I was sad to read of the death of Tura Satana earlier this week. She had roles in a number of TV shows and movies, but she’s most famous for her leading role in Russ Meyer’s movie Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! If you’ve never seen it, the title and tagline – Superwomen! Belted, buckled and booted! – should give you a pretty good idea of what it was all about. She played the role of Varla, a karate chopping go-go dancer, who dominates both the movie and every other character in it. I wouldn’t go as far as John Waters, who described it as “beyond a doubt, the best movie ever made”, but it’s certainly a classic movie that reaches out far beyond it’s exploitation roots. Her brilliance in it created an iconic image of a tough powerful female, and that character has been very influential in pop-culture ever since.
The Guardian published an obituary that gives some more background on her life. Apparently she became a nurse after she retired from acting. That must have made for some interesting medical appointments. I imagine it would have been quite a shock to go in for a routine checkup and find yourself in the hands of Nurse Satana!
