Post #330324 by pappythesailor on Wed, Sep 5, 2007 3:39 AM

(from the Newport (RI) News 10 April 1958)

Cheryl Did What Anyone would Do Says Her Father

HOLLYWOOD --"Maybe I shouldn't
say it, but I'm proud of my
Cherie.
Steve Crane, handsome ex-husband
of Lana Turner, made that comment
last night about their daughter,
Cheryl Crane.
"She not only did what I, you or
most anyone else would have done,"
he told this reporter. "She was
frozen with fear and she stepped
in to protect her mother."
He was referring to last Friday's
fatal stabbing of Johnny Stompanato.
Cheryl, 14 told police she stabbed
the former Mickey Cohen henchman
when he threatened to disfigure or
kill her mother.
"Cherie loves Lana," said Crane.
"I know I would have moved the same
way to protect my own mother in a
similar situation."
Crane, now 43. became Lana's
second husband in 1942.
They were married in
Vegas, Nev., elopement that paral-
leled, even to the same judge.
Lana's first marriage, to band
leader Artie Shaw.
But the honeymoon was barely over
when Carol Kuntz, an Indianaplois
socialite, said that she too was
married to Crane.
Crane thought he had received
a Mexican divorce, but his expla-
nation did not satisfy an enraged
Lana. She had the marriage an-
nulled.
Lana discovered she was pregnant.
She called Crane in for a
conference.
"Steve was noble and gentlemanly,
as always," Lana once recalled.
"He insisted that we must
remarry for the sake of the child.
And he got his previous divorce
straightened out."
Crane then went into the Army
as a private. In 1944, when Cheryl
was about 6 months old, Lana divorced
Crane.
After the war Crane tried his
hand at acting. Although tall and
handsome as many a movie star,
he had little success.
Some said he was "too nice a
guy" to get ahead in Hollywood. I
About five years ago he put his
natural assets of affability and |
charm to work as a restaurateur.
He is now part owner of the Luau.
one of the most successful restaurants
in Beverly Hills.
In 1949 Crane married Martine
Carol, the French actress. The
wedding took place in the principality
of Monaco, on the French
Riviera. But that marriage, too,
ended in divorce.