76 Facts About Diana Dors

Diana Dors gave well-regarded film performances at different points in her career.

Diana Dors Mary Fluck was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, on 23 October 1931 at the Haven Nursing Home.

Diana Dors's mother, Winifred Maud Mary, was married to Albert Edward Sidney Fluck, a railway clerk.

Mary had been having an affair with another man, and when she announced she was pregnant with Diana Dors, she admitted she had no idea if the other man or her husband was the father.

Diana Dors was educated at a small private school, Selwood House, on Bath Road, Swindon, from which she was eventually expelled.

Diana Dors caught the chalk and threw it back at him, hitting him in the face, for which she was summarily expelled.

Towards the end of the war, Diana Dors entered a beauty contest to find a pin-up girl for Soldier Magazine; she came in third place.

Just prior to LAMDA, Diana Dors had unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of Kanchi in Black Narcissus that was played by Jean Simmons.

Diana Dors acted in public theatre pieces for LAMDA productions, one of which was seen by casting director Eric L'Epine Smith.

Diana Dors suggested Dors for what became the actor's screen debut in the noir film The Shop at Sly Corner.

Diana Dors was cast in a walk-on role that developed into a speaking part.

Diana Dors timed her return to Swindon to visit her parents with the local release of The Shop at Sly Corner.

At the age of 15, Dors signed a contract with the Rank Organisation, and joined J Arthur Rank's "Charm School" for young actors, subsequently appearing in many of their films.

Diana Dors had a small role as a maid in Gainsborough's The Calendar, and a good part in Good-Time Girl, as a troubled teen being warned at the beginning and end of the film.

Diana Dors then played the role of Charlotte in Rank's adaptation of Oliver Twist, directed by David Lean.

Diana Dors had a bigger part in a B film, Penny and the Pownall Case, a 50-minute movie for Highbury Productions.

Diana Dors was so well received that she returned for the second movie in the series, Vote for Huggett.

Diana Dors was the best thing about most of her early films.

Rank promoted Diana Dors to leading roles in 1949's Diamond City, the story of a boom town in South Africa in 1870.

Diana Dors says the part of "Diana" in The Blue Lamp was written for her, but she lost it to Peggy Evans when the director decided he wanted "a waif type"; she tested for the female lead in The Cure for Love, but lost out to Dora Bryan.

Diana Dors then appeared on stage in The Good Young Man with Digby Wolfe and in September 1949, with Marcel Le Bon in a touring production of Lisette, a three-act play by Douglas Sargeant.

In November 1949, Diana Dors was contracted out to Ealing Studios, which put her in Dance Hall, as one of the four female leads, along with Natasha Perry, Petula Clark, and Jane Hylton.

Diana Dors auditioned for the lead in Lady Godiva Rides Again and was turned down because it was felt she did not appeal to men and women, but she was given a support role.

Diana Dors often played characters suffering from unrequited love, and by the mid-1950s, she was known as "the English Marilyn Monroe".

Diana Dors later said these reviews, in addition to Hamilton's publicity, helped turn her career around.

Laurence Olivier reportedly offered her a role in The Beggar's Opera, but Diana Dors says the start date kept changing.

The Times newspaper reported on Tuesday 28 July 1953 that Diana Dors received an absolute discharge after being convicted of the theft of several bottles of spirits from a friend's flat in Blackpool.

In December 1952, Diana Dors appeared on stage in It Remains to be Seen, which only ran seven performances.

Diana Dors was paid that for another comedy, It's a Grand Life with Frank Randle.

Diana Dors had a supporting part for Hammer in The Saint's Return.

Diana Dors made the movie in August 1953, only a few weeks after having been convicted in real life of stealing alcohol from a friend's house.

Diana Dors played Aladdin as a Christmas pantomime in 1953 and did The Lovely Place for Rheingold Theatre on TV.

Diana Dors ranked after Dirk Bogarde, John Mills, Norman Wisdom, Alastair Sim, Kenneth More, Jack Hawkins, Richard Todd, and Michael Redgrave, and in front of Alec Guinness.

Diana Dors made a fourth film with Thompson, Yield to the Night, filmed in late 1955.

Diana Dors received some of the best reviews of her career.

Diana Dors was acclaimed at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.

Diana Dors turned down the female lead in Rank's The Big Money.

In May 1956, Diana Dors signed a contract with RKO to support George Gobel in I Married a Woman.

Diana Dors left Southampton on board the Queen Elizabeth for New York City and then to Hollywood.

Diana Dors's fee was a reported $75,000, with the other films to go up $25,000.

Diana Dors reportedly had an affair with Rod Steiger during the filming of The Unholy Wife.

Diana Dors went to Italy to play an American in the French-Italian The Love Specialist with Vittorio Gassman.

Diana Dors stayed in crime for Tread Softly Stranger, made for Gordon Parry with George Baker co-starring.

Diana Dors was a prostitute in Passport to Shame.

Diana Dors had a cameo on Scent of Mystery shot in Spain.

In 1959, Hamilton died, and Diana Dors married Dawson in New York while making an appearance on The Steve Allen Show.

Diana Dors appeared in some American films: On the Double, a Danny Kaye comedy, and The Big Bankroll, a crime film known as King of the Roaring 20's: The Story of Arnold Rothstein.

Diana Dors sold her memoirs to News of the World for $140,000.

Diana Dors later claimed she turned down a role in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

Diana Dors was meant to be in The Ladies' Man with Jerry Lewis but was fired at the last minute.

The house was destroyed, three people died in the fire and another one had a fatal heart attack, and Diana Dors was slightly injured while escaping through a window.

Diana Dors appeared in Mrs Gibbons' Boys, West 11, The Counterfeit Constable, and The Sandwich Man.

Diana Dors divorced Dawson in 1966 and returned to the UK to find work, leaving behind her two sons.

Diana Dors resumed cabaret work with her pianist and musical director Denny Termer, and subsequently was served with a writ of bankruptcy.

Diana Dors returned to the West End in 1970 for the first time in 17 years in a play called Three Months Gone.

Diana Dors played the title role in the sitcom, Queenie's Castle, which ran for three series.

Still making headlines in the News of the World and other print media in the late 1970s thanks to her adult parties, in her later years, Diana Dors' status began to revive.

Diana Dors became a regular on Jokers Wild, Blankety Blank and Celebrity Squares, and was a regular guest on BBC Radio 2's The Law Game.

Diana Dors had a recurring role in The Two Ronnies in 1980.

Diana Dors was the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions, in April 1957, when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre, and in October 1982, when Andrews surprised her at London's Royalty Theatre.

Diana Dors sued the show for withholding her fan mail.

The earliest recordings of Diana Dors were two sides of a 78-rpm single released on His Master's Voice in 1953.

Diana Dors sang "The Hokey Pokey Polka" on the 1954 soundtrack for the film As Long as They're Happy.

Diana Dors recorded only one complete album, the swing-themed Swingin' Diana Dors, in 1960.

The relationship continued for a time, before Diana Dors met Dennis Hamilton Gittins on the set of Lady Godiva Rides Again, and while with him she had a second abortion in 1951.

Diana Dors is said to have become a close friend of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, after Ellis had a bit part in Lady Godiva Rides Again.

However, Diana Dors never mentioned having known Ellis, either in interviews or in her memoirs.

Diana Dors gave all her guests full access to the entire house; her son Jason Lake later alleged in various media interviews and publications that she had equipped it with 8 mm movie cameras.

Diana Dors later enjoyed watching the films, keeping an archive of the best performances.

Diana Dors became an early subject of the "celebrity expose" tabloids, appearing regularly in the News of the World.

Towards the end of her life, Diana Dors had meningitis and twice underwent surgery to remove cancerous tumours.

Diana Dors collapsed at her home near Windsor with acute stomach pains and died on 4 May 1984, aged 52, at the BMI Princess Margaret Hospital in Windsor from a recurrence of ovarian cancer, first diagnosed two years before.

Diana Dors had converted to Catholicism in early 1973; hence, her funeral service was held at the Sacred Heart Church in Sunningdale on 11 May 1984, conducted by Father Theodore Fontanari.

Diana Dors' 1959 pink Cadillac, which was a gift to her from Shepperton Studios, was parked outside during the unveiling.

Diana Dors was portrayed by Keeley Hawes and Amanda Redman in the TV biographical film The Blonde Bombshell.

Diana Dors was the cover star of the Smiths' album Singles.