Los Angeles: Barbara Turner, the screenwriter of “Petulia”, “Georgia”, “Pollock” and numerous other features for film and television, has died. She was 79.

Among Turner’s children was actress Jennifer Jason Leigh.

According to Variety, Turner began her career in Hollywood as an actress, starring in TV series such as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “Playhouse 90” throughout the late 1950s She turned to writing in 1966 with her first screenplay, an adaptation of author Jean Genet’s play “Deathwatch”. The production was directed by her first husband Vic Morrow, who is the father of Jennifer and her sister Carrie Ann Morrow. Turner went on to pen acclaimed scripts for 1968 drama “Petulia”, Jackson Pollock biopic “Pollack”, and Robert Altman’s “The Company”. In 1995, she wrote and produced music drama “Georgia”, which Jennifer starred in with Mare Winningham. The film was honoured at the Montreal Film Festival’s Grand Prix of the Americas and also earned Mare an Oscar nod for best supporting actress. Turner also wrote a handful of screenplays for TV movies, including “The War Between the Tates” and “Hemingway & Gellhorn”, both of which she earned Emmy nominations for. Turner is also survived by Mina Badiyi Chassler, her daughter with second husband Reza Badiyi, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. — PTI