Diana Dors
Encyclopedia
Diana Dors was an English actress, born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon
, Wiltshire
. Considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood, Dors described herself as: "The only sex symbol Britain has produced since Lady Godiva
."
, Wiltshire
, on October 23, 1931, at the Haven Nursing Home. Her mother Mary was married to Albert Fluck, but enjoyed a sexual relationship with their lodger Gerald Lack. When Mary announced she was pregnant with Diana, she admitted she had no clear idea which of them was the father.
Educated at Colville House, like many children of the time she enjoyed the cinema, and her heroines from aged 8 onwards were the Hollywood sirens Veronica Lake
, Lana Turner
and Jean Harlow
.
studies, after lying about her age, in 1946 aged 14 she was offered a place to study at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
, becoming the college's youngest ever student. 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 (£1.05)
an hour. 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, awarded by casting director Eric L'Epine Smith.
Having already acted in public theatre pieces for LAMDA productions, it was Smith who got her into her first film part, with a walk-on piece that developed into a speaking part in The Shop at Sly Corner at a rate of £8 per day for three days. During the signing of contracts, in agreement with Diana and her father, Smith changed her contractual surname to Dors, the maiden name of her maternal grandmother, on the initial suggestion of her mother Mary. Dors later comented on her name:
Returning to LAMDA, two weeks later she was asked by her agent to audition to for Holiday Camp, by dancing a Jitterbug with fellow young actor John Blythe. Gainsborough Studios gave her the part at a pay rate of £10 per day for four days. Her next film was Dancing with Crime
, shot at Twickenham Studios opposite Richard Attenborough
during the coldest winter for nearly fifty years, for which she was paid £10 per day for fifteen days. Following her return to LAMDA, and having won over principle Wilfred Foulis, she graduated in spring 1947 by winning the London Films Cup, awarded to LAMDA by Sir Alexander Korda
. She timed her return to Swindon to visit her parents, with the local release of The Shop At Sly Corner.
, and joined J. Arthur Rank
's "Charm School" for young actors, subsequently appearing in many of their films. She played a number of supporting roles, where in her early films, Dors chest was in part strapped down, and with her natural hair brown, allows her full and developing acting ability to come through. She made her leading role breakthrough in 1949's Diamond City
, a commercially unsuccessful story of a boom town in South Africa
in 1870.
After an appearance with Barbara Murray
in The Cat and the Canary at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing
, she was contracted out to Elstree Studios
. They cast her in the play Man of the World with Lionel Jeffries
, which opened at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, and capped her works that year to win her Theatre World magazine's Actress of the Year Award. However, with Rank now £18million in debt, Rank closed their "Charm School", and made Dors redundant.
With her then boyfriend in jail, and having just undergone her first abortion
, Dors met Dennis Hamilton Gittins in May 1951 while filming Lady Godiva Rides Again
for Rank, a film which created first or early appearances for Joan Collins
, Sid James
and a then four month pregnant Ruth Ellis
. Hamilton romanced Dors, and quickly won her heart, with the couple marrying only five weeks later at Caxton Hall
on Monday 3 July 1951. From this point forward and driven by his publicity focus, her appearance became classical sex symbol
and markedly similar to Marilyn Monroe
's. She often played characters suffering from unrequited love, and so successful was the trasformation that by the mid 1950s Dors was known as "the English Marilyn Monroe." Hamilton also made sure that she had the lifestyle attachments of a sex-symbol, agreeing a lease-deal with Rolls Royce
such that a headline could be created in the tabloids that at aged 20, she was the youngest registered owner of a Rolls-Royce in the UK.
There were no limits to which it is alleged Hamilton would go to advance Dors career, and his income or influence from it. Many biographers, writers and piers after her death said that Hamilton would loan Dors out as a favour to hiring producers and leading actors, much as in the casting couch
practises of Hollywood. In 1954, Hamilton had the idea to exploit the new printed technology of 3D
. He engaged photographer Horace Roye
to take a number of nude and semi-nude photographs of Dors, which Hamilton subsequently had published in two forms. The semi-nude where her modesty is unseen by the camera, or covered with white faux fur, were issued as a "Diana Dors 3D: the ultimate British Sex Symbol" set, which sold together with a pair of 3D glasses, capped her as the true ultimate British sex symbol. The full nude test shot photographs became part of Roye's 1954 booklet "London Models".
, producer Robert L. Lippert
offered her a one-picture deal on one condition: that she divorce Dennis Hamilton Gittins. Dors refused. She gained a second Hollywood offer from Burt Lancaster
for a lead role in his 1954 production His Majesty O'Keefe
, but this time Hamilton turned down the part on her behalf before she even knew of the offer. The result was that her early promising career was restricted from this point forward to mainly British films. 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 showed her capability in her willingsness 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, due to her husband Hamilton. Pre-signing a three film contract with RKO Pictures
, on 20 June 1956 she left Southampton
on board the RMS Queen Elizabeth
for New York, and then onwards to Hollywood to start shooting The Unholy Wife and I Married a Woman
. Due to meet Hollywood columnists Hedda Hopper
and Louella Parsons
, interviews were arranged to be held at the Hollywood home of her friend, the celebrity hairdresser Teasy-Weasy Raymond
, who owned a Spanish-style villa off Sunset Boulevard
, formerly owned by Marlene Dietrich
. To conicide with the publication of the articles, Hamilton and Raymond arranged a Hollywood launch party at Raymond's house in August 1956, with a guest list that included: Doris Day
, Eddie Fisher
, Zsa Zsa Gabor
, Liberace
, Lana Turner, Ginger Rogers
and John Wayne
. After 30 minutes while lining up next to Raymond's pool with her US agent Louis Shurr and her dress designer Howard Shoup, all four including Dors and Hamilton were pushed into the pool after the party crowd and photographers surged forward. Hamilton emerged drenched from the pool, and hit the first photographer before he could be restrained. The following days headlines in the National Enquirer read: "Ms Dors Go Home – And Take Mr Dors With You.” Due to the resulting negative publicity, the couple failed to buy Lana Turner's house, settling into a rental property in Coldwater Canyon
.
Dors had an alleged affair with Rod Steiger
during the filming of The Unholy Wife, which he broke off in October 1956 after Hamilton started an affair with Raymond's estranged wife in London, and his sole management of his alleged mistress Shirley Ann Field. After Dors announced her subsequent separation from Hamilton, RKO cancelled the contract on a moral clause due to her pending divorce, after only 1958's The Unholy Wife and I Married a Woman were completed. Dors left Hollywood, staying in The Dorchester in London for a single night, before reconcilling with Hamilton for a period.
Subsequently having her US films distributed under the stage name Diana d'Ors to avoid bad publicity, in more recent years Dors has made a wider US break through due to her films having been shown on classic movie channels such as Turner Classic Movies
.
During the summer of 1961, she taped 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice', based on Robert Bloch
's story "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", for Alfred Hitchcock Presents
. The episode was so gruesome, it was banned by the NBC Television Network and sponsor Revlon
, and not released for many decades.
, Dors started a relationship with co-star Victor Mature
's stuntman
, the actor Tommy Yeardye. Hamilton discovered the relationship through his 8mm movie camera taping of his wife's apartment and trailer, and so starts off another period of separation, which this time would lead to the first start of divorce procedures.
Following her final separation from her husband Hamilton in 1958, bringing an end to her RKO contract on moral clause grounds, Dors discovered from her accountants that her company Diana Dors Ltd was in serious debt. Hamilton had steered the company towards the dual purpose of publicising Diana and fulfilling his own dreams, over paying tax bills and establishing financial stability.
Having been forced at gun point by Hamilton to sign over all of her assets on their separation, and now in desperate need of money to pay both her divorce lawyers and their accountants, she agreed to the suggestion of agent Joseph Collins (father of Jackie
and Joan Collins
), to undertake a theatre-based UK cabaret tour, that later extended into Europe and North America. Under the title of "The Diana Dors Show", her boyfriend Yeardle suggests that they hire the comedian Dickie Dawson, who they had seen at New York's Stork Club
. Dawson subsequently scripted the show and wrote most of the material. Finding Dawson very funny, Dors started a relationship with him and then ended the relationship with Yeardle, who subsequently emptied her cash box at Harrods
of £18,000 and sold his story to the media. This brought negative publicity to the show, but audience numbers remained high, which allowed Dors extra time to explain her affairs to a subsequent HM Revenue and Customs investigation of her cash holdings. After marrying Dawson in New York whilst making an appearance on The Steve Allen Show
in 1959, the theatre-based The Diana Dors Show was commissioned for two studio-based series on television at ITV
.
After the birth of her first child in February 1960, and wishing to stay in the United States as a family unit with Dawson, Dors undertook a cabaret contract to headline at the Dunes hotel and casino
in Las Vegas, Nevada
.
Dors returned to UK cabaret in 1966 after her separation and divorce from Dawson, and subsequent bankruptcy
in which she owed HMRC £40,208. But as her popularity had fallen, this time she was touring Working men's club
s.
The earliest recordings of 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 Dors on the cover. She also sang "The Hokey Pokey Polka" on the 1954 soundtrack for the film As Long As They're Happy.
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 also sang as a special guest for the Italian TV show Un, due, tre (One, two, three, starring Ugo Tognazzi
and Raimondo Vianello
) on 31 May 1959, at the Teatro della Fiera of Milan
, with orchestra conducted by Mario Bertolazzi.
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).
Dors image was included with her permission on The Beatles
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
album cover art, as the blonde in the front row on the right in the gold dress and white gloves. She is also featured on the cover of The Smiths
1995 compilation album Singles, and later a Morrissey
picture disc.
Although her film work consisted mainly of sex comedies
, her popularity climbed thanks to her television work, where her wit, intelligence and catchy one-liners developed as a cabaret performer won over viewers. She became a regular on Jokers Wild
, Blankety Blank
and Celebrity Squares, and was a regular guest on BBC Radio 2
's The Law Game. A popular chat show guest, Russell Harty
filmed an entire show - Russell Harty: At Home with Dors - in the pool room of her home, Orchard Manor. Younger musical artists engaged her persona, brought about after the 1981 Adam and the Ants
music video Prince Charming, where she played the fairy godmother
opposite Adam Ant
, who played a male Cinderella
figure.
Having turned her life story into a cash flow through interviewed and leaked tabloid stories, like many celebrities in their later careers she turned to the autobiography
to generate retirement cash. Between 1978 and 1984, she published four auto-biographical books under her own name:
Having gone through her first round of cancer treatment, by the early 1980's Dors hour-glass figure had become plumper, and she addressed the issue through co-authoring a diet book, and creating a diet and exercise VHS
videocassette. This resulted in the summer 1983 by her joining the cast of the ITV breakfast show TV-am
in a regular slot focusing on diet and nutrition, which later morphed into an agony aunt slot. But as the cancer treatment took its toll again, her appearances became fewer and fewer.
In 1949 while filming Diamond City, she had a relationship with businessman Michael Caborn-Waterfield, the son of the Count Del-Colnaghi, who later founded the Ann Summers
chain which he named after his cousin/secretary. During the short relationship, Dors fell pregnant, but Caborn-Waterfield paid for a back-street abortion, which took place on a kitchen table in Battersea
. The relationship continued for a time, before Dors met Dennis Hamilton Gittins on the set of Lady Godiva Rides Again, with whom she had a second abortion in 1951.
Dors became a close friend of Ruth Ellis
, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, after Ellis had a cameo role in Lady Godiva Rides Again, four years before she was executed by Albert Pierrepoint
. Through her husband Hamilton, Dors was also close friends with the notorious Kray Twins
and their mother Violet.
headlines, most regularly for Rupert Murdoch
's News of the World
. In a great part, she created this herself in her desperate need for cash, giving an interview post her separation from Hamilton in 1958, which verbally illustrated their lives and adult group parties in full, open detail. The interview was subsequently serialised in the tabloid for 12 weeks, followed by an extended 6 week series of fake and real stories from both fake, real and anonymous friends, adding to her negative publicity. Subsequently the Archbishop of Canterbury
Geoffrey Fisher
denounced Dors as a "wayward hussy".
During and after the end of her relationship with Hamilton, and up to months before her ultimate death, Dors regularly held adult parties at her homes. There, a number of celebrities and young starlets were in close contact, with ample supplies of alcohol and drugs, against a background of both soft and hard core porn films. Dors gave all her guests full access to the entire private house, which her son Jason Lake later alleged in various media interviews and publications that she had pre-wired with 8mm movie cameras. The young starlets were made aware of the arrangement, and were allowed to attend for free in return for making sure that their celebrity performed in bed at the right camera angle. Dors would then enjoy watching the unedited films the following morning, keeping an archive of the best performances.
Television news and film media companies with broader interests, in part due to her popularity and in part due to those who were also attending the parties, were unwilling to echo or repeat the stories until well after Dors death. Her former lover and party attendee Bob Monkhouse
, later commented in interview after Dors' death: "The awkward part about an orgy
, is that afterwards you're not too sure who to thank."
for £5,000. At the time, she didn't have a driving licence, only getting one on 15 December 1955 in Slough
. The car was sold at auction in August 2010 for $
3 million.
, first diagnosed two years before. Having converted to Roman Catholicism in spring 1973 following Lake's release from a 12 month period in jail for affray
, at her funeral she was dressed wearing a gold lame evening dress with cape, and a gold "dors" necklace, which she was wearing when she died. After a service at the Sacred Heart Church in Sunningdale on 11 May 1984, conducted by Father Theodore Fontanari, she was buried in Sunningdale Catholic Cemetery.
After her death, Lake immediately burnt all of Dors remaining clothes, and then fell into a depression
. On 10 October 1984, after taking their son to the railway station, he returned to their Sunningdale home, and undertook a telephone interview with Daily Express journalist Jean Rook
. He then walked into their son's bedroom, and committed suicide
by firing a shotgun
into his mouth. Aged 43, this was five months after her death from cancer, and sixteen years to the day since they had first met.
Her home for the previous 20 years, Orchard Manor, was sold off by the solicitors. The house contents were bulk-sold by Sotheby’s, who sold off her jewellry collection in a bespoke auction. After solicitors bills, outstanding tax payments, death duties, and various other outstanding cost distributions, the combined estate of Dors and Lake left little for the upkeep of their son, who was subsequently made ward of court to his half-brother Gary Dawson in Los Angeles
.
Dawson 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 Inforenz 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 presently 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 could learn more and help solve the mystery.
, Mamie Van Doren
and Marilyn Monroe
.
Her untimely death is referred to in a 1984 song, "Good Day", featured on the Word of Mouth
album by The Kinks
; it includes the following lines: "The headlines say that Diana is dead/She couldn't act much, but she put on a show/She always smiled, even when she felt low/I used to fancy her a long time ago." A decade before Diana Dors's death, she was name-checked by The New York Dolls in their song "It's Too Late," on their album Too Much, Too Soon
.
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
. Considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood, Dors described herself as: "The only sex symbol Britain has produced since Lady Godiva
Lady Godiva
Godiva , often referred to as Lady Godiva , was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants...
."
Early life
Diana Mary Fluck was born in SwindonSwindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, on October 23, 1931, at the Haven Nursing Home. Her mother Mary was married to Albert Fluck, but enjoyed a sexual relationship with their lodger Gerald Lack. When Mary announced she was pregnant with Diana, she admitted she had no clear idea which of them was the father.
Educated at Colville House, like many children of the time she enjoyed the cinema, and her heroines from aged 8 onwards were the Hollywood sirens Veronica Lake
Veronica Lake
Veronica Lake was an American film actress and pin-up model. She received both popular and critical acclaim, most notably for her role in Sullivan's Travels and her femme fatale roles in film noir with Alan Ladd during the 1940s, and was well-known for her peek-a-boo hairstyle...
, Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
and Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
.
LAMDA
Having excelled in her elocutionElocution
Elocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone.-History:In Western classical rhetoric, elocution was one of the five core disciplines of pronunciation, which was the art of delivering speeches. Orators were trained not only on proper diction, but on the proper...
studies, after lying about her age, in 1946 aged 14 she was offered a place to study at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art is a leading British drama school in west London. LAMDA's president is Timothy West and its new principal is Joanna Read, who recently succeeded Peter James...
, becoming the college's youngest ever student. She lodged at the Earls Court
Earls Court
Earls Court is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It is an inner-city district centred on Earl's Court Road and surrounding streets, located 3.1 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It borders the sub-districts of South Kensington to the East, West...
YWCA
YWCA
The YWCA USA is the United States branch of a women's membership movement that strives to create opportunities for women's growth, leadership and power in order to attain a common vision—to eliminate racism and empower women. The YWCA is a non-profit organization, the first of which was founded in...
, and supplemented her £2 per week allowance, most of which was spent on her lodgings, by posing for the London Camera Club
London Camera Club
The London Camera Club was located in Manchester Square, the same square where the Wallace Collection is still housed.The Camera Club was a serious camera club, and amongst its members were Colin Campbell of land speed attempt, and also known for Diana Dors having one of her first professional...
for one guinea (£1.05)
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
an hour. Signed to the Gordon Harbord Agency, in her first term she won a bronze medal, awarded by Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
, and in her second won a silver with honours, awarded by casting director Eric L'Epine Smith.
Having already acted in public theatre pieces for LAMDA productions, it was Smith who got her into her first film part, with a walk-on piece that developed into a speaking part in The Shop at Sly Corner at a rate of £8 per day for three days. During the signing of contracts, in agreement with Diana and her father, Smith changed her contractual surname to Dors, the maiden name of her maternal grandmother, on the initial suggestion of her mother Mary. Dors later comented on her name:
Returning to LAMDA, two weeks later she was asked by her agent to audition to for Holiday Camp, by dancing a Jitterbug with fellow young actor John Blythe. Gainsborough Studios gave her the part at a pay rate of £10 per day for four days. Her next film was Dancing with Crime
Dancing with Crime
Dancing with Crime is a 1947 British film directed by John Paddy Carstairs with a screenplay by Brock Williams from an original story by Peter Fraser.-Plot:...
, shot at Twickenham Studios opposite Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
during the coldest winter for nearly fifty years, for which she was paid £10 per day for fifteen days. Following her return to LAMDA, and having won over principle Wilfred Foulis, she graduated in spring 1947 by winning the London Films Cup, awarded to LAMDA by Sir Alexander Korda
Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda was a Hungarian-born British producer and film director. He was a leading figure in the British film industry, the founder of London Films and the owner of British Lion Films, a film distributing company.-Life and career:The elder brother of filmmakers Zoltán Korda and Vincent...
. She timed her return to Swindon to visit her parents, with the local release of The Shop At Sly Corner.
Films
Now aged 16, she was signed under contract to the Rank OrganisationRank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment company formed during 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. It was the largest and most vertically-integrated film company in Britain, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities....
, and joined J. Arthur Rank
J. Arthur Rank
Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank was a British industrialist and film producer, and founder of the Rank Organisation, now known as The Rank Group Plc.- Family business :...
's "Charm School" for young actors, subsequently appearing in many of their films. She played a number of supporting roles, where in her early films, Dors chest was in part strapped down, and with her natural hair brown, allows her full and developing acting ability to come through. She made her leading role breakthrough in 1949's Diamond City
Diamond City (film)
Diamond City is a 1949 British drama film directed by David MacDonald and starring David Farrar, Honor Blackman, Diana Dors and Niall MacGinnis.-Plot:...
, a commercially unsuccessful story of a boom town in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in 1870.
After an appearance with Barbara Murray
Barbara Murray
Barbara Ann Murray is an English actress. She was married to the actor John Justin and had three daughters, but they divorced in 1964....
in The Cat and the Canary at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, she was contracted out to Elstree Studios
Elstree Studios
"Elstree Studios" refers to any of several film studios that were based in the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England, since film production begun in 1927.-Name:...
. They cast her in the play Man of the World with Lionel Jeffries
Lionel Jeffries
Lionel Charles Jeffries was an English actor, screenwriter and film director.-Early life and career:Jeffries attended the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wimborne Minster, Dorset. In 1945, he received a commission in the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry...
, which opened at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, and capped her works that year to win her Theatre World magazine's Actress of the Year Award. However, with Rank now £18million in debt, Rank closed their "Charm School", and made Dors redundant.
With her then boyfriend in jail, and having just undergone her first abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, Dors met Dennis Hamilton Gittins in May 1951 while filming Lady Godiva Rides Again
Lady Godiva Rides Again
Lady Godiva Rides Again is a 1951 British comedy film starring Diana Dors, about a small-town English girl who wins a beauty contest and heads for greater fame. It features Joan Collins in her movie debut as an uncredited beauty contestant...
for Rank, a film which created first or early appearances for Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
, Sid James
Sid James
Sid James was an English-based South African actor and comedian. He made his name as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and also starred in the popular Carry On films. He was known for his trademark "dirty laugh" and lascivious persona...
and a then four month pregnant Ruth Ellis
Ruth Ellis
Ruth Ellis , née Neilson, was the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom. She was convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely, and hanged at Holloway Prison, London, by Albert Pierrepoint.-Biography:...
. Hamilton romanced Dors, and quickly won her heart, with the couple marrying only five weeks later at Caxton Hall
Caxton Hall
Caxton Hall is a building on the corner of Caxton Street and Palmer Street, in Westminster, London, England. It is a Grade II listed building primarily for its historical associations...
on Monday 3 July 1951. From this point forward and driven by his publicity focus, her appearance became classical sex symbol
Sex symbol
A sex symbol is a celebrity of either gender, typically an actor, musician, supermodel, teen idol, or sports star, noted for their sex appeal. The term was first used in the mid 1950s in relation to the popularity of certain Hollywood stars, especially Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte...
and markedly similar to Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
's. She often played characters suffering from unrequited love, and so successful was the trasformation that by the mid 1950s Dors was known as "the English Marilyn Monroe." Hamilton also made sure that she had the lifestyle attachments of a sex-symbol, agreeing a lease-deal with Rolls Royce
Rolls-Royce (car)
This a list of Rolls-Royce motor cars and includes vehicles produced by:*Rolls-Royce Limited *Rolls-Royce Motors , which was owned by Vickers between 1980 and 1998, and after that by Volkswagen...
such that a headline could be created in the tabloids that at aged 20, she was the youngest registered owner of a Rolls-Royce in the UK.
There were no limits to which it is alleged Hamilton would go to advance Dors career, and his income or influence from it. Many biographers, writers and piers after her death said that Hamilton would loan Dors out as a favour to hiring producers and leading actors, much as in the casting couch
Casting couch
The casting couch, casting couch syndrome or casting couch mentality is a term which involves the trading of sexual favors by an aspirant, apprentice employee, or subordinate to a superior, in return for entry into an occupation, or for other career advancement within an organization...
practises of Hollywood. In 1954, Hamilton had the idea to exploit the new printed technology of 3D
Stereoscopy
Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
. He engaged photographer Horace Roye
Horace Roye
Horace Roye was one of the 20th century's pioneering photographers. Roye's photo Tomorrow's Crucifixion, depicting a nude model wearing a gas mask while pinned to a crucifix caused controversy when published in the North London Recorder in August 1938, but is now recognised as one the major...
to take a number of nude and semi-nude photographs of Dors, which Hamilton subsequently had published in two forms. The semi-nude where her modesty is unseen by the camera, or covered with white faux fur, were issued as a "Diana Dors 3D: the ultimate British Sex Symbol" set, which sold together with a pair of 3D glasses, capped her as the true ultimate British sex symbol. The full nude test shot photographs became part of Roye's 1954 booklet "London Models".
US career
Following the success of 1952 British noir film The Last PageThe Last Page
The Last Page is a 1952 British film noir starring George Brent, Marguerite Chapman, and Diana Dors. The movie, largely set in a bookstore, was directed by Terence Fisher and released in the United States as Man Bait.-Cast:...
, producer Robert L. Lippert
Robert L. Lippert
Robert L. Lippert was a prolific film producer and cinema owner who eventually owned a chain of 118 theatres -Biography:...
offered her a one-picture deal on one condition: that she divorce Dennis Hamilton Gittins. Dors refused. She gained a second Hollywood offer from Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
for a lead role in his 1954 production His Majesty O'Keefe
His Majesty O'Keefe
His Majesty O'Keefe is a 1954 adventure film starring Burt Lancaster. The film was directed by Byron Haskin and Otto Heller and included choreography by Daniel Nagrin...
, but this time Hamilton turned down the part on her behalf before she even knew of the offer. The result was that her early promising career was restricted from this point forward to mainly British films. According to film buffs, her best work as an actress was when she played a murderess in the 1956 film Yield to the Night
Yield to the Night
Yield to the Night is a 1956 British crime drama film starring Diana Dors as a murderess sentenced to hang and spending her last days in the condemned cell in a British women's prison...
. She showed her capability in her willingsness to play repulsive characters in films, such as The Amazing Mr. Blunden, The Unholy Wife
The Unholy Wife
The Unholy Wife is a color film noir drama film produced and directed by John Farrow at RKO Radio Pictures and released by Universal Pictures as RKO was in its final stages of closing down...
, and Timon of Athens
Timon of Athens
The Life of Timon of Athens is a play by William Shakespeare about the fortunes of an Athenian named Timon , generally regarded as one of his most obscure and difficult works...
.
Dors never had quite the same following in the United States, due to her husband Hamilton. Pre-signing a three film contract with RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
, on 20 June 1956 she left Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
on board the RMS Queen Elizabeth
RMS Queen Elizabeth
RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line. Plying with her running mate Queen Mary as a luxury liner between Southampton, UK and New York City, USA via Cherbourg, France, she was also contracted for over twenty years to carry the Royal Mail as the second half of the two...
for New York, and then onwards to Hollywood to start shooting The Unholy Wife and I Married a Woman
I Married a Woman
I Married a Woman is a 1958 film made in 1956, starring Diana Dors and George Gobel. It also features John Wayne in a cameo role as himself. It was filmed in RKO-Scope and black and white except for one of Wayne's two scenes, which was shot in Technicolor...
. Due to meet Hollywood columnists Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
and Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons was the first American news-writer movie columnist in the United States. She was a gossip columnist who, for many years, was an influential arbiter of Hollywood mores, often feared and hated by the individuals, mostly actors, whose careers she could negatively impact via her...
, interviews were arranged to be held at the Hollywood home of her friend, the celebrity hairdresser Teasy-Weasy Raymond
Raymond Bessone
Raymond Bessone , was a British hairdresser of the 1950s and 1960s.-Personal life:...
, who owned a Spanish-style villa off Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
, formerly owned by Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
. To conicide with the publication of the articles, Hamilton and Raymond arranged a Hollywood launch party at Raymond's house in August 1956, with a guest list that included: Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
, Eddie Fisher
Eddie Fisher (singer)
Edwin Jack "Eddie" Fisher , was an American entertainer. He was one of the world's most famous and successful singers in the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show. His divorce from his first wife, Debbie Reynolds, to marry his best friend's widow, Elizabeth Taylor, garnered...
, Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian-born American stage, film and television actress.She acted on stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1932, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that...
, Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
, Lana Turner, Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
and John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
. After 30 minutes while lining up next to Raymond's pool with her US agent Louis Shurr and her dress designer Howard Shoup, all four including Dors and Hamilton were pushed into the pool after the party crowd and photographers surged forward. Hamilton emerged drenched from the pool, and hit the first photographer before he could be restrained. The following days headlines in the National Enquirer read: "Ms Dors Go Home – And Take Mr Dors With You.” Due to the resulting negative publicity, the couple failed to buy Lana Turner's house, settling into a rental property in Coldwater Canyon
Coldwater Canyon
Coldwater Canyon is a canyon running perpendicular to the Santa Monica Mountains in the city of Los Angeles, California. The canyon is traversed by Coldwater Canyon Drive and Coldwater Canyon Avenue , which connect the city of Beverly Hills with the community of Studio City in the San Fernando...
.
Dors had an alleged affair with Rod Steiger
Rod Steiger
Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...
during the filming of The Unholy Wife, which he broke off in October 1956 after Hamilton started an affair with Raymond's estranged wife in London, and his sole management of his alleged mistress Shirley Ann Field. After Dors announced her subsequent separation from Hamilton, RKO cancelled the contract on a moral clause due to her pending divorce, after only 1958's The Unholy Wife and I Married a Woman were completed. Dors left Hollywood, staying in The Dorchester in London for a single night, before reconcilling with Hamilton for a period.
Subsequently having her US films distributed under the stage name Diana d'Ors to avoid bad publicity, in more recent years Dors has made a wider US break through due to her films having been shown on classic movie channels such as Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
.
During the summer of 1961, she taped 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice', based on Robert Bloch
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...
's story "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", for Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
. The episode was so gruesome, it was banned by the NBC Television Network and sponsor Revlon
Revlon
Revlon is an American cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care company founded in 1932.-History:Revlon was founded in the midst of the Great Depression, 1932, by Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, along with a chemist, Charles Lachman, who contributed the "L" in the Revlon name...
, and not released for many decades.
Cabaret
In February 1957 while filming The Long HaulThe Long Haul (1957 film)
The Long Haul is a 1957 British drama film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Victor Mature, Gene Anderson, Patrick Allen and Diana Dors. An American ex-servicemen settles in Britain with his English wife and becomes a lorry driver in Liverpool where he begins a relationship with the girlfriend of...
, Dors started a relationship with co-star Victor Mature
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature was an American stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky to an Italian-speaking father from the town Pinzolo, in the Italian part of the former County of Tyrol , Marcello Gelindo Maturi, later Marcellus George Mature, a cutler,...
's stuntman
Stuntman
A stuntman or stunt performer is someone who performs dangerous stunts.Stuntman may also refer to:*The Stunt Man, a 1980 film starring Peter O'Toole*Stuntman , a 2002 video game**Stuntman: Ignition, its sequel...
, the actor Tommy Yeardye. Hamilton discovered the relationship through his 8mm movie camera taping of his wife's apartment and trailer, and so starts off another period of separation, which this time would lead to the first start of divorce procedures.
Following her final separation from her husband Hamilton in 1958, bringing an end to her RKO contract on moral clause grounds, Dors discovered from her accountants that her company Diana Dors Ltd was in serious debt. Hamilton had steered the company towards the dual purpose of publicising Diana and fulfilling his own dreams, over paying tax bills and establishing financial stability.
Having been forced at gun point by Hamilton to sign over all of her assets on their separation, and now in desperate need of money to pay both her divorce lawyers and their accountants, she agreed to the suggestion of agent Joseph Collins (father of Jackie
Jackie Collins
Jacqueline Jill "Jackie" Collins is an English novelist and former actress. She is the younger sister of actress Joan Collins. She has written 28 novels, all of which have appeared on the New York Times bestsellers list. In total, her books have sold over 400 million copies and have been...
and Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
), to undertake a theatre-based UK cabaret tour, that later extended into Europe and North America. Under the title of "The Diana Dors Show", her boyfriend Yeardle suggests that they hire the comedian Dickie Dawson, who they had seen at New York's Stork Club
Stork Club
The Stork Club was a nightclub in New York City from 1929 to 1965. From 1934 onwards, it was located at 3 East 53rd Street, just east of Fifth Avenue...
. Dawson subsequently scripted the show and wrote most of the material. Finding Dawson very funny, Dors started a relationship with him and then ended the relationship with Yeardle, who subsequently emptied her cash box at Harrods
Harrods
Harrods is an upmarket department store located in Brompton Road in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air...
of £18,000 and sold his story to the media. This brought negative publicity to the show, but audience numbers remained high, which allowed Dors extra time to explain her affairs to a subsequent HM Revenue and Customs investigation of her cash holdings. After marrying Dawson in New York whilst making an appearance on The Steve Allen Show
The Steve Allen Show
The Steve Allen Show is an American variety show hosted by Steve Allen from June 1956 to June 1960 on NBC, from September 1961 to December 1961 on ABC, and in first-run syndication from 1962 to 1964....
in 1959, the theatre-based The Diana Dors Show was commissioned for two studio-based series on television at ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
.
After the birth of her first child in February 1960, and wishing to stay in the United States as a family unit with Dawson, Dors undertook a cabaret contract to headline at the Dunes hotel and casino
Dunes (hotel and casino)
The Dunes Hotel was a Paradise, Nevada, hotel and casino that operated from May 23, 1955 to January 26, 1993, and was the tenth resort to open on the Las Vegas Strip. The Bellagio now stands on the former grounds.-History:...
in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
.
Dors returned to UK cabaret in 1966 after her separation and divorce from Dawson, and subsequent bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
in which she owed HMRC £40,208. But as her popularity had fallen, this time she was touring Working men's club
Working men's club
Working men's clubs are a type of private social club founded in the 19th century in industrial areas of the United Kingdom, particularly the North of England, the Midlands and many parts of the South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class men and their families.-...
s.
Recordings
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
Angela Morley
Angela Morley was an English composer and conductor. Morley was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1924, and played saxophone in a number of dance bands, and in 1944 became a member of Geraldo's band....
. Swinging Dors was, obviously, a swing album, and Dors demonstrated a likeable, unaffected singing voice.
She also sang as a special guest for the Italian TV show Un, due, tre (One, two, three, starring Ugo Tognazzi
Ugo Tognazzi
Ugo Tognazzi was an Italian film, TV, and theatre actor, director, and screenwriter.-Early life:Tognazzi was born in Cremona, in northern Italy but spent his youth in various localities as his father was a traveller clerk for an insurance company.After his return in the native city in 1936, he...
and Raimondo Vianello
Raimondo Vianello
Raimondo Vianello was an Italian film actor, comedian, and television host. He was a well-known Italian television personality.- Biography :...
) on 31 May 1959, at the Teatro della Fiera of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, with orchestra conducted by Mario Bertolazzi.
She continued to record singles on various labels: "It's Too Late"/"So Little Time" (Fontana
Fontana Records
Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
, 1964), "Security"/Gary" (Polydor, 1966), "Passing By"/"It's A Small World" (EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
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).
Dors image was included with her permission on The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
album cover art, as the blonde in the front row on the right in the gold dress and white gloves. She is also featured on the cover of The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
1995 compilation album Singles, and later a Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
picture disc.
Later career
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, Dors status began to revive.Although her film work consisted mainly of sex comedies
Sex comedy
Sex comedy is a term for comedy movies with sexual content usually referring to those made in the United Kingdom in the mid 1970s. They may range from comic pornographic films like the Confessions series to relatively innocent comedies that include jokes about sex and other sexual related humour,...
, her popularity climbed thanks to her television work, where her wit, intelligence and catchy one-liners developed as a cabaret performer won over viewers. She became a regular on Jokers Wild
Joker's Wild (TV series)
thumb|200px|Host Barry Cryer on Joker's WildJoker's Wild is a British comedy panel game that was produced by Yorkshire Television and broadcast for eight series on ITV from 1969 to 1974...
, Blankety Blank
Blankety Blank
Blankety Blank is a British comedy game show based on the 1977–1978 Australian game show Blankety Blanks ....
and Celebrity Squares, and was a regular guest on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
's The Law Game. A popular chat show guest, Russell Harty
Russell Harty
Russell Harty was an English television presenter of arts programmes and chat shows.-Early life:Born Frederick Russell Harty in Blackburn, Lancashire, he was the son of a fruit and vegetable stallholder on the local market...
filmed an entire show - Russell Harty: At Home with Dors - in the pool room of her home, Orchard Manor. Younger musical artists engaged her persona, brought about after the 1981 Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants
Adam and the Ants were a British rock band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The original group, which existed from 1977 to 1980, became notable as a cult band marking the transition from the late-1970s punk rock era to the post-punk and New Wave era...
music video Prince Charming, where she played the fairy godmother
Fairy godmother
In fairy tales, a fairy godmother is a fairy with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone, in the role that an actual godparent was expected to play in many societies...
opposite Adam Ant
Adam Ant
Adam Ant is an English musician who gained popularity as the lead singer of New Wave/post-punk group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring ten UK top ten hits between 1980 and 1983, including three No.1s...
, who played a male Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
figure.
Having turned her life story into a cash flow through interviewed and leaked tabloid stories, like many celebrities in their later careers she turned to the autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
to generate retirement cash. Between 1978 and 1984, she published four auto-biographical books under her own name:
Having gone through her first round of cancer treatment, by the early 1980's Dors hour-glass figure had become plumper, and she addressed the issue through co-authoring a diet book, and creating a diet and exercise VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
videocassette. This resulted in the summer 1983 by her joining the cast of the ITV breakfast show TV-am
TV-am
TV-am was a breakfast television station that broadcast to the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 to 31 December 1992. It made history by being the first national operator of a commercial television franchise at breakfast-time , and broadcast every day of the week for most or all of the period...
in a regular slot focusing on diet and nutrition, which later morphed into an agony aunt slot. But as the cancer treatment took its toll again, her appearances became fewer and fewer.
Personal life
Dors was married three times:- Dennis Hamilton Gittins (3 July 1951–3 January 1959, his death): married 5 weeks after meeting, at Caxton HallCaxton HallCaxton Hall is a building on the corner of Caxton Street and Palmer Street, in Westminster, London, England. It is a Grade II listed building primarily for its historical associations...
; no children; lived London, Berkshire and Hollywood - Richard Dawson (12 April 1959–1966, div.): married in New York; two sons Mark DawsonMark DawsonMark Richard Dawson is an entertainment manager and CEO of Dawson, Reeves and Zutaut Entertainment Group . Dawson is also the first son of veteran actor/game show host Richard Dawson and the late actress Diana Dors...
and Gary Dawson; lived London, New York and Hollywood - Alan LakeAlan LakeAlan Lake was an English actor, best known as the third husband of Diana Dors.-Biography:Lake was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire on 24 November 1940...
(23 November 1968–her death): married at Caxton Hall; one son Jason Lake; lived at Orchard Manor, SunningdaleSunningdaleSunningdale is a large village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England.-Location:Sunningdale is located close to the present border with Surrey, and is not far from Ascot, Sunninghill and Virginia Water. It is situated 24 miles west of London and 7...
, BerkshireBerkshireBerkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
In 1949 while filming Diamond City, she had a relationship with businessman Michael Caborn-Waterfield, the son of the Count Del-Colnaghi, who later founded the Ann Summers
Ann Summers
Ann Summers is a United Kingdom-based retailer specialising in sex toys and lingerie, with over 140 high street stores in the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and Spain. In 2000, Ann Summers acquired the Knickerbox brand, a label with an emphasis on more comfortable and feminine underwear, while...
chain which he named after his cousin/secretary. During the short relationship, Dors fell pregnant, but Caborn-Waterfield paid for a back-street abortion, which took place on a kitchen table in Battersea
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...
. The relationship continued for a time, before Dors met Dennis Hamilton Gittins on the set of Lady Godiva Rides Again, with whom she had a second abortion in 1951.
Dors became a close friend of Ruth Ellis
Ruth Ellis
Ruth Ellis , née Neilson, was the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom. She was convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely, and hanged at Holloway Prison, London, by Albert Pierrepoint.-Biography:...
, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, after Ellis had a cameo role in Lady Godiva Rides Again, four years before she was executed by Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint
Albert Pierrepoint is the most famous member of the family which provided three of the United Kingdom's official hangmen in the first half of the 20th century...
. Through her husband Hamilton, Dors was also close friends with the notorious Kray Twins
Kray twins
Reginald "Reggie" Kray and his twin brother Ronald "Ronnie" Kray were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s...
and their mother Violet.
Parties
Dors became an early focus for the "celebrity expose" tabloidTabloid journalism
Tabloid journalism tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news...
headlines, most regularly for Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
's News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
. In a great part, she created this herself in her desperate need for cash, giving an interview post her separation from Hamilton in 1958, which verbally illustrated their lives and adult group parties in full, open detail. The interview was subsequently serialised in the tabloid for 12 weeks, followed by an extended 6 week series of fake and real stories from both fake, real and anonymous friends, adding to her negative publicity. Subsequently the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, GCVO, PC was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961.-Background:...
denounced Dors as a "wayward hussy".
During and after the end of her relationship with Hamilton, and up to months before her ultimate death, Dors regularly held adult parties at her homes. There, a number of celebrities and young starlets were in close contact, with ample supplies of alcohol and drugs, against a background of both soft and hard core porn films. Dors gave all her guests full access to the entire private house, which her son Jason Lake later alleged in various media interviews and publications that she had pre-wired with 8mm movie cameras. The young starlets were made aware of the arrangement, and were allowed to attend for free in return for making sure that their celebrity performed in bed at the right camera angle. Dors would then enjoy watching the unedited films the following morning, keeping an archive of the best performances.
Television news and film media companies with broader interests, in part due to her popularity and in part due to those who were also attending the parties, were unwilling to echo or repeat the stories until well after Dors death. Her former lover and party attendee Bob Monkhouse
Bob Monkhouse
Robert Alan "Bob" Monkhouse, OBE was an English entertainer. He was a successful comedy writer, comedian and actor and was also well known on British television as a presenter and game show host...
, later commented in interview after Dors' death: "The awkward part about an orgy
Orgy
In modern usage, an orgy is a sex party where guests engage in promiscuous or multifarious sexual activity or group sex. An orgy is similar to debauchery, which refers to excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures....
, is that afterwards you're not too sure who to thank."
Dalahaye Roadster
In 1948 aged 17, a benfactor/admirer bought Dors a Delahaye Roadster 175SDelahaye 175
Delahaye 175 was an automobile manufactured by Delahaye between 1947 and 1951. The last of the large Delahayes, the type 175 was essentially a 135 with a larger engine and more modern suspension, with between 120 and 160 hp depending on compression and how many Solex carburettors were fitted...
for £5,000. At the time, she didn't have a driving licence, only getting one on 15 December 1955 in Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
. The car was sold at auction in August 2010 for $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
3 million.
Death
Dors died aged 52, on 4 May 1984, from a recurrence of ovarian cancerOvarian cancer
Ovarian cancer is a cancerous growth arising from the ovary. Symptoms are frequently very subtle early on and may include: bloating, pelvic pain, difficulty eating and frequent urination, and are easily confused with other illnesses....
, first diagnosed two years before. Having converted to Roman Catholicism in spring 1973 following Lake's release from a 12 month period in jail for affray
Affray
In many legal jurisdictions related to English common law, affray is a public order offence consisting of the fighting of two or more persons in a public place to the terror of ordinary people...
, at her funeral she was dressed wearing a gold lame evening dress with cape, and a gold "dors" necklace, which she was wearing when she died. After a service at the Sacred Heart Church in Sunningdale on 11 May 1984, conducted by Father Theodore Fontanari, she was buried in Sunningdale Catholic Cemetery.
After her death, Lake immediately burnt all of Dors remaining clothes, and then fell into a depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
. On 10 October 1984, after taking their son to the railway station, he returned to their Sunningdale home, and undertook a telephone interview with Daily Express journalist Jean Rook
Jean Rook
Jean Kathleen Rook was an English journalist dubbed The First Lady of Fleet Street for her regular opinion column in the Daily Express...
. He then walked into their son's bedroom, and committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by firing a shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
into his mouth. Aged 43, this was five months after her death from cancer, and sixteen years to the day since they had first met.
Her home for the previous 20 years, Orchard Manor, was sold off by the solicitors. The house contents were bulk-sold by Sotheby’s, who sold off her jewellry collection in a bespoke auction. After solicitors bills, outstanding tax payments, death duties, and various other outstanding cost distributions, the combined estate of Dors and Lake left little for the upkeep of their son, who was subsequently made ward of court to his half-brother Gary Dawson in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Alleged fortune
Before she died, Dors apparently hid away what she claimed to be over £2 million 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 as he had committed suicide five months after Dors died, Dawson was left with an apparently unsolvable code.Dawson sought out computer forensic specialists Inforenz, who recognised the encryption as the Vigenère cipher
Vigenère cipher
The Vigenère cipher is a method of encrypting alphabetic text by using a series of different Caesar ciphers based on the letters of a keyword. It is a simple form of polyalphabetic substitution....
. 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 Inforenz 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 presently whether there may have been a second sheet, whose information might have led to the discovery of the money. Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
made a television programme about the mystery, and created a website (now removed) where users could learn more and help solve the mystery.
Legacy
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 MansfieldJayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield was an American actress working both in Hollywood and on the Broadway theatre...
, Mamie Van Doren
Mamie Van Doren
Mamie Van Doren is an American actress and singer; who rose to popularity as Universal Pictures's version of 20th Century Fox's Marilyn Monroe....
and Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
.
Her untimely death is referred to in a 1984 song, "Good Day", featured on the Word of Mouth
Word of Mouth
Word of Mouth may refer to:*Word of mouth, a method of communication*Word of Mouth, a local Blues/Rock band based in Hamburg, New York*Word of Mouth ,A TV show hosted by Sandy Daza and Teacher Patty in the Philippines...
album by The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
; it includes the following lines: "The headlines say that Diana is dead/She couldn't act much, but she put on a show/She always smiled, even when she felt low/I used to fancy her a long time ago." A decade before Diana Dors's death, she was name-checked by The New York Dolls in their song "It's Too Late," on their album Too Much, Too Soon
Too Much, Too Soon
Too Much, Too Soon is a 1958 biographical film made by Warner Bros.. It was directed by Art Napoleon and produced by Henry Blanke from a screenplay by Art Napoleon and Jo Napoleon, based on the autobiography by Diana Barrymore and Gerold Frank. The music score was by Ernest Gold and the...
.
Television roles
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1962 | 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' (Alfred Hitchcock Presents Alfred Hitchcock Presents Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades... ) |
Irene Sadini |
| 1963 | 'Run For Doom' (The Alfred Hitchcock Hour) | Nickie Carole |
| 1970 to 1972 | Queenie's Castle Queenie's Castle Queenie's Castle is a British sitcom set in early 1970s Leeds, West Yorkshire that aired on ITV from 1970 to 1972. The series featured popular British actress Diana Dors.- Plot :... |
Queenie Shepherd |
| 1973 | All Our Saturdays All Our Saturdays All Our Saturdays is a British sitcom starring Diana Dors that aired in 1973. Stuart Harris wrote two episodes, while Oliver Free, Eric Geen, Anthony Crouch and Peter Robinson & David Rutherford all wrote one each... |
Di Dorkins |
| 1977-8 | Just William Just William (1970s TV series) Just William was an ITV television series based on the Just William series of books by Richmal Crompton. It ran for two series.-Cast:-Series One:# William and the Begging Letter# William the Great Actor# The Outlaws and the Tramp... |
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 Two Ronnies The Two Ronnies is a British sketch show that aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.-Origins:... : The Worm That Turned |
The Commander |
| 1981 | Music video Adam and the Ants Adam and the Ants Adam and the Ants were a British rock band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The original group, which existed from 1977 to 1980, became notable as a cult band marking the transition from the late-1970s punk rock era to the post-punk and New Wave era... : Prince Charming |
Fairy Godmother |
External links
- 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 WallaceMike Wallace (journalist)Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace is an American journalist, former game show host, actor and media personality. During his 60+ year career, he has interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers....
on The Mike Wallace Interview November 9, 1957