jessie Matthews. She won a scholarship to the Sacred Heart convent in Victoria, London but told her teachers an intention to pursue a theatrical career and left school. In 1937, aged 14, she performed onstage at a London music hall - the Queen’s Theatre, Poplar - and, the following year, toured in a revue and, after that, performed with The Crazy Gang in 1954.

In the 1960s and 1970s, she was a major star in the UK, becoming the highest-earning female singer in Britain, and a disc jockey on her own radio show. Turner was nicknamed "the women's answer to Harry Secombe" and presented her own television show. She topped the bill at the London Palladium and appeared in the 1963 Royal Variety Show topping the bill ahead of The Beatles She also topped bills in New York City and Las Vegas and was romantically linked to Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock and Terry-Thomas.

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