From 1990 to 1995, viewers got to know the residents of the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska on Northern Exposure. The cast of characters included a doctor, a bar owner/mayor, and an air taxi pilot named Maggie O'Connell, who was played by Janine Turner. For her role on the quirky series, Turner was nominated for an Emmy and three Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Drama Series.
In the time since the show ended, Turner has continued to act, but has also tried out many other jobs, from hosting a radio show to writing books to co-founding an organization. Read on to find out more about her life today.
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She's still acting.
Barry King/Liaison via Getty ImagesTurner had already been acting for years when she was cast on Northern Exposure. She played recurring roles on Dallas and General Hospital and also appeared in Steel Magnolias. After her time on Northern Exposure, the actor went on to appear in the shows Strong Medicine and Friday Night Lights. She was also in the movies Cliffhanger and Solace. Turner's most recent project was the 2021 Hallmark Channel movie Taking the Reins.
The 59-year-old actor shares updates about her career, including her experiences with auditions, on her Instagram account. She has also been sharing details about a musical that she wrote.
She's tried out many other ventures.
Ron Galella, Ltd/Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesTurner has gone down many career paths in addition to acting. To name a few: She's written four books. She hosted a podcast called God on the Go Minute. She produced and starred in a Christian yoga video titled Christoga. She works as a public speaker and political commentator. And she co-founded an organization called Constituting America.
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She's a mother.
Turner has a 24-year-old daughter, Juliette Turner-Jones, who is currently a student at Harvard Law School, with her ex, Dallas Cowboys executive Jerry Jones Jr. Turner posts the occasional update about her daughter on her Instagram. In December 2021, she captioned a photo of the two of them, "This is why I stepped back in my career for a while - to raise my beautiful daughter! You don’t get those years back and I don’t regret one minute spending all my time with my baby. We were always creating anyway! Always."
She recently reunited with her Northern Exposure castmates.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty ImagesThe Northern Exposure cast has gotten back together a few times over the years. In 2017, Rob Morrow, Cynthia Geary, and the show's creator Joshua Brandwere interviewed by Today. Turner commented on how close they grew while filming the show in a small town in Washington.
"We were away from Los Angeles. We were sheltered from Hollywood, and I think that gave us sort of a bond and naïveté and we weren’t jaded," she said. "We just had a wonderful sort of bond from the very beginning."
In 2020—the year Northern Exposure marked its 30th anniversary—most cast members reunited for Vulture Festival. Turner, Morrow, Geary, Barry Corbin, and John Corbett all attended the virtual event. In 2018, it had been reported that the show was going to have a revival series, but it hasn't yet come to pass.
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