Diane Lavinia Hart was an English actress in both films and West End theatre, political campaigner, and inventor.
15 Facts About Diane Hart
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Diane Hart started working for the BBC as a secretary and, in the middle years of the Second World War, was an audio engineer, where she was instrumental in playing Hitler's speeches back to the Germans from the BBC in the UK over their airwaves.
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In 1943, Diane Hart started on stage as a feed in a double act with the comedian Pat Aza at the Finsbury Park Empire.
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In Nancy Mitford's version of Andrew Roussin's French farce The Little Hut at the Lyric Theatre in 1950, Diane Hart was cast for the West End version instead of the American actress who had created the role, Joan Tetzel, taking over opposite Robert Morley, with Peter Brook as director.
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Diane Hart participated in theatre in Sloane Square when she worked at the Royal Court Theatre.
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Diane Hart then took a role in Morality, a piece by Jeremy Seabrook and Michael O'Neill, directed by William Gaskill, a domestic drama about a schoolboy involved in a homosexual relationship with a teacher.
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Diane Hart worked for Jean Negulesco in Britannia Mews, scripted by Ring Lardner Jr.
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Diane Hart made many television appearances, beginning at Alexandra Palace during the war, as well as radio performances for Val Gielgud.
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Diane Hart played Ted Ray's wife in series 6 of the popular comedy series Ray's a Laugh.
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Diane Hart tried to persuade the Ministry of Defence to adopt another of her inventions, when she suggested they attach harrows to a helicopter to clear landmines during the Falklands campaign.
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In politics, Diane Hart once tried to set up a Women's Party for the UK.
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Diane Hart hired Caxton Hall in central London for a rally, but only about forty women turned up.
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Diane Hart was criticised by Germaine Greer in a footnote in the last pages of Greer's work The Female Eunuch.
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In 1977, Diane Hart led a legal action against the actors' union Equity, of which she was a longstanding member, to stop a referendum of their members over changes to union rules.
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For 12 years from 1956, Diane Hart was married to the television broadcaster Kenneth MacLeod, until they separated in 1968.