Tura Satana was a Japanese American actress, vedette, and exotic dancer born on July 10, 1938, in Hokkaido, Japan, and passed away on February 4, 2011, in Reno, Nevada. Her father was a Japanese silent movie actor of Filipino descent, and her mother was a circus performer of Native American (Cheyenne) and Ulster-Scots background.

After World War II, her family moved to Chicago, where she experienced a traumatic event that led her to learn martial arts. Her early life was marked by frequent delinquency, and she was sent to reform school. At the age of 13, her parents arranged her marriage to a 17-year-old, which lasted only nine months.

Tura Satana moved to Los Angeles and began burlesque dancing at the age of 15 using fake identification. She performed at the Trocadero nightclub on the Sunset Strip and became a photographic model for silent screen comic Harold Lloyd. She returned to Chicago and danced at the Club Rendevouz, where she was known as Galatea, the "Statue that Came to Life." She claimed to have had a romantic relationship with Elvis Presley, which ended in a declined marriage proposal.

Her career in show business was diverse, including roles in exploitation films like "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (1965) and science fiction horror films like "The Astro-Zombies" (1968).

She was known for her martial arts skills and her role as Varla in "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" Her lifestyle was unconventional, and she was known for her bold and assertive personality. She formed a gang called "the Angeles" with girls from her neighborhood and was involved in various adventures throughout her life.