Barbara Turner, a screenwriter, actress and producer best known for her work penning the 1995 film “Georgia,” died in Los Angeles on Tuesday. She was 79.
Turner was also the mother of actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, who starred in “Georgia,” which depicted the troubled relationship between two singing sisters (Leigh and Mare Winningham).
She was nominated for two Emmys for her work on the 1977 NBC film “The War Between the Tates,” starring Elizabeth Ashley and Richard Crenna, and the 2012 HBO movie “Hemingway & Gellhorn,” with Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman.
Turner’s numerous other screenplay credits include 1968’s “Petulia,” which earned her a Writers Guild of America nomination, 2000’s “Pollock” — which won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Marcia Gay Harden and a Best Actor nomination for Ed Harris — and “The Company” in 2003.
“I’ve always had so much admiration for my mom. She’s so inspiring as a woman and as an artist,” “Hateful Eight” actress Leigh told People earlier this year.
“My mother always helped me because she was kind of a research fanatic. When she would write a screenplay there would be so much research all over the walls,” she continued. “And so when I started working as an actress I would do the same thing. She instilled in me a love of taking everything very seriously. It didn’t matter what it was.”
Turner was first married to actor Vic Morrow and then to television director Reza Badiyi.
She is survived by her three daughters — Leigh, Carrie Ann Morrow and Mina Badiyi Chassler — plus five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.