Cult actress Tura Satana dies at 72

Japanese-born American actress Tura Satana, who gained cult status after starring in Russ Meyer's 1965 cult film, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, has passed away at the age of 72.

The actress, who starred alongside the likes of Dean Martin and Elizabeth Montgomery, died of heart failure on Friday night (February 4th) in Reno, Nevada, according to her manager Siouxzan Perry.

Born Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi in Hokkaido, Japan, the actress moved to California with her family in 1942 and spent some time in the Manzanar internment camp during World War II like many Japanese at the time.

Satana later moved to Chicago where she worked as an exotic dancer and nude model before finding a part in the 1965 hit that turned her into the cult figure she was.

Apart from apparently turning down a marriage proposal from Elvis Presley, she starred in a number of movies including Our Man Flint, The Astro-Zombies and more recently The Haunted World of El Superbeasto.