Janine Turner

This lovely, fresh-faced Lincoln, Nebraska native was born Janine Loraine Gauntt on December 6, 1962, to stalwart Texans Turner and Janice Gauntt. The younger of two children, she grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and trained, while a child, in ballet, tap, theater, and modeling (from age 3).A cheerleading beauty into her teens, she moved with her mother to study at New York's Professional Children's School and was lucky enough to be picked up by the famed Wilhelmina Agency as a model (at 15 she was the youngest at the time to ever be signed). After some commercial work, however, she returned to school in Texas and happened by chance to find some minor work on various episodes of _Dallas (1978)_ (qv).This led to a Hollywood attempt at age 17 and a major TV break two years later when she won the role of Laura Templeton on TV's popular daytime soap _General Hospital (1963)_ (qv), a role that required her long tresses to go from brunette to blonde. This, in turn, fed into another 1980s regular part on _Another World (1964)_ (qv).Janine subsequently made her film debut in the daytime parody _Young Doctors in Love (1982)_ (qv) that featured her along with other soap stars in cameos. In between, she managed find time to attend Pepperdine University but left when she earned a film role in the movie _Tai-Pan (1986)_ (qv). At this stage of the game, she tended to specialize in cute and flighty roles, but all that changed when Janine won the role of spunky, crop-haired Alaskan air taxi pilot Maggie O'Connell opposite 'Rob Morrow' (qv) on the eccentric prime-time series _Northern Exposure (1990)_ (qv). It was role of her career, a meaty, delightfully quirky star turn that made her a household name. The show lasted six seasons.Since then, she has been able to subsist on a fairly full plate of TV-movie and film assignments. She's top-lined such women's mini-pictures as _Stolen Women, Captured Hearts (1997)_ (qv) and _A Secret Affair (1999)_ (qv), while in film playing a lady-in-distress co-star to 'Sylvester Stallone' (qv) in the action thriller _Cliffhanger (1993)_ (qv), "perfect Mom" June Cleaver in a film remake of _Leave It to Beaver (1997)_ (qv) and one of 'Richard Gere' (qv)'s "women" in _Dr. T & the Women (2000)_ (qv). She found another series regular role with _Strong Medicine (2000)_ (qv) that lasted two years.Into the millennium, Janine has been featured in such films as _Birdie & Bogey (2004)_ (qv), _The Night of the White Pants (2006)_ (qv), _Maggie's Passage (2009)_ (qv), _The Ivy League Farmer (2015)_ (qv), _Solace (2015)_ (qv), _Occupy, Texas (2016)_ (qv) and a prime role in _Runnin' from My Roots (2018)_ (qv). She also appeared for a the 2008 season of the TV series _Friday Night Lights (2006)_ (qv).Janine also moved into directing, writing, and producing on the side, while also dabbling in singing. Janine's daughter, former child actress 'Juliette Gauntt' (qv), who appeared in her mother's film _The Night of the White Pants (2006)_ (qv), was born from a relationship with 'Jerry Jones Jr.' (qv), the Dallas Cowboys' Vice President and General Counsel.::Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net