 |
| Tina Turner in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome |
Just two years after documentary Tina made its début at the Berlinale, the star whose story it tells has passed away. Aged 83, the Tennessee-born singer and actress had suffered from a long illness, according to her publicist.
Turner, often described as the Queen of Rock and Roll, rose to fame in the late 1950s but went on to stage a spectacular comeback as a solo artist in the 1980s, at one point making it into the Guinness Book of Records for attracting the largest ever crowd for a live show by a single performer. Although her love of singing meant that a serious venture into acting was never on the cards, she made her mark as the formidably Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, also appearing in Last Action Hero and Tommy. Her contributions to soundtracks include hit Mad Max theme We Don't Need Another Hero and James Bond theme tune Goldeneye.
She was portrayed by Angela Bassett in the biographical film What’s Love Got To Do With It in 1993. Based on her autobiography I, Tina, the film explored both her musical career and her experiences of domestic violence at the hands of her first husband, Ike Turner. Although she always found this difficult to talk about, Turner spoke out about it in her later years, keen to let others know that it's possible to escape from such situations.
Turner is survived by her husband, German music executive Erwin Bach, and two grandchildren.
