Tura Santana, RIP
February 6, 2011 2:32 PM Subscribe
Tura Satana, the actress 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 on Friday evening in Reno, Nev. [Previously.]
She is truly fantastic in Faster, Pussycat. It's a bit sad she didn't have more of a career, it took 20+ years before people could see through the schlock to understand what Russ Meyer was doing.
posted by Nelson at 2:37 PM on February 6, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 2:37 PM on February 6, 2011 [2 favorites]
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence, the word and the act. While violence cloaks itself in a plethora of disguises, its favorite mantle still remains... sex. Violence devours all it touches, its voracious appetite rarely fulfilled. Yet violence doesn't only destroy, it creates and molds as well. Let's examine closely then this dangerously evil creation, this new breed encased and contained within the supple skin of woman. The softness is there, the unmistakable smell of female, the surface shiny and silken, the body yielding yet wanton. But a word of caution: handle with care and don't drop your guard. This rapacious new breed prowls both alone and in packs, operating at any level, any time, anywhere, and with anybody. Who are they? One might be your secretary, your doctor's receptionist... or a dancer in a go-go club!
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(Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Is genius cinema and I defy anyone to say otherwise. )
posted by Artw at 2:38 PM on February 6, 2011 [4 favorites]
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(Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Is genius cinema and I defy anyone to say otherwise. )
posted by Artw at 2:38 PM on February 6, 2011 [4 favorites]
I can only imagine how distraught astro zombie is right now.
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posted by boo_radley at 2:55 PM on February 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
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posted by boo_radley at 2:55 PM on February 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
She was a hella woman.
She'd like to remind you that reality is all that's dirty underneath the clean.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:59 PM on February 6, 2011
She'd like to remind you that reality is all that's dirty underneath the clean.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:59 PM on February 6, 2011
checking your post title, chavenet, I didn't know she was Carlos' sister ;-)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:01 PM on February 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:01 PM on February 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! on Google Video (1:23:21)
posted by yaymukund at 3:05 PM on February 6, 2011 [8 favorites]
posted by yaymukund at 3:05 PM on February 6, 2011 [8 favorites]
She also had roles in The Astro-Zombies, Mark of the Astro-Zombies and Astro Zombies M3: Cloned (which came out last year.)
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posted by zarq at 3:08 PM on February 6, 2011
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posted by zarq at 3:08 PM on February 6, 2011
Before shooting began, Satana told Meyer that he’d have to change the script. “I said, ‘I don’t do nude scenes,’” she recalls. “He said, ‘But you’re a stripper.’ I said, ‘I do not do nude scenes on stage and I do not do nude scenes on screen.’” Her adamancy surprised Meyer, but he relented, settling for a shot of her bare back. It was a good move, since the absent nudity enhanced Varla’s invulnerability.
The headbutting continued off set.“Russ had this rule,” says Satana. “Under no circumstances are you allowed to have sex during filming. And I said, ‘Well, then I have to quit.’ He said ‘Why?’ and I said, ‘I cannot go one day without release.’ He said, ‘Where the hell are you gonna find release in the middle of the desert?’ I said, ‘That’s for me to know, you to find out. It won’t be with you.’” Meyer had to let her have her way. “He said, ‘Don’t you ever tell the other girls,’” Satana recalls. “But it didn’t make a difference. They all knew anyway.”
A legend.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:19 PM on February 6, 2011 [6 favorites]
The headbutting continued off set.“Russ had this rule,” says Satana. “Under no circumstances are you allowed to have sex during filming. And I said, ‘Well, then I have to quit.’ He said ‘Why?’ and I said, ‘I cannot go one day without release.’ He said, ‘Where the hell are you gonna find release in the middle of the desert?’ I said, ‘That’s for me to know, you to find out. It won’t be with you.’” Meyer had to let her have her way. “He said, ‘Don’t you ever tell the other girls,’” Satana recalls. “But it didn’t make a difference. They all knew anyway.”
A legend.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:19 PM on February 6, 2011 [6 favorites]
"The best film ever made. Possibly better than any film that will be made in the future." -John Waters, on Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
posted by mai at 3:24 PM on February 6, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by mai at 3:24 PM on February 6, 2011 [2 favorites]
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posted by SageLeVoid at 3:38 PM on February 6, 2011
posted by SageLeVoid at 3:38 PM on February 6, 2011
Ah the lead go-go dancing bad-ass gang leader in Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!
Icon. She waved her rebel freakflag high for lots of awesome chicks to follow.
posted by jojo chandran at 3:48 PM on February 6, 2011
Icon. She waved her rebel freakflag high for lots of awesome chicks to follow.
posted by jojo chandran at 3:48 PM on February 6, 2011
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(renders spacesuit for Tura and buys astrozombie)
posted by clavdivs at 3:53 PM on February 6, 2011
(renders spacesuit for Tura and buys astrozombie)
posted by clavdivs at 3:53 PM on February 6, 2011
Wow. I assumed this was a tragically young passing, but she was 72. It hadn't occur to me that she'd age.
I saw Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! at student-run B-movie festival. The projectionists screwed up, and for the first ten minutes of the film, you could not see anyone's head. It was all torso on down, which kinda drove home the force behind Russ Meyers's casting decisions.
Once the projection problems got fixed, though, holy crap Tura Satana was an intimidating presence!
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posted by ignignokt at 3:56 PM on February 6, 2011
I saw Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! at student-run B-movie festival. The projectionists screwed up, and for the first ten minutes of the film, you could not see anyone's head. It was all torso on down, which kinda drove home the force behind Russ Meyers's casting decisions.
Once the projection problems got fixed, though, holy crap Tura Satana was an intimidating presence!
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posted by ignignokt at 3:56 PM on February 6, 2011
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posted by mikelieman at 3:56 PM on February 6, 2011
posted by mikelieman at 3:56 PM on February 6, 2011
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She was both one of the first women I ever lusted after and an early exposure to the idea that beauty isn't quite so narrowly-defined as modern Hollywood would have us believe.
posted by rhiannonstone at 4:07 PM on February 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
She was both one of the first women I ever lusted after and an early exposure to the idea that beauty isn't quite so narrowly-defined as modern Hollywood would have us believe.
posted by rhiannonstone at 4:07 PM on February 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
"The one thing you’ve got to remember is that you just never accept defeat. Remember to never let life get you down, because there is always something new to learn tomorrow. Life is to be lived, and lived well."
- RIP, Tura. you have been, and remain, an inspiration.
posted by lapolla at 4:08 PM on February 6, 2011 [4 favorites]
- RIP, Tura. you have been, and remain, an inspiration.
posted by lapolla at 4:08 PM on February 6, 2011 [4 favorites]
She was an idol of mine! She will be missed.
posted by Sidhedevil at 4:09 PM on February 6, 2011
posted by Sidhedevil at 4:09 PM on February 6, 2011
She always went for the long green. Truly an inspired--and inspirational--woman.
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posted by Chichibio at 4:14 PM on February 6, 2011
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posted by Chichibio at 4:14 PM on February 6, 2011
She will live on. How could she not?
Faster is still one of the movies I most fervently wish I'd had a chance to see as a teenager.
posted by blucevalo at 4:50 PM on February 6, 2011
Faster is still one of the movies I most fervently wish I'd had a chance to see as a teenager.
posted by blucevalo at 4:50 PM on February 6, 2011
Oh, this makes me really sad. I saw her live at Peaches Christ's Midnight Mass a few years ago; she was fierce and awe-inspiring as you'd imagine, but also as generous with her time and autographs as she could possibly be.
There was talk around that time of her shopping for a publisher for an autobiography. To the best of my knowledge, she never found one. Which is really a shame, because, if I recall correctly, she lived quite a fascinating life even before the movies.
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posted by treepour at 6:55 PM on February 6, 2011
There was talk around that time of her shopping for a publisher for an autobiography. To the best of my knowledge, she never found one. Which is really a shame, because, if I recall correctly, she lived quite a fascinating life even before the movies.
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posted by treepour at 6:55 PM on February 6, 2011
I can only imagine how distraught astro zombie is right now.
I genuinely am. She had what I think is one of the funniest lines I have ever heard, which I can only paraphrase, from Faster Pussycat. She pulls into a gas station and the attendant ogles her breasts while nattering about traveling around the country.
"See America first, that's what I always say." he says.
"Well, you won't find it down there, Columbus," she snaps back.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:14 PM on February 6, 2011 [5 favorites]
I genuinely am. She had what I think is one of the funniest lines I have ever heard, which I can only paraphrase, from Faster Pussycat. She pulls into a gas station and the attendant ogles her breasts while nattering about traveling around the country.
"See America first, that's what I always say." he says.
"Well, you won't find it down there, Columbus," she snaps back.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:14 PM on February 6, 2011 [5 favorites]
( . )( . )
posted by louche mustachio at 7:36 PM on February 6, 2011
posted by louche mustachio at 7:36 PM on February 6, 2011
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posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:18 PM on February 6, 2011
posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:18 PM on February 6, 2011
I saw Faster, Pussycat! years ago in college, and I didn't really know that much about Tura Satana otherwise. But from reading the links in this obit thread, it seems like she was an actual living, walking, talking incarnation of an ass-kicking b-movie heroine both on and off screen. The most intriguing detail from her Wikipedia entry (first link in the OP):
Walking home from school at the age of nine she was gang raped by five men. Her attackers were never prosecuted and it was rumored that the judge had been paid off. 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. "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."
Is this actually true? If so, why hasn't anybody made an epic grindhouse-style Tura Satana biopic?
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:35 PM on February 6, 2011 [4 favorites]
Walking home from school at the age of nine she was gang raped by five men. Her attackers were never prosecuted and it was rumored that the judge had been paid off. 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. "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."
Is this actually true? If so, why hasn't anybody made an epic grindhouse-style Tura Satana biopic?
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:35 PM on February 6, 2011 [4 favorites]
I love her for having taken revenge! I love her for having been beautiful and cool! The world needs people like Ms. Santana. We will miss you! I hope Paradise lives up to the brochures.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 11:04 PM on February 6, 2011
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 11:04 PM on February 6, 2011
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posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:23 AM on February 7, 2011
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:23 AM on February 7, 2011
That opening sequence was genius. The visual of the audio track is mind blowing.
RIP
posted by gjc at 7:51 AM on February 7, 2011
RIP
posted by gjc at 7:51 AM on February 7, 2011
Nobody's mentioned that Tura taught Elvis how to kiss, how to shake his leg like that, AND turned down his offer of marriage. She had to finally ask him to stop making Priscilla look like her too.
posted by stinkycheese at 8:06 AM on February 7, 2011
posted by stinkycheese at 8:06 AM on February 7, 2011
I watched Faster, Pussycat again that night in her honor. It's an amazing film, and her remarkable presence is key.
Her legend wll live on.
posted by Gelatin at 9:35 AM on February 7, 2011
Her legend wll live on.
posted by Gelatin at 9:35 AM on February 7, 2011
Watching the intro to Faster, Pussycat reminded me of how fascinating her co-star Haji was. Another Meyer supervixen whose career never seemed to go beyond the schlockfests, with such credits as "Wam Bam Thank You Spaceman: Slave Girl (uncredited)". Sad, she showed so much talent. She's still alive and kicking, happily. Her vanity site at fasterpussycathaji.com is parked but you can view it via Wayback here.
posted by Nelson at 3:56 PM on February 7, 2011
posted by Nelson at 3:56 PM on February 7, 2011
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posted by Kinbote at 2:37 PM on February 6, 2011