Diane Varsi
Encyclopedia
Diane Marie Antonia Varsi (February 23, 1938 – November 19, 1992) was an American film actress best known for her performances in Peyton Place
Peyton Place (film)
Peyton Place is a 1957 American drama film directed by Mark Robson. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes is based on the bestselling 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious.-Plot:...

– her film debut, and for which she was nominated for an Academy Award – and the cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...

 Wild in the Streets
Wild in the Streets
Wild in the Streets is a 1968 film featuring Christopher Jones, Hal Holbrook, and Shelley Winters. It was produced by American International Pictures and based on a short story by writer Robert Thom...

. She left Hollywood in order to pursue personal and artistic aims, notably at Bennington College
Bennington College
Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont, USA. The college was founded in 1932 as a women's college and became co-educational in 1969.-History:-Early years:...

 in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

, where she studied poetry with poet and translator Ben Belitt
Ben Belitt
Ben Belitt was an American poet and translator. Besides writing poetry, he also translated several books of poetry by Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca from Spanish to English.-Life:...

, among others.

Early life

Varsi was born in San Mateo, California
San Mateo, California
San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of approximately 100,000 , it is one of the larger suburbs on the San Francisco Peninsula, located between Burlingame to the north, Foster City to the east, Belmont to the south,...

, a small town. There she unsuccessfully tried to become a model and a restaurant hostess. While in high school, she was called an "oddball" by her classmates. She often played truant
TruANT
Truant is Alien Ant Farm's second album. It was released on August 8, 2003 by DreamWorks Records. The producers of the album were Stone Temple Pilots' guitarist and bassist Robert DeLeo and Dean DeLeo....

 from school to visit San Francisco and was therefore labeled a "rebel". She dropped out of school in her junior year at age 15, failing in all studies and saying: "I was bored. I didn't like the social sides - the cliques." Around the same time, she married an 18-year-old man. Their marriage was annulled before her son, Shawn, was born.

She joined the San Francisco ballet in the 1950s and initially planned on becoming a folk singer
Folk Singer
Folk Singer is a 1964 album by Muddy Waters. Waters plays acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar...

. She later hitchhiked to 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...

 with a friend.

Peyton Place

Despite having only experience as an actress in a stage production of Gigi, she made her screen debut at age 18 as Allison MacKenzie
Allison MacKenzie
Allison MacKenzie is a fictional character and one of the protagonists in the novel Peyton Place, its sequel Return to Peyton Place, the subsequent film adaptations of both, and the primetime television series and daytime soap opera they inspired....

 in Peyton Place
Peyton Place (film)
Peyton Place is a 1957 American drama film directed by Mark Robson. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes is based on the bestselling 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious.-Plot:...

(1957), receiving an Academy Award nomination for an Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...

 for her performance. The following year, Varsi shared the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress
Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress
The Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress originated in 1948. Between 1954 and 1965, multiple winners were announced. The category was discontinued following the 1983 ceremonies.-Winners:*1948: Lois Maxwell*1950: Mercedes McCambridge...

 with Sandra Dee
Sandra Dee
Sandra Dee was an American actress. Dee began her career as a model and progressed to film. Best known for her portrayal of ingenues, Dee won a Golden Globe Award in 1959 as one of the year's most promising newcomers, and over several years her films were popular...

 and Carolyn Jones
Carolyn Jones
Carolyn Sue Jones was an American actress.Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising actresses...

. Several famous actresses were tested for the main role in the big-budget film, until the then-unknown Varsi was cast in May 1957. She was discovered by producer Buddy Adler, who immediately put her under contract of 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

.

Career

By the time she was cast, Varsi already had an agent and had been searching for film roles for a long while, without any luck. She made rounds at several studios, but according to the actress, they all thought she was suitable for character parts only. She was even dropped by her agent in 1956, because he saw no future in her career.

Even before Peyton Place was released, Adler cast Varsi opposite Don Murray
Don Murray (actor)
Donald Patrick "Don" Murray is an American actor.-Early life and career:Murray was born in Hollywood, California on July 31, 1929, the only child of Dennis Aloisius, a Broadway dance director and stage manager and Ethel Murray, a former Ziegfeld performer...

 in the western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 From Hell to Texas (1958). She appeared in the films Ten North Frederick
Ten North Frederick (film)
Ten North Frederick is a 1958 American drama film starring Gary Cooper, written and directed by Philip Dunne. The screenplay is based on the 1955 novel of the same name by John O'Hara.-Plot:...

(1958) and Compulsion
Compulsion (film)
Compulsion, directed by Richard Fleischer, was a film made in 1959, based on the 1956 novel Compulsion by Meyer Levin, which in turn was based on the Leopold and Loeb trial. It was the first film Richard D. Zanuck produced.- Plot :...

(1959). While filming Ten North Frederick, Varsi suffered a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...

, collapsed and was hospitalized. She later said: "I'm still trying to find myself. It's still hard for me to separate illusion from reality... I don't know whether acting is the form of creativity best for me."

Varsi rejected the role of Meg in the comedy film Holiday for Lovers
Holiday for Lovers
Holiday for Lovers is a 1959 comedy film directed by Henry Levin. Based on a 1957 play by Ronald Alexander, the film stars Clifton Webb, Jane Wyman, Jill St. John and Carol Lynley.-Plot:...

in January 1959. On March 18, 1959, she suddenly left Hollywood, abandoning her contract. She commented on this by saying: "I'm running away from destruction." She refused to reveal her motives for leaving the industry, explaining it concerned other people as well. However, a week after leaving she stated: "Hollywood is too impressed with superficial cheapness." Nevertheless, her contract with Fox did not expire until 1965. Her sudden walkout was for a long time rumoured to be a publicity stunt to promote the sequel to Peyton Place, Return to Peyton Place
Return to Peyton Place (film)
Return to Peyton Place is a 1961 drama film produced by Jerry Wald and directed by José Ferrer. The screenplay by Ronald Alexander is based on the 1959 novel Return to Peyton Place by Grace Metalious...

(1961), to which Varsi was a long time attached.

By walking out of her contract, Varsi's participation or consideration to several films were cancelled, including a starring role in The Best of Everything
The Best of Everything (1959 film)
The Best of Everything is a 20th Century-Fox film starring Hope Lange, Diane Baker, Suzy Parker, Stephen Boyd, Louis Jourdan, Robert Evans, and Joan Crawford...

(1959). After leaving Hollywood, Varsi played in several small plays in San Francisco. As a result of being released from her contract, Varsi returned to film acting in the late 1960s, but by this time she was no longer being offered major film roles. She called the films she made in this period "cheap films of little merit". She furthermore said that although producers were curious, they would not hire her. Her later films include Johnny Got His Gun
Johnny Got His Gun (film)
Johnny Got His Gun is a 1971 anti-war film based on the novel of the same name written and directed by Dalton Trumbo and starring Timothy Bottoms, Jason Robards and Donald Sutherland with Diane Varsi...

in 1971, a film which Varsi described as her favorite, and a 1972 ABC-TV
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 "Movie of the Week", titled The People. Of Johnny Got His Gun, the actress said: "This is the kind of thing I always wanted to do. It comes very late to me. It's been a long time to wait." She was nervous to play the role, saying: "I felt too inadequate to do [Johnny Got His Gun]. It's so intense, the responsibility."

Personal life

While in Hollywood, Varsi was known for being unglamorous, never wearing any make-up or fancy clothes. Furthermore, she avoided the Hollywood parties, and was quoted saying: "I'd rather meet Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...

 than Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...

." Other actors at Fox recalled her as "a frightened, birdlike girl who was bewildered by her sudden success" and as "disillusioned by the way certain studio officials treated her". Russ Tamblyn
Russ Tamblyn
Russell Irving "Russ" Tamblyn is an American film and television actor, who is arguably best known for his performance in the 1961 movie musical West Side Story as Riff, the leader of the Jets gang....

, her co-star in Peyton Place, stated they dated following the film's release.

From November 26, 1956 to August 29, 1958, Varsi was married to James Dickson, whom she made her manager while working as an actress. She was married to Michael Hausman on May 21, 1961, until her death; they had a daughter, Willo.

In 1968, while working on the set of Wild in the Streets
Wild in the Streets
Wild in the Streets is a 1968 film featuring Christopher Jones, Hal Holbrook, and Shelley Winters. It was produced by American International Pictures and based on a short story by writer Robert Thom...

, Varsi suffered extreme trauma
Physical trauma
Trauma refers to "a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident." It can also be described as "a physical wound or injury, such as a fracture or blow." Major trauma can result in secondary complications such as circulatory shock, respiratory failure and death...

 to her cervical spine, which led to years of misdiagnosed pain. In 1977, she contracted Lyme disease
Lyme disease
Lyme disease, or Lyme borreliosis, is an emerging infectious disease caused by at least three species of bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto is the main cause of Lyme disease in the United States, whereas Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii cause most...

 and lived for five years in undiagnosed and unremitting meningitis
Meningitis
Meningitis is inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, known collectively as the meninges. The inflammation may be caused by infection with viruses, bacteria, or other microorganisms, and less commonly by certain drugs...

 which brought her close to death several times. The Lyme disease, combined with her neck injury, which had resulted from numerous surgeries, was not diagnosed until 1989.

Death

On November 19, 1992, Varsi died from respiratory failure
Respiratory failure
The term respiratory failure, in medicine, is used to describe inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, with the result that arterial oxygen and/or carbon dioxide levels cannot be maintained within their normal ranges. A drop in blood oxygenation is known as hypoxemia; a rise in arterial...

 at the age of 54 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...

. At the time of her death, she also had Lyme disease
Lyme disease
Lyme disease, or Lyme borreliosis, is an emerging infectious disease caused by at least three species of bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto is the main cause of Lyme disease in the United States, whereas Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii cause most...

. She is buried in Mount Tamalpais Cemetery
Mount Tamalpais Cemetery
Mount Tamalpais Cemetery San Rafael, CaliforniaMarin County.Some of the personalities interred here include:*Bessie Barriscale, actress*Ali Akbar Khan, Indian classical musician*Howard C. Hickman, actor*Ernie Nevers, football player...

 in San Rafael, California
San Rafael, California
San Rafael is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...

.

Filmography

Film
Year Film Role Notes
1957 Peyton Place
Peyton Place (film)
Peyton Place is a 1957 American drama film directed by Mark Robson. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes is based on the bestselling 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious.-Plot:...

Allison MacKenzie
1958 Ten North Frederick
Ten North Frederick (film)
Ten North Frederick is a 1958 American drama film starring Gary Cooper, written and directed by Philip Dunne. The screenplay is based on the 1955 novel of the same name by John O'Hara.-Plot:...

Ann Chapin
From Hell to Texas Juanita Bradley Alternative title: Man Hunt
1959 Compulsion
Compulsion (film)
Compulsion, directed by Richard Fleischer, was a film made in 1959, based on the 1956 novel Compulsion by Meyer Levin, which in turn was based on the Leopold and Loeb trial. It was the first film Richard D. Zanuck produced.- Plot :...

Ruth Evans
1967 Sweet Love, Bitter Della Alternative titles: Black Love, White Love
It Won't Rub Off, Baby!
Roseanna Mary Jane
1968 Wild in the Streets
Wild in the Streets
Wild in the Streets is a 1968 film featuring Christopher Jones, Hal Holbrook, and Shelley Winters. It was produced by American International Pictures and based on a short story by writer Robert Thom...

Sally LeRoy
Killers Three
Killers Three
Killers Three is a motion picture crime drama produced in 1968 by Dick Clark Productions and released by American International Pictures starring Robert Walker, Jr., Diane Varsi and Dick Clark. Others in the cast include Norman Alden, Maureen Arthur, Tony York, Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens.This...

Carol Warder
1970 Bloody Mama Mona Gibson
1971 Johnny Got His Gun
Johnny Got His Gun (film)
Johnny Got His Gun is a 1971 anti-war film based on the novel of the same name written and directed by Dalton Trumbo and starring Timothy Bottoms, Jason Robards and Donald Sutherland with Diane Varsi...

Fourth Nurse
1977 I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (film)
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is a 1977 film based on the Joanne Greenberg novel of the same name.In the wake of the success of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Roger Corman was able to get funding for a movie version of Rose Garden. Bibi Andersson played Dr. Fried, while Kathleen Quinlan...

Sylvia
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1959 Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...

Lurene Dawson 1 episode
1966 Dr. Kildare 2 episodes
1969 My Friend Tony 1 episode
1971 Cannon
Cannon (TV series)
Cannon is a CBS detective television series produced by Quinn Martin which aired from March 26, 1971 to March 3, 1976.The primary protagonist was the title character, Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad....

Mrs. Hill 1 episode
1972 The People Valancy Carmody Television movie

Awards and nominations

Year Award Result Category Film or series
1958 Academy Award Nominated Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...

Peyton Place
Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

Most Promising Newcomer - Female
-
Laurel Awards Nominated Top New Female Personality
-
Top Female Supporting Performance Peyton Place

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK