Diana Dors

Diana Dors (born Diana Mary Fluck; 23 October 19314 May 1984) was an English actress and singer.

Dors came to public notice as a blonde bombshell, much in the style of Americans Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren. Dors was promoted by her first husband, Dennis Hamilton, mostly in sex film-comedies and risqué modelling. After it was revealed that Hamilton had been defrauding her, she continued to play up to her established image, and she made tabloid headlines with the parties reportedly held at her house. Later, she showed talent as a performer on TV, in recordings, and in cabaret, and gained new public popularity as a regular chat-show guest. She also gave well-regarded film performances at different points in her career.

According to David Thomson, "Dors represented that period between the end of the war and the coming of Lady Chatterley in paperback, a time when sexuality was naughty, repressed and fit to burst."

Early life

Diana Mary Fluck was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, on 23 October 1931 at the Haven Nursing Home, Kent Road, Swindon, Wiltshire. Her mother Winifred Maud Mary (Payne) was married to Albert Edward Sidney Fluck, a railway clerk. Mary had been having an affair with another man, and when she announced she was pregnant with Diana, she admitted she had no idea if the other man or her husband was the father.

Diana was educated at a small private school, Selwood House, in Bath Road, Swindon, from which she was eventually expelled. Diana would repeatedly talk and otherwise misbehave during French lessons, being given by an elderly Czech Jewish refugee, who admonished her "Pay attention. After the war, you will be able to go on holiday to France and speak with the locals." She replied " Who wants to go to silly old France anyway?". At which point he threw a stick of chalk at her. She caught the chalk and threw it back at him, hitting him, for which she was expelled.

During the war, Diana dated for a while a boy called Desmond Morris from the Boys High School also on Bath Road Swindon. Morris, who was from one of the town's wealthier, more prominent families, used to take her aboard his rowboat on the lake in his family's garden. The garden and lake now comprise 'Queen's Park' in Swindon. In the late 1960s, Morris (a zoologist) became famous as the author of The Naked Ape and presenter of a TV series made of the book.

She enjoyed the cinema; her heroines from the age of eight onwards were Hollywood actresses Veronica Lake, Lana Turner and Jean Harlow.

Towards the end of the war, Dors entered a beauty contest to find a pin-up girl for ''Soldier Magazine''; she came in third place. This led to work as a model in art classes and she began to appear in such local theatre productions as ''A Weekend in Paris'' and'' Death Takes a Holiday.''

Early career

LAMDA

Having excelled in her elocution studies, after lying about her age, at 14 she was offered a place to study at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), becoming the college's youngest student, starting in January 1946.

She lodged at the Earls Court YWCA, and supplemented her £2 per week allowance, most of which was spent on her lodgings, by posing for the London Camera Club for one guinea (£1, 1s in "old money", £1.05 in "new") an hour. Signed to the Gordon Harbord Agency in her first term, she won a bronze medal, awarded by Peter Ustinov, and in her second won a silver with honours. She supplemented her earnings by posing as a model.

First films

Just prior to LAMDA, Dors had unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of Kanchi in '' Black Narcissus'' that was played by Jean Simmons. She acted in public theatre pieces for LAMDA productions, one of which was seen by casting director Eric L’Epine Smith. He suggested Dors for what became the actor's screen debut in the noir film ''The Shop at Sly Corner'' (1947). Dors was cast in a walk-on role that developed into a speaking part. Her pay rate was £8 per day for three days.

During the signing of contracts, in agreement with her father, she changed her contractual surname to Dors, the maiden name of her maternal grandmother; this was at the suggestion of her mother Mary. Dors later commented on her name:

Returning to LAMDA, two weeks later she was asked by her agent to audition for ''Holiday Camp'' (1947) by dancing a jitterbug with young actor John Blythe. Gainsborough Studios gave her the part at a pay rate of £10 per day for four days.

Dors' third film was ''Dancing with Crime'' (1947), shot at Twickenham Studios opposite Richard Attenborough during the coldest winter for nearly 50 years, for which she was paid £10 per day for 15 days.

Following her return to LAMDA, she graduated in spring 1947 by winning the London Films Cup, awarded to LAMDA by Sir Alexander Korda presented the award to her at a ceremony. Dors timed her return to Swindon to visit her parents, with the local release of ''The Shop at Sly Corner.''

Rank Organisation

Charm School

At the age of 15, Dors signed a contract with the J. Arthur Rank Organisation, and joined J. Arthur Rank's " Charm School" for young actors, subsequently appearing in many of their films. The Charm School had been established by producer Sydney Box who Rank appointed head of production at Gainsborough Studios, one of the companies under the Rank umbrella. (Other students of the school who went on to become famous included Petula Clark, Claire Bloom and Christopher Lee.) Dors disliked the Charm School but received more publicity than other students at the time in part because of her willingness to be photographed in glamour shots and attending premieres. An August 1947 article said her nickname was "The Body".

Her first film under contract to Rank was ''Streets Paved with Water'' where she was the fourth lead; filming started in July 1947 but was cancelled after a month. She had a small role as a maid in Gainsborough's '' The Calendar'' (1948), and a good part in ''Good-Time Girl'' (1948), as a troubled teen being warned at the beginning and end of the film. She then played the role of Charlotte in Rank's adaptation of '' Oliver Twist'' (1948), directed by David Lean.

Dors had a bigger part in a B film, ''Penny and the Pownall Case'' (1948), a 50-minute movie for Highbury Productions. This was her first significant role, the second female lead after Peggy Evans. Bob Monkhouse wrote in his memoirs that when he saw the film in the cinema he thought it was "really bad" but was impressed by Dors. "It was her energy that at first attracted me", he wrote. "Her acting was raw but promising and her vitality made me remember her afterwards as if her part of the screen had been in colour."

In August 1948 Rank announced Dors would be one of its young players that they would be building up into stars. (The others included David Tomlinson, Susan Shaw, Patricia Plunkett, Sally Ann Howes and Derek Bond.) In September she was in ''A Boy, a Girl and a Bike'' (1949) by which stage her fee was £30 a week; she says that the movie took six months to shoot.

After a bit in '' My Sister and I'' (1948), Dors was given a showy comic support part in ''Here Come the Huggetts'' (1948), a series that followed ''Holiday Camp'', playing the lazy niece of the Huggetts who causes trouble when she goes to stay with the family. Dors was so well received that she returned for the second movie in the series, ''Vote for Huggett'' (1949). Both were produced by Betty E. Box who recalled "Diana was all woman", despite only being a teenager. "She thought like a woman, acted like a woman, and looked like a woman." She was also in '' It's Not Cricket'' (1949).

David Shipman later argued that when Dors "was young she was very funny: she did a neat parody of the man-mad teenager, the nubile cousin who ogles the best man at the wedding breakfast, the office junior ready for a bit of slap and tickle behind the filing cupboard. She was the best thing about most of her early films."

Leading lady

Rank promoted Dors to leading roles in 1949's '' Diamond City'', the story of a boom town in South Africa in 1870. Jean Kent was originally cast as a saloon owner in love with hero David Farrar, who loves a missionary played by Honor Blackman; Kent turned down the role and Dors took over. Filming took place in late 1948 and early 1949 when Dors was only seventeen years old. She was paid £30 a week. She says the part of "Diana" in ''The Blue Lamp'' was written for her but she lost it to Peggy Evans when the director decided he wanted "a waif type"; she also tested for the female lead in ''The Cure for Love'' but lost out to Dora Bryan

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