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For 7 seasons, Jim Turner co-starred in HBO's comedy series Arli$$ (1996) as lovable lout, "Kirby Carlisle". Playing an ex-football-star-turned-agent and an old buddy of sports agent "Arliss Michaels" (Robert Wuhl), Jim Turner, boyishly blond behind "Clark Kent" glasses, is at once ubiquitous and indefinable. Interestingly enough, the show was canceled after the 3rd season but a public-viewer-demand campaign had it renewed.
In 22 Feature Films and shorts, 28 TV Series and appearances, and 18 stage plays, one-man-shows and comedy tours, Turner has the odd distinction of creating the weirdest group of cult favorites imaginable, from pinheads to "Pinocchio". Working with talents like Joel Schumacher, Robert Wuhl, Jack Black, Paul Bartel and Tracey Ullman, if there's a likable loser or a crazy kook, Jim Turner has played it. He even voiced a foot in Philip Holahan's animated short film, "Stubble Trouble" (winner Honorable Mention, Sundance, 1999; winner Best Comedy, Hollywood Film Festival). In 1979, Turner got his start in television when he created the live incarnation of a cult comic strip character famous for his non-sequiturs, "Zippy The Pinhead". The underground series gained popularity as obscure Zippy ran for President. This campaign idea continued with another character Turner played - MTV's "Randee from the Redwoods". In hundreds of spots that aired over 1987 to 1990, Randee became the dark horse candidate for President, thanks to MTV's marketing department.
Turner's Film credits run from big studio releases including The Lost Boys (1987), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), The Ref (1994) (starring Denis Leary), Coldblooded (1995) (starring Jason Priestley) and Fox's 12:01 (1993) (starring Jonathan Silverman and Helen Slater). He was in Mockumentaries Porklips Now (1980) (skewering Apocalypse Now (1979)), and Grunt! The Wrestling Movie (1985) (lampooning pro wrestling), before the genre was hip. He co-wrote and starred in festival favorite Shelf Life (1993) (directed by Paul Bartel, co-starring O'Lan Jones and Andy Stein), the bizarre story of three children who raise themselves in a bomb shelter, adapted from Turner's play. And the filmed version of his lively ensemble stage show Girly Magazine Party was re-titled 364 Girls a Year (1996), which he co-wrote and starred in as "Tellis Wondersweet", in a comic look at a Hugh Hefner-type's life at the manse.
You'll also find Turner in films with a very independent bent, including The Pompatus of Love (1995) (with Kristin Scott Thomas and Michael McKean), My Samurai (1992), Destroyer (1988) (with Anthony Perkins), Programmed to Kill (1987), and Kid Colter (1985). Since then, Turner has created roles in Pilots before the camera (including live-action/ani blended 'Bang' by George Meyer of The Simpsons (1989); On The Ropes for The WB; and Fathead for Nickelodeon). In 1995, Turner was also a series regular on CBS's If Not for You (1995) as the offbeat "Cal" (starring Hank Azaria, Elizabeth McGovern and Peter Krause). He recurred on Nickelodeon's Sports Theater With Shaquille O'Neal (1997-98); on HBO's Not Necessarily The Election, anchored by Dennis Miller (1996); and on Nickelodeon's hit series, Rugrats (1993). Network guest appearances include Dharma & Greg (ABC), That 70s Show (Fox), Tracey Takes On... (HBO), Sliders (Sci-Fi channel), Lost On Earth (USA), Grace Under Fire (ABC), The Larry Sanders Show (HBO), Tom (ABC), and Roseanne (ABC).
But he'd been acting in television, movies, theatre and touring the nation since 1975 in the five-member comedy troupe Duck's Breath Mystery Theater (where he co-wrote the shows and created the character of Randee in 1977). Live stage shows abounded when Turner went to San Francisco, where he was the lead singer/lyricist for the toy-instrument-playing Rock Band/Performance, Artists Child's Portion (1978-81). In 1982 he formed Boomer, a long-lived four-person novelty Band, again as lead singer and lyricist. Duck's Breath and Turner's solo turns gathered regular fans in New York, including writers at Rolling Stone Magazine, producers at MTV and directors from Hollywood. Landing in Los Angeles in 1991, Turner quickly launched his one-man comedy, "Showbiz Nightmares", and followed it with the first Girly Magazine Party staging in 1992 (shows continue to this day). His latest live show is pure comic debauchery: Two-Headed Dog. But Turner's trump card of showbiz nightmares is his fate as the lead of ABC's 1987 Once A Hero. The Pilot sold with him starring in the tailor-made role of naive comic book superhero, 'Captain Justice'. The network "upfront" was a smash hit, all the relatives in Iowa were thrilled - and then the network replaced him at the last minute. Interestingly, the show died after 5 episodes.
If Turner tells you he was born in a trailer, he's not kidding. Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1952. Father George Turner was in the Air Force then, but soon went into radio sports casting and the family moved quite a bit: Quebec, Arizona and finally to Iowa in 1954 to be raised a polite, shy, sports-loving geek in several small towns across the state. Upon moving to Los Angeles in 1991 with bride-to-be Lynn Freer, a bold artist turned landscape designer, they married in 1992 and had a son - not necessarily in that order. The actor-writer enjoys that other hyphenated job too: father-husband. Like father, like son: both love to golf, play basketball and invent other worlds peopled by fringe characters and funny calamities.
