Violent Femme: Goodbye Tura Satana

As you may have heard, notorious bad girl Tura Satana died yesterday at age 72 in Reno, reportedly of heart failure. Satana’s 1965 role in Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was a classic (and sincere) portrayal of a smoking hot unhinged lady you wouldn’t want to cross- particularly since Satana did all her own fight scenes with wild abandon. It’s rumored in her burlesque and stripping days she was a bit of a hellion as well, often fighting with other dancers. In 1973 the tough-as-nails Satana survived a gunshot wound to the stomach (supposedly by a lover, but I’ve read also it was a random drug addict when she was in nursing school); in 1981 she was hit by a speeding car, none of which broke her will to kick ass. Another random fact: Satana once turned down a marriage proposal by Elvis Presley. Perhaps that’s why Priscilla’s makeup took a turn for the dark and devious Tura Satana for a while there…

Here’s some classic images of Tura Satana, voraciously living life: