Cheryl Crane was born on July 25, 1943, in Hollywood Hospital, Los Angeles. Her mother, Lana Turner, was already a celebrated film actress, and her father, Steve Crane, was an actor who later became a restaurateur. At birth, Cheryl suffered from severe erythroblastosis fetalis, a condition that nearly claimed her life because of her mother’s Rh-negative blood type.

Her parents’ marriage quickly ended in divorce in 1944, and Cheryl spent her childhood in Bel Air, surrounded by Hollywood wealth and publicity. She later described herself as “famous at birth and pampered silly,” growing up in a home where cameras were always nearby and expectations were high. She attended Catholic school at St. Paul the Apostle in Los Angeles before moving on to Emerson Junior High.

By the mid-1950s, Cheryl’s life reflected both glamour and instability. Her mother’s love life was the constant subject of gossip columns, and frequent upheavals in the household were normal. In 1957, Cheryl was enrolled at Happy Valley School in Ojai, a progressive boarding school, partly to shield her from the media spotlight.

Despite the wealth and privilege around her, Cheryl later recalled feeling isolated. As she approached adolescence, she grew increasingly aware of her mother’s tumultuous relationship with Johnny Stompanato, a man known for his connections to organized crime and for violent jealousy that spilled over into public incidents.

On April 4, 1958, Cheryl Crane’s life changed forever. That evening, Cheryl was at home in Beverly Hills when a violent argument erupted between her mother and Johnny Stompanato. Stompanato, who had a long history of threatening behavior, had become enraged and was reportedly brandishing threats against Turner.

According to Cheryl and multiple witnesses, she could hear the shouting escalate from the hallway. Fearful that Stompanato would harm or even kill her mother, Cheryl, who was only 14 years old, entered the room holding a kitchen knife. In a moment that would be dissected by the press for decades, she plunged the knife into Stompanato’s abdomen. He collapsed on the bedroom floor.

Emergency services were called, but Stompanato was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident sparked an immediate media frenzy, with headlines dubbing it the “Hollywood Homicide.” The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office launched an inquest to determine whether Cheryl should face charges. After multiple witnesses—including Lana Turner herself—testified about the threats Stompanato had made and the abusive relationship, a coroner’s jury ruled the killing a justifiable homicide. Cheryl was officially cleared of wrongdoing.

Though legally resolved, the psychological fallout lingered. In 1960, Cheryl was made a ward of the state and sent to El Retiro School for Girls in Sylmar for psychiatric evaluation. While there, she ran away twice—once scaling a 10-foot wall and once sneaking off campus with other girls. Each time, she was returned to custody.

She was eventually released into her mother’s care in January 1961 but soon after was sent to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut, as her mother feared she remained traumatized by the killing.

Cheryl eventually emerged from the scandal determined to build a life outside her mother’s shadow. After high school, she briefly worked as a model and then joined her father at his Polynesian restaurant, the Luau, on Rodeo Drive. The job, she later said, helped her regain confidence. In the 1980s, Cheryl became a real estate broker in Hawaii and Palm Springs.

In 1988, she released her memoir Detour: A Hollywood Story, candidly recounting the events of Stompanato’s death and revealing that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather, actor Lex Barker. The book was a bestseller and marked the first time Cheryl publicly came out as a lesbian.

She built a long-term relationship with model Joyce LeRoy, whom she married in 2014 after more than 40 years together. She has continued to write, publishing both nonfiction and crime fiction.

Despite the notoriety surrounding her teenage years, Cheryl Crane ultimately crafted an independent identity as an author, businesswoman, and survivor of a turbulent Hollywood upbringing.