Tina Turner Bows out of Public Life with Emotional Documentary

Tina Turner performs in Kansas City in 2008. (AP)
Tina Turner performs in Kansas City in 2008. (AP)
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Tina Turner Bows out of Public Life with Emotional Documentary

Tina Turner performs in Kansas City in 2008. (AP)
Tina Turner performs in Kansas City in 2008. (AP)

Tina Turner opens up about her troubled past and living with PTSD in new documentary “TINA”, a film the soul and rock star says is the final act of her public life before bowing out.

Woven around a candid interview with the 81-year-old, testimonies from people who know her and archive material, the film tracks the singer’s rise from a self-described “girl from the cotton fields” to a global music icon.

“It wasn’t a good life,” Turner says in the opening scenes of the film, which is divided into five chapters, starting with “Part 1 - Ike and Tina”.

Turner and former husband Ike Turner, who died of a cocaine overdose in 2007, enjoyed huge success in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They divorced in 1978 after a stormy marriage in which she said she was beaten.

The “What’s Love Got to Do with It” singer launched her solo career in the 1980s.

“The first thing she said when we were sitting down, she’s like ‘I don’t want to do this’,” said “TINA” co-director Dan Lindsay, who was approached by Turner’s husband Erwin Bach to make the documentary.

“And we’re like ‘OK, what does that mean?’ ... She just meant ... she’s done with press and stuff like that, and the end of the film talks about how do you bow out slowly.”

“TINA” recounts the tumultuous years with Ike through Turner’s own words and recordings of past interviews she gave.

“To me ... the biggest revelation is the fact that even at this chapter in her life, she suffers from PTSD. And that was so unexpected for us that it fundamentally changed our approach to the entire film,” said “TINA” co-director T.J. Martin.

Turner, an eight-time Grammy winner known for songs like “River Deep, Mountain High”, “Private Dancer” and “The Best”, was born in Tennessee but moved to Switzerland in 1995 to join her German-born record producer husband Bach.

She retired from performing after a sold-out farewell tour, which ended in 2009, and became a Swiss national in 2013.

She came out of retirement to unveil “Tina - The Tina Turner Musical” in 2017.

In the documentary, Turner says the musical and new film mark her farewell from public life.

“TINA” is released on Saturday in the US by HBO and premieres in Britain on Sky Documentaries, NOW and Altitude Film on Sunday.



Actor Gene Hackman and Wife Found Dead at Home 

Actor Gene Hackman with wife Betsy Arakawa in June 1993. (AP)
Actor Gene Hackman with wife Betsy Arakawa in June 1993. (AP)
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Actor Gene Hackman and Wife Found Dead at Home 

Actor Gene Hackman with wife Betsy Arakawa in June 1993. (AP)
Actor Gene Hackman with wife Betsy Arakawa in June 1993. (AP)

Gene Hackman, the intense character actor who won two Oscars in a more than 60-year career, has died alongside his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa, and their dog at home, the sheriff's office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, said on Thursday.

The county sheriff's office said deputies had found the 95-year-old actor and Arakawa, 64, deceased on Wednesday afternoon at around 1:45 p.m.

"Foul play is not suspected as a factor in those deaths at this time, however exact cause of death has not been determined. This is an active and ongoing investigation by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office," it said.

Hackman, a former Marine known for his raspy voice, appeared in more than 80 films, as well as on television and the stage during a lengthy career that started in the early 1960s.

He earned his first Oscar nomination for his breakout role as the brother of bank robber Clyde Barrow in 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde." He was also nominated for best supporting actor in 1971 for "I Never Sang for My Father."

It was his turn as Popeye Doyle, the rumpled New York detective chasing international drug dealers in director William Friedkin's thriller "The French Connection," that assured his stardom and a best actor Academy Award.

He also won a best supporting actor Oscar in 1993 as a mean sheriff in the Clint Eastwood western "Unforgiven," and was nominated for an Academy Award for his turn as an FBI agent in the 1988 historical drama "Mississippi Burning."

Hackman could come across on the screen as menacing or friendly, working with a face that he described to the New York Times in 1989 as that of "your everyday mine worker."

A method actor, he drew from his personal experience to flesh out a role. His characters were sometimes raw and violent and ranged from a small-town basketball coach in the 1986 sports film "Hoosiers" to Superman's archrival Lex Luthor.

He retired in his 70s, saying the parts he was offered were too grandfatherly. His last substantial role was in the 2004 comedy "Welcome to Mooseport."

Living outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, Hackman was married twice and had three children - Christopher, Elizabeth Jean and Leslie Anne, with his late ex-wife, Faye Maltese, who died in 2017. He married Arakawa in 1991.