As a legendary actor, Glynn Turman has always had the ability to connect with his audience and make us truly feel whatever pains or grief he was acting out, much like he did in the movie Cooley High when “Cochise” died. The thing we now know is that his ability to connect probably stems from a pain that no parent should ever know- the pain of losing a child.

In 1986, Glynn’s son, Glynn Turman Jr., was violently murdered over nonsense. We wanted to share this story because after talking with many of our ILOSM family on our Facebook page, we’ve learned that there are far too many of us who have lost our children through violence, illnesses, or simply accidents. We understand that while nothing can eliminate that type of pain, hearing the story of someone else who has gone through it as well, can help and for those of us who haven’t experienced that kind of pain, we can still learn something from Glynn Turman’s story. So here are the details of what happened to Glynn Jr. on the day he met his tragic fate.

The [son of Glynn Turman] was stabbed to death and another man was wounded during a fight in the parking lot of a beachside restaurant, police said Monday.
Glynn Turman Jr., 21, son of actor Glynn Turman and stepson of [Aretha] Franklin, was pronounced dead Sunday night at Santa Monica Hospital, police Detective Ray Cooper said.
Police arrested Henry Eugene Montgomery, 19, of Los Angeles, and held him for investigation of murder and attempted murder.
Todd Daniels, 20, of New York also was injured during the fight, but he was treated at the hospital and released.
The fight erupted after Turman and Daniels allegedly made derogatory remarks about a woman accompanying Montgomery in the parking lot of The Lobster restaurant, a landmark eatery next to the Santa Monica Pier.
”Two males were seen running from the scene,” police Lt. Tom Mapes said. ”Investigation led to the arrest of Montgomery. A juvenile with him was released when it was determined he took no part in the stabbing.”

Sadly, the more things change they stay the same, the age old disputes of men having deadly altercations over a female is one that has been around for ages and will continue, until hopefully we can learn to settle our disputes the old school way- with our fists ONLY.

It was a coward move for that guy to pull a knife on Turman’s son, instead of fighting him straight up like a man.

But one thing that can’t go unnoticed is the strength that Glynn Turman displayed by continuing to push forward for his other two children and loved ones. At the time of Glynn Jr.’s death, Glynn was married to Aretha Franklin and he found a way to continue working through his pain, appearing in several TV shows soon after his son’s passing, such as Matlock and Murder She Wrote.

Celebrities are always expected to be ‘on’ without any real leniency in the public’s eye to be a real person who goes through real-life situations that affect us all. Hopefully Glynn Turman eventually had the time to properly grieve his son away from the cameras and fans. Glenn Jr. was a young man taken from this earth over a senseless act of violence by a coward.