What happened to Michael Douglas’ Romancing the Stone co-star Kathleen Turner 42 years after the movie’s release?

Released in 1984, the adventure movie followed New York novelist Joan Wilder, played by Kathleen, who is forced to travel to Colombia to rescue her sister, who has been kidnapped by violent smugglers. Along the way, she is joined by hunter Jack T. Colton, played by Michael Douglas, who helps the uptight writer learn to survive in her new surroundings.

Mary Kathleen Turner was born on June 19, 1954 in Springfield, Missouri to parents Patsy and her father Allen, who a U.S. Foreign Service office. Out of her three siblings, Kathleen was the only one born in America.

Owing to her father’s profession, she grew up in Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, and in London, England. She attended high school at The American School in London, graduating in 1972. “The start of real acting for me began during high school in London”, she stated in her 2008 memoir. “There were seven of us who were sort of a theater mafia. We produced, directed, acted, chose the plays, got one teacher fired and another one hired.”

Kathleen’s television debut came in the late ’70s, where she played Nola Dancy Aldrich. Her first major role came in 1981, playing the femme fatale Matty Walker in the thriller Body Heat.

Her first full decade in acting was a very lucrative one for Kathleen, with roles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The War of the Roses and Romancing the Stone. 

The aforementioned Romancing the Stone was a career changing movie for the actress, as it helped cement her name in Hollywood and provided her first award.

She is a two-time Golden Globe winner, thanks to her roles in Romancing the Stone and Prizzi’s Honor, and for her stage work, she is a two-time Tony Award nominee, owing to her appearances in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

In 1984, Kathleen married real estate developer Jay Weiss, with the couple welcoming their daughter, Rachel, three years after their NYC nuptials. However, after 23 years of marriage, Kathleen and Jay ended up divorcing in 2007.

Despite their split, the former couple are still close, and Kathleen once told Closer: “We’re divorced but he’s still my best friend. I don’t think that if you love someone that love ever goes away.”

Kathleen and Jay’s daughter is famous in her own right, with Rachel becoming a successful singer. Her debut album, Dear Love, was released in 2012, but it appears that she also has aspirations to become an actress, with her Backstage profile detailing her secret passion for the works of William Shakespeare.

In 1993, Kathleen was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and she recalled that the condition was initially debilitating for her. “My body could respond only with excruciating pain whenever I tried to move at all,” she explained.

“The joints in my hands were so swollen, I couldn’t hold a pen. Some days I couldn’t hold a glass to get a drink of water. I couldn’t pick up my child… my feet would blow up so badly that I couldn’t get them into any kind of shoes, let alone walk on them.”

The pain drove her to alcohol, and speaking to The Guardian in 2023, she admitted: “It was incredibly stupid. I had this thing in my head where I thought: ‘I’m not taking pain pills – they are addictive and dangerous.’ But it was OK to have that second or third vodka.”

On overcoming her issues with alcohol, she added: “I thought: ‘I am wasting my entire day with my daughter, with my husband, because I’d close myself down and drink.'”

Thankfully, the star is now in remission from her rheumatoid arthritis, although she still experiences flare-ups.

Despite being in her 70s now, Kathleen has shown no signs of slowing down. In 2025, she was the voice of Benjamin in Animal Farm and in the same year played Gertrude Stein in Listen to Me.

Her most recent credited role was as Joan in Joan’s Teeth. The star is more active in film than television, with her last appearance on the small screen coming in the White House Plumbers, which starred the likes of Justin Theroux and Woody Harrelson, in 2023.