Returning to LAMDA two weeks later, she was asked by her agent to audition for Holiday Camp (1947) by dancing a jitterbug with young actor John Blythe. I suppose they were afraid that if my real name Diana Fluck was in lights and one of the lights blew . ĭuring the signing of contracts, in agreement with her father, she changed her contractual surname to Dors, the maiden name of her maternal grandmother this was at the suggestion of her mother Mary. Her pay rate was £8 per day for three days. Dors was cast in a walk-on role that developed into a speaking part. He suggested Dors for what became the actor's screen debut in the noir film The Shop at Sly Corner (1947). She acted in public theatre pieces for LAMDA productions, one of which was seen by casting director Eric L'Epine Smith. Just prior to LAMDA, Dors had unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of Kanchi in Black Narcissus that was played by Jean Simmons. She supplemented her earnings by posing as a model. Signed to the Gordon Harbord Agency in her first term, she won a bronze medal, awarded by Peter Ustinov, and in her second won a silver with honours. She lodged at the Earls Court YWCA, and supplemented her £2-per-week allowance, most of which was spent on her lodgings, by posing for the London Camera Club for one guinea (£1, 1s in "old money", £1.05 in "new") an hour. Having excelled in her elocution studies, after lying about her age, at 14 she was offered a place to study at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), becoming the college's youngest student, starting in January 1946. This led to work as a model in art classes and she began to appear in such local theatre productions as A Weekend in Paris and Death Takes a Holiday. Towards the end of the war, Dors entered a beauty contest to find a pin-up girl for Soldier Magazine she came in third place. She enjoyed the cinema her heroines from the age of eight onwards were Hollywood actresses Veronica Lake, Lana Turner, and Jean Harlow. In the late 1960s, Morris (a zoologist) became famous as the author of The Naked Ape and presenter of the TV series adapted from the book. The garden and lake now comprise Queen's Park in Swindon. Morris, who was from one of the town's wealthier, more prominent families, used to take her aboard his rowing boat on the lake in his family's garden. She caught the chalk and threw it back at him, hitting him, for which she was expelled.ĭuring the war, Diana dated a boy called Desmond Morris from the Boys' High School, also on Bath Road, Swindon. After the war, you will be able to go on holiday to France and speak with the locals." She replied, "Who wants to go to silly old France anyway?", at which point he threw a stick of chalk at her. Diana repeatedly talked and otherwise misbehaved during French lessons given by an elderly Czech Jewish refugee, who admonished her, "Pay attention. ĭiana was educated at a small private school, Selwood House, on Bath Road, Swindon, from which she was eventually expelled. Mary had been having an affair with another man, and when she announced she was pregnant with Diana, she admitted she had no idea if the other man or her husband was the father. Her mother, Winifred Maud Mary (Payne), was married to Albert Edward Sidney Fluck, a railway clerk. She also gave well-regarded film performances at different points in her career.Īccording to David Thomson, "Dors represented that period between the end of the war and the coming of Lady Chatterley in paperback, a time when sexuality was naughty, repressed, and fit to burst." Early life ĭiana Mary Fluck was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, on 23 October 1931 at the Haven Nursing Home, Kent Road, Swindon, Wiltshire. Later, she showed talent as a performer on TV, in recordings, and in cabaret, and gained new public popularity as a regular chat-show guest. After it was revealed that Hamilton had been defrauding her, she continued to play up to her established image, and she made tabloid headlines with the parties reportedly held at her house. Dors was promoted by her first husband, Dennis Hamilton, mostly in sex film-comedies and risqué modelling. Diana Dors (born Diana Mary Fluck 23 October 1931 – ) was an English actress and singer.ĭors came to public notice as a blonde bombshell, much in the style of Americans Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Mamie Van Doren.
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