Richard Turner

Turner was born in San Diego in 1954 which he dubbed the year of the full deck referring to a standard 52card deck of playing cards plus the two jokers At the age of seven he became infatuated with the television show Maverick His eyesight began failing at the age of nine following his recovery from a bout with scarlet fever The macula of each of Turners eyes was completely destroyed preventing forward vision By the age of thirteen his vision deteriorated to 20400 over the years what little vision Turner possessed gradually deteriorated to the point where he presently can no longer distinguish between a fully lit room and total darkness Turner attended a special school for the visually impaired in Santee California where he refused to learn Braille His younger brother David had been taking karate lessons for nine months and invited Turner to accompany him He began karate lessons in 1971 under the tutelage of Master John Murphy the United States founder of WadoKai a Japanese hardstyle karate was good at it and began training at Gene Fishers Gym eventually earning a sixthdegree black belt in WadoKai karate In 1972 Turner auditioned for a small nonprofit San Diego Christian theater operated by television actor Steve Terrell and he performed for six years with the Lambs Players Theatre Terrell taught Turner how to look people in the eye so that they would not know of his visual impairment He was later introduced to stuntman Bobby Yerkes who taught him to swing on the trapeze walk a tight rope and take high falls Turner is regarded by many to be the greatest card mechanic ever