Diana Napier

Diana Napier (1905–1982) was a British film actor.

Selected filmography

• Her First Affaire (1932)
• The Private Life of Don Juan (1934)
• The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934)
• Royal Cavalcade (1935)
• Heart's Desire (1935)
• Pagliacci (1936)
• Land Without Music (1936)
• Bait (1950)

External links

• Diana Napier at the Internet Movie Database

Diana Napier [born Alice Mary Ellis, known as Molly] was married three times. Her first husband was the actor George Mulcaster whom she married in 1925 [divorced]. Her second was the Austrian tenor, Richard Tauber [1891-1948], whom she married in 1936 [widowed], and her third was the Polish artist, Stanislaw Wolkowicki whom she had met during the war [when she worked for the Polish Red Cross] and married in 1953. He died in 1965, and she was buried with him in the Churchyard of St. Michael and All Angels, Sunningdale, Berkshire in 1982.

She was the daughter of Major APB Ellis [an army surgeon], and Alice Napier. She took her mother's maiden name as her stage name. Having spent much of her childhood in South Africa, where she attended a Convent school, the family returned to England and she determined on a stage career. After a few years in repertory, she was offered a screen test by Alexander Korda, and made a few films before he dropped her. She then appeared opposite Douglas Fairbanks Jnr in a film directed by Paul Stein, a childhood friend of Richard Tauber, who had directed his first British film 'Blossom Time' [1934]. It was through Paul Stein she met Tauber, and appeared with him in four films made in 1935-6 under Stein's direction. For five years [1935-40] she rented the Villa Capri at Elstree, where she lived with Tauber from the time of their marriage.