Tura Satana (July 10, 1938 – February 4, 2011) was a Japanese-American actress, showgirl, and exotic dancer. Of her 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).

Early life

Satana was born Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi in Hokkaidō, Japan. Her father was a Japanese silent movie actor of part-Filipino descent, and her mother was a circus performer of Native American (Cheyenne) and Scottish background. She reports that this prompted her to learn martial arts, such as aikido and karate. Over the next 15 years, Satana 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." In an interview with Psychotronic Video, Satana said, "We had leather motorcycle jackets, jeans, and boots and we kicked butt." Because of frequent delinquency, she was sent to reform school.

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 was as a dancer in Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963), starring 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).

thumb|Poster for [[Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.]]

Satana then starred as "Varla" in the 1965 film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!—a very aggressive and sexual female character. 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!" She came up with many of the movie's best lines. At one point in the film, the gas station attendant was ogling her cleavage while confessing to a desire to see America. Varla replied, "You won't find it down there, Columbus!" Meyer reportedly later regretted not using Satana in subsequent productions. Filmink argued she should have become a greater star.

thumb|Tura Satana in 2008

After Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Satana primarily worked with film director Ted V. Mikels in such films as The Astro-Zombies (1968) and The Doll Squad (1973). After filming 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 also worked briefly as a dispatcher, later got injured in a serious car accident, and would spend the next two years in and out of hospitals, having two major operations and approximately fifteen others. although she kept the ring. For years her daughter Kalani believed her birth father was singer Tony Bennett, but DNA testing revealed the father was actually comedian Marty Allen.

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.

Selected filmography

  • Irma la Douce (1963) – Suzette Wong
  • Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963) – Stripper (uncredited)
  • Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) – Varla
  • Our Man Flint (1966) – Stripper (uncredited)
  • The Astro-Zombies (1968) – Satana
  • The Doll Squad (1973) – Lavelle Sumara
  • Mark of the Astro-Zombies (2002) – Malvira Satana
  • The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels (2008) – Herself
  • Sugar Boxx (2009) – Judge #1
  • The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009) – Varla (voice)
  • Astro Zombies: M3 – Cloned (2010) – Malvina (final film role)

Further reading

  • Chapter 1 features Tura Satana.
  • Features a 27-page interview with Tura Satana illustrated with photographs.

References

  • Official website
  • Roger Ebert on Satana archived from the original on 8 February 2011.
  • Varla Films