Diana Dors
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Diana Dors | |
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![]() from the trailer for the film The Unholy Wife (1957) | |
Born | Diana Mary Fluck 23 October 1931 |
Died | 4 May 1984 | (aged 52)
Other names | Diana d'Ors |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1947–1984 |
Spouse(s) | Dennis Hamilton (1951-1959) (his death) Richard Dawson (1959-1966) (divorced) 2 children Alan Lake (1968-1984) (her death) 1 child |
Diana Dors (23 October 1931 – 4 May 1984) was an English actress and sex symbol. She was born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, England, and was educated at Colville House in Swindon. She was considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood.
Career
Diana Dors studied at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and aged 16 was under contract to the Rank Organisation, appearing in many of their films. It appears that from a certain period, her appearance became markedly similar to Marilyn Monroe's. She often played characters suffering from unrequited love, perhaps an unfortunate parallel to her private life.
She also had significant acting ability, which was destined never to be fully utilised (most of her later work is made up of sex-themed comedies that featured scenes near to soft-core pornography). Her success was such that, aged 20, she was the youngest registered owner of a Rolls Royce in the UK.
According to film buffs, her best work as an actress was when she played a murderess in the 1956 film Yield to the Night. She was also willing to play repulsive characters in films such as The Amazing Mr. Blunden, The Unholy Wife, and Timon of Athens.
Dors never had quite the same following in the United States, but recently has made a comeback due to her films having been shown on classic movie channels such as Turner Classic Movies. She also worked under the name of Diana d'Ors.
During the summer of 1961, she taped The Sorceror's Apprentice (based on Robert Bloch's story "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and which co-starred Brandon De Wilde) that was so grisly, it was barred from airing and not released for many decades.[1]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Diana_Dors_in_I_Married_a_Woman_trailer.jpg/300px-Diana_Dors_in_I_Married_a_Woman_trailer.jpg)
Family
She was married three times:
- Dennis Hamilton (3 July 1951–3 January 1959, his death)
- Richard Dawson (12 April 1959–1966, div.); two sons Mark Dawson and Gary Dawson
- The actor Alan Lake (23 November 1968–her death); one son Jason Lake, and lived at Sunningdale, Berks
She also left four grandchildren: Lindsay Dors Dawson, Tyler Emm Dawson, Emma Rose Dawson, Lauren jr Dawson and Morgana and Ruby Lake.
Diana Fluck
They asked me to change my name. I suppose they were afraid that if my real name Diana Fluck was in lights and one of the lights blew...
According to Dors's autobiography, she was once asked and readily agreed to open a fête in her home town of Swindon, England. Prior to the festivities, Dors lunched with the local vicar, during which she informed him that her real name was Diana Fluck. The vicar became somewhat worried about his planned speech. After lunch, they arrived at the fête at the appointed time. The vicar, totally unnerved about mispronouncing "Fluck", introduced Diana with these immortal words:
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I introduce to you our star guest. We all love her, especially as she is our local girl. I therefore feel it right to introduce her by her real name; Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the very lovely Miss Diana Clunt.
Recordings
The earliest recordings of Diana Dors were two sides of a 78-rpm single released on HMV Records in 1951. The tracks were "I Feel So Mmmm" and "A Kiss And A Cuddle (And A Few Kinds Words From You)". HMV also released sheet music featuring sultry photos of Diana on the cover. She also sang "The Hokey Pokey Polka" on the 1954 soundtrack for the film As Long As They're Happy.
Diana Dors only recorded one complete album, Swinging Dors, in 1960. The LP was originally released on red vinyl. The orchestra was conducted by Wally Stott. Swinging Dors was, obviously, a swing album, and Dors demonstrated a likeable, unaffected singing voice.
She continued to record singles on various labels: "It's Too Late"/"So Little Time" (Fontana, 1964), "Security"/Gary" (Polydor, 1966), "Passing By"/"It's A Small World" (EMI 1977), and in 1982, although battling cancer, she recorded a single for the Nomis label, "Where Did They Go"/"It's You Again" (a duet with her son, Gary Dors).
Death
In a 1977 episode of the British TV show Parkinson with the actor Kenneth Williams and the anthropologist Desmond Morris (whom Dors said she had dated when they were teenagers in Swindon), Dors commented on the frequent deaths of young blonde sex symbols, such as Jean Harlow and Jayne Mansfield, and said she hoped to emulate Mae West and live a long life. However, she died seven years later, aged 52, on 4 May 1984, from a recurrence of ovarian cancer, first diagnosed two years before.
Dors left a mark on popular culture: the "50s blonde bombshell look" popularized by Dors and, in the U.S., by the actresses known as the "Three 'Ms'" -- Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren and Marilyn Monroe.
A likeness of her appears on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
Alleged fortune
Before she died, Dors apparently hid away what she claimed to be over £2million in banks across Europe. In 1982, she gave her son Mark Dawson a sheet of paper, which she told him was a code that would reveal the whereabouts of the money.
Her widower, Alan Lake, supposedly had the key that would crack the code. But Lake committed suicide only five months after Dors died, leaving Dawson an apparently unsolvable code. Dawson, however, was determined to discover his late mother's fortune. He sought out computer forensic specialists Inforenz, who recognised the encryption as the Vigenère cipher. Inforenz then used their own cryptanalysis software to suggest a ten-letter decryption key, DMARYFLUCK (short for Diana Mary Fluck, Dors's real name).
Although the company was then able to decode the entire message and link it to a bank statement found in some of Lake's papers, the location of the money is still unknown. Some speculate whether there may have been a second sheet, whose information might have led to the discovery of the money. Channel 4 made a television programme about the mystery and created a website (now removed) where users can read more and help solve the mystery.
A Delahaye Roadster 175S was sold at auction in August 2010 for $3 Million. The car was originally bought used by Diana Dors for £5,000 when she was just 17 years old and without a driving licence.[2]
Filmography
- Dancing with Crime (1947)
- The Shop at Sly Corner (1947)
- Penny and the Pownall Case (1948)
- My Sister and I (1948)
- Here Come the Huggetts (1948)
- The Calendar (1948)
- Holiday Camp (1948)
- Oliver Twist (1948)
- Good Time Girl (1948)
- Vote for Huggett (1949)
- It's Not Cricket (1949)
- A Boy, a Girl and a Bike (1949)
- Diamond City (1949)
- Dance Hall (1950)
- Worm's Eye View (1951)
- Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951)
- The Last Page (1952; AKA Man Bait)
- My Wife's Lodger (1952)
- The Great Game (1953)
- Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? (1953)
- The Saint's Return (1953)
- The Weak and the Wicked (1954)
- It's a Grand Life (1953)
- Value for Money (1955)
- Miss Tulip Stays the Night (1955)
- An Alligator Named Daisy (1955)
- A Kid for Two Farthings (1955)
- As Long as They're Happy (1955)
- Yield to the Night (1956)
- The Love Specialist (1956)
- The Unholy Wife (1957)
- The Long Haul (1957)
- Tread Softly Stranger (1958)
- Passport to Shame (1958)
- I Married a Woman (1958)
- Scent of Mystery (1960)
- On the Double (1961)
- King of the Roaring 20's - The Story of Arnold Rothstein (1961)
- Mrs. Gibbons' Boys (1962)
- West 11 (1963)
- Bikini Baby (1963)
- The Counterfeit Constable (1964)
- The Sandwich Man (1966)
- Baby Love (1968)
- Berserk! (1968)
- Danger Route (1968)
- Hammerhead (1968)
- Queenie's Castle (1970–1972)
- There's a Girl in My Soup (1970)
- Deep End (1971)
- Hannie Caulder (1971)
- Nothing But the Night (1972)
- Every Afternoon (1972)
- The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972)
- Swedish Wildcats (1972)
- The Pied Piper (1972)
- All Our Saturdays (1973)
- Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973)
- From Beyond the Grave (1973)
- Craze (1973)
- Theatre of Blood (1973)
- Three for All (1974)
- The Amorous Milkman (1975)
- Bedtime with Rosie (1975)
- A Man with a Maid (1975)
- What the Swedish Butler Saw (1975)
- Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1976)
- Keep It Up Downstairs (1976)
- Adventures of a Private Eye (1977)
- Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair (1979)
- Steaming (1985)
Television roles
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1962 | The Sorceror's Apprentice (Alfred Hitchcock Presents) | Irene Sadini |
1963 | Run For Doom (The Alfred Hitchcock Hour) | Nickie Carole |
1970 to 1972 | Queenie's Castle | Queenie Shepherd |
1973 | All Our Saturdays | Di Dorkins |
1977-8 | Just William | Mrs Bott |
1978 | The Sweeney, Series 4 episode 1, Messenger of the Gods | Lily Rix |
1980 | Hammer House of Horror: Children Of The Full Moon | Mrs Ardoy |
1980 | The Two Ronnies: The Worm That Turned | The Commander |
1981 | Music video Adam and the Ants: Prince Charming | Fairy Godmother |
References
- ^ The Alfred Hitchcock Collection: Psycho/Vertigo/Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1999)
- ^ "Diana Dors sports car fetches $3m at auction". BBC Website. www.bbc.co.uk. 2010-08-15. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
- Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema by Simon Sheridan (Reynolds & Hearn Books) (third edition) 2007
- Fallen Stars by Julian Upton (Critical Vision) 2004
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Diana Dors at IMDb
- Diana Dors — Diana Dors Memorial Homepage
- Diana Dors at HorrorStars
- Diana Dors — Screen Online
- Diana Dors: A Life in Pictures photo gallery at BBC Wiltshire
- Diana Dors:1978 — Archive local news footage at BBC Wiltshire
- Diana Dors interviewed by Mike Wallace on The Mike Wallace Interview November 9, 1957