Diana Dors

Diana Dors with Rudi Carrell (1968)

Diana Dors (* 23. October 1931 as Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon , Wiltshire , † 4. May 1984 in Windsor , Berkshire ) was a British actress and singer. In the 1950s, the blonde was considered a sex symbol and "British answer to Marilyn Monroe".

Career

The career of the daughter of a British railroad worker began early. After the Second World War, she began training as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. She had her first minor appearances in films in 1947. The roles became somewhat larger in 1948 and 1949. So she played a supporting role in David Lean's Oliver Twist in 1948 . In 1950, her private life was more turbulent than her professional life, with an illegal abortion of the 18-year-old making headlines. In 1951, Hollywood producers offered her a contract, which she turned down because she felt sexually harassed.

Diana Dors stayed in the UK and was built to star by director J. Lee Thompson . Between 1954 and 1956 she played leading roles in four of his films that ultimately helped her breakthrough. Flirtatious and suggestive slogans have become her trademark in many films, which is why she has been compared to Marilyn Monroe many times. After these successes, she also wanted to have success with international productions, but did not succeed. So she stayed loyal to British cinema, where she was repeatedly seen in the role of the sexually charged blonde.

However, changes in the cinema scene in the 1960s and their increasing importance meant that larger roles became increasingly rare. She shot her last film Steaming in 1984 with director Joseph Losey . She died after filming of ovarian cancer, which she was first diagnosed two years earlier. The film only premiered after her death, at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival .

watch TV

On British television she had the successful Diana Dors Show from 1959 to 1961 . The sitcom Queenie's Castle , which ran on ITV from 1970 to 1972 , also turned out to be a ratings hit. A similar format was All Our Saturdays from 1973 . Until her death, Dors was a popular and beloved guest on various TV shows and broadcasts.

Music recordings

Dors' earliest musical recording was a single, I Feel So Mmmm and A Kiss And A Cuddle (And A Few Kind Words From You) on HMV Records in 1951 . In 1954 she sang The Hokey Pokey Polka for the soundtrack of her film As Long As They're Happy and in 1960 she released her only album on Columbia Records / Pye with Swinging Dors . More isolated music recordings followed, including a duet with her son Gary.

Private life

Diana Dors was married three times: in 1951 she married her acting agent Dennis Hamilton, who died in 1959 when he was separated from Diana Dors after divorce proceedings that began in 1958. In 1959 she married fellow actor Richard Dawson , with whom she had two children. The marriage ended in divorce in 1966. In 1969 she married the actor Alan Lake , with whom she had a child and remained together for the rest of her life. Five months after her death committed Alan Lake suicide .

Trivia

• At the age of 20, she was the youngest registered owner of a Rolls-Royce in her home country .
• In 1981 she made an appearance in the music video Prince Charming by the British new romantic band Adam & the Ants .
• Diana Dors is one of the celebrities featured on the cover of the Beatles album Sgt.Pepper 's Lonely Hearts Club Band .
• The British pop group The Kinks dedicated the song Good Day to her in 1984 .
• Your photo is on the cover of Smiths' album Singles .
• Quote: "I was the first home-grown sex symbol, rather like Britain's naughty seaside postcards."

Filmography (selection)

• 1947: Dance into the Abyss (Good Time Girl)
• 1948: Here Come the Huggetts
• 1948: Oliver Twist
• 1949: Men, Girls, Diamonds (Diamond City)
• 1949: Vote for Huggett
• 1950: Dance Hall
• 1952: Blackmailer (The Last Page)
• 1953: Wedding Night (Is your Honeymoon Really Necessary)
• 1953: It's a Grand Life
• 1954: The Weak and the Wicked
• 1954: Death Roulette (The Saint's Girl Friday)
• 1955: An alligator named Daisy (An Alligator Named Daisy)
• 1955: Hahn im Korb (As Long as They're Happy)
• 1955: Better rich, but happy (Value for Money)
• 1955: Life is full of wonder (A Kid for Two Farthings)
• 1956: Yield to the Night (Yield to the Night)
• 1957: The Long Haul
• 1957: No closed season for blondes (La ragazza del palio)
• 1957: The Unholy Wife
• 1958: Left and right of the marriage bed (I Married a Woman)
• 1958: Eddie, Death and the Devil (Passport to Shame)
• 1958: You Are Lost, Stranger (Tread Softly Stranger)
• 1960: Scent of Mystery
• 1961: General Pfeifendeckel (On the Double)
• 1962: Mrs. Gibbons' Boys
• 1964: A great Bobby, this Flic (Allez France)
• 1966: Gemini 13 - Death Rays on Cape Canaveral (Operazione Goldman)
• 1967: Circus of Death (Berserk!)
• 1967: Hammerhead
• 1967: Rats in the Secret Service (Danger Route)
• 1968: Baby Love
• 1970: There's a Girl in My Soup
• 1970–1972: Queenie's Castle (series)
• 1971: Deep End
• 1971: In a saddle with death (Hannie Caulder)
• 1971: The Pied Piper (The Pied Piper)
• 1972: Every Afternoon
• 1973: Nothing But the Night
• 1973: Theater of Blood (Theater of Blood)
• 1973: Demon of Horror (Craze)
• 1973: You Ride Again (Steptoe and Son Ride Again)
• 1975: Adventures of a Taxi Driver
• 1976: My dear boss, you are a bottle (Adventures of a Private Eye)
• 1976: What the Swedish Butler Saw
• 1976: Who is raging in the lower house? (Keep It Up Downstairs)
• 1985: Steaming

Web links

Commons : Diana Dors  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Diana Dors in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Steamy Life and Times of Diana Dors - Britain's Marilyn Monroe. In: The Vintage News. December 7, 2018, accessed December 23, 2019 . 
2. ^ Bob Stanley: Diana Dors: more than just the British Marilyn Monroe . In: The Guardian . June 10, 2010, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed December 23, 2019]).