Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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As Peter Turner tells the story: “Hurrying away from my parents’ house and arriving at the Liverpool Playhouse, where I was due on stage, the last thing I felt like doing that night was acting in a play.

“My mood wasn’t improved when I was spotted by the gossipy old stage manager as I hurried towards the dressing room.

‘Sorry, I’m late,’ I said. ‘I’ve got a bit of a problem.’

‘Like to tell Uncle Jack all about it?’

‘No, thanks,’ I replied. ‘It’s a bit personal.’

‘I’m always interested to know what’s happening,’ he said.

‘Look,’ I said. ‘If you really must know, there’s someone staying back at my mum and dad’s house and she’s dying.’

‘Anyone I know?’

‘I shouldn’t think so. She’s American. She’s a film star.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ he said. ‘Film stars don’t die in Liverpool.’

That became the title of Peter Turner’s memoir about his tragic romance with Gloria Grahame.

Grahame was an under-appreciated Hollywood star, even though she did win an Academy Award. She was married four times, once to her own stepson. Toward the end of her life, she had a romance with Turner, an actor 30 years her junior.

Her career on the wane, Grahame had gone to London in 1978 to star in a play. She rented a ground-floor apartment at a theatrical boarding house near Regent’s Park. A jobbing working-class actor from Liverpool, 26-year-old Peter Turner was living in a small room upstairs.

The two became friends, then lovers.

He called her Glo.

“I wondered why this celebrated actress I’d never heard of was not staying at the Ritz or somewhere equally fancy,” recalls Turner. “I didn’t know then that she had little money to spare.”

Four years earlier, Grahame had been diagnosed with breast cancer, but following radiation treatment, giving up smoking and drinking, and homeopathic remedies, the disease went into remission.

Then, some 18 months into her affair with Turner, the cancer returned. She pushed him away without telling him the reason. Refusing to accept the diagnosis, she kept on working.

In 1981 she collapsed while performing in England. She had a tumor in her stomach “the size of a football.” Refusing surgery, she contacted her one-time lover, asking Turner if she could live with his mother in Liverpool. Some three weeks later, her children flew her back to America, where she died a few hours after entering St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Now Pete Turner’s book has been turned into a same-named movie.

“Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool” is currently showing at Tropic Cinema.

Annette Bening (“American Beauty,” “20th Century Women”) takes on the role of Gloria Grahame; Jamie Bell (“Billy Elliot,” “Fantastic Four”) plays Turner.

Director Paul McGuigan (BBC’s “Sherlock”) makes it clear in his telling that this May-December romance was not an older woman trying to reclaim her youth, or an ambitious young fan’s star-struck fascination. Grahame was a sensual, sexual woman; Turner hadn’t seen any of her movies, except for maybe “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

No, this is not “Sunset Boulevard.” It’s merely the story of a mistimed love affair.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com