Tura Satana was a Japanese-born American actress and former exotic dancer. She was best known for her role as "Varla" in
Russ Meyer's 1965
cult film,
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
(July 10, 1938 – February 4, 2011)
Early life
Satana was born
Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi in
Hokkaidō,
Japan. Her father was a
silent movie actor of
Japanese and
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 the Westside of
Chicago. She developed
breasts very early and, despite being an excellent student, was constantly harassed for her figure and Asian heritage. Walking home from school at the age of nine she was
gang raped by five men. According to Satana, her attackers were never prosecuted and it was rumored that the judge had been paid off.
[2] She tells how this prompted her to learn the
martial arts of
aikido and
karate and, over the next 15 years, track down each rapist and exact revenge.
[3] "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."
[3]
Because of the rape and the bribed judge, she was sent to reform school as a teenager and became the leader of a gang. In an interview with
Psychotronic Video, she said, "We had leather motorcycle jackets, jeans and boots and we kicked butt." At 13, she was married in
Hernando,
Mississippi, a short-lived union arranged by her parents and the family of her 17-year-old groom.
Satana then came to
Los Angeles at age 13 with a fake ID and tried her hand at
blues singing. When that failed, she started modeling as a bathing suit photography model and posed nude for the silent screen comic
Harold Lloyd, who did not know she was underage. Lloyd told Satana she should be in films because she was photogenic. While working as a photographic model, Satana contracted makeup poisoning and could not wear any makeup due to the ensuing skin erosions. She returned to Chicago to live with her parents and started dancing. Satana danced 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. She eventually became a successful exotic dancer, traveling from city to city and working with
Rose Le Rose,
Maxine Martin, The Skyscraper Girl,
Tempest Storm,
Candy Barr and
Stunning Smith the Purple Lady. Satana 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."
[4] Because of her dancing, her face, and her figure, she was ultimately voted one of the 10 Best Undressed Burlesque Dancers of the 20th Century by
Bill Hanna of
Hanna-Barbera.
[citation needed]
At 19, Satana got
pregnant, but continued dancing for the next eight months, earning a typical weekly salary of about $1,500.
Acting career
During her early career, Satana appeared on television shows such as
Burke's Law,
The Greatest Show On Earth,
Hawaiian Eye, and
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. She also appeared as a dancer in
Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? with
Dean Martin and
Elizabeth Montgomery. That same year, she had a cameo as a
Parisian prostitute in the musical
Irma La Douce with
Jack Lemmon and
Shirley Maclaine.
After starring in
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Satana worked mainly with cult film director
Ted V. Mikels in such films as
The Astro-Zombies (1968),
The Doll Squad (1974) and
Mark of the Astro-Zombies (2002). She has also appeared as herself in various documentaries and TV shows including
The Incredibly Strange Film Show (1988), A & E's documentary called "Cleavage"(2003),
Strip de velours (2005) and
Sugar Boxx (2007) which is currently in post production and co-stars fellow Russ Meyer alumna
Kitten Natividad.
Faster Pussycat! Kill Kill!
Satana's most noted screen role was 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.
[5] Renowned film critic
Richard Corliss called her performance "...the most honest, maybe the one honest portrayal in the Meyer canon and certainly the scariest."
[6]
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."
[6] The film was shot on location in the desert outside Los Angeles during days above 100 degrees and freezing nights, with Satana clashing regularly with teenage co-star
Susan Bernard, because of Susan's mother disrupting the set. Meyer said she "was extremely capable. She knew how to handle herself. Don't mess with her! And if you mess with her, do it well! She might turn on you!"
[6]
She was fully 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.
[7] She came up with many of the film's best lines. At one point the gas station attendant was ogling her extraordinary cleavage whilst confessing to a desire to see America. Varla replied "You won't find it down there, Columbus!"
[8]Meyer cited the extreme tension on the set caused by Satana as the primary reasons for the film's lasting fame. "She and I made the movie," said Meyer.
[9] Meyer came to greatly regret not using Satana in his subsequent productions.
[10]
Later years
After making
Ted V. 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 Deloos 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.
Personal life
Satana dated
Elvis Presley but turned down his marriage proposal,
[11] though she did keep the ring.
[12] Satana married a retired
Los Angeles police officer in 1981, and remained married until her husband died in October 2000. She has two daughters from a previous relationship. Her older daughter Kalani had a cameo role in Mikels'
Ten Violent Women. She had remained friends with Mikels till her death.
Death
Satana died on February 4, 2011, in
Reno,
Nevada,
United States.
[13] Her long-time manager, Siouxzan Perry, stated the cause of death as
heart failure.
[14]
Selected filmography
Tributes
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Pavel Vondruška was a Czech actor and musician, and from 1969 was a member of the Jara Cimrman Theatre died from a accidental fall he was , 85.. His main profession was as a conductor. He also appeared in several films.
He studied at the conservatorium and consequently went on to study conducting, opera direction and dramaturgy at the music academy AMU, where he was taught by Karel Ančerl and Václav Talich. While studying, he was accompanist at the National Theatre Prague and conductor of the Prague Opera.
