Diane Cilento (2 April 1932 – 6 October 2011) was an Australian actress. She is best known for her film roles in '' Tom Jones'' (1963), which earned her an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination, '' Hombre'' (1967) and ''

The Wicker Man ''The Wicker Man'' is a 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner's 1967 ...

'' (1973). She also received a

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

nomination for her performance as Helen of Troy in the play ''

Tiger at the Gates ''The Trojan War Will Not Take Place'' (french: La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu) is a play written in 1935 by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux. In 1955 it was translated into English by Christopher Fry with the title ''Tiger at the Gates''. The ...

''.

Early life

Cilento was born in

Mooloolaba Mooloolaba is a coastal suburb of Maroochydore in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It is located north of the state capital, Brisbane, and is part of the Maroochydore urban centre. In the , Mooloolaba had a population of 7,73 ...

, Queensland, the daughter of

Phyllis Phyllis is a feminine given name which may refer to: People * Phyllis Bartholomew (1914–2002), English long jumper * Phyllis Drummond Bethune (née Sharpe, 1899–1982), New Zealand artist * Phyllis Calvert (1915–2002), British actress * P ...

(née McGlew) and

Raphael Cilento Sir Raphael West Cilento (2 December 189315 April 1985), often known as "Ray",Mark Finnane, ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 17, Melbourne University Press, pp 216-217. was a notable Australian medical practitioner and public heal ...

, both medical practitioners in Queensland. She was the fifth of six children; four of her siblings became medical practitioners, while her sister Margaret was an artist. Cilento's paternal great-grandfather, Salvatore Cilento, arrived from

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, in 1855.Desmond O'Connor
Italians in South Australia: The first hundred years
, In D. O’Connor and A. Comin (eds) 1993. "Proceedings: the First Conference on the Impact of Italians in South Australia, 16–17 July 1993", Italian Congress: Italian Discipline, The Flinders University of South Australia: Adelaide, pp.15-32. Her maternal grandfather was merchant and exporter

Charles Thomas McGlew Charles Thomas McGlew (1870–1931), a South Australian merchant and exporter, was the first to export barley from Australia. Origins Born at Redfern, Sydney, in 1870, he was a son of Cornelius Stanley McGlew (1839–1924), an English-born minin ...

. It was from a young age that Cilento decided to follow a career as an actress. After being expelled from school in Australia, she was schooled in New York whilst living with her father. Cilento later won a scholarship to the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...

and moved to Britain in the early 1950s.

Career

After graduation, Cilento found work on stage almost immediately and was signed to a five-year contract by

Alexander Korda Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)Passage Home ''Passage Home'' is a 1955 British drama film directed by Roy Ward Baker. Plot Captain "Lucky" Ryland ( Peter Finch) is about to retire. He has a flashback of several years to a voyage on a merchant ship which he was captaining from South Ameri ...

'' (1955), opposite fellow Australian Peter Finch. She soon secured roles in British films and worked steadily until the end of the decade. In 1956, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for Helen of Troy in

Jean Giraudoux Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux (; 29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944) was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His wo ...

's ''

''. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in '' Tom Jones'' in 1963 and appeared in '' The Third Secret'' the following year. She starred with Charlton Heston in the 1965 film '' The Agony and the Ecstasy'', and with Paul Newman in the 1967 western film '' Hombre'', and had a supporting role in ''

'' (1973). Cilento continued working as an actress, in films and television. In the 1980s, she settled in Mossman, north of Cairns, where she built her own outdoor theatre, named "Karnak", in the tropical rainforest. The venture allowed her to participate in experimental drama. In 2001, she was awarded the Centenary Medal for "distinguished service to the arts, especially theatre".

Personal life

In 1955, Cilento married Andrea Volpe, an Italian aristocrat. She gave birth to their daughter Giovanna Volpe in 1957. Cilento and Volpe divorced in 1962. In 1962, Cilento married actor Sean Connery. They had a son,

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He ...

(born 1963), before separating in 1971 and divorcing in 1974. In her autobiography ''My Nine Lives'', Cilento said that Connery was

emotionally Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...

and physically abusive during their marriage. In 1985, Cilento married playwright Anthony Shaffer, whom she met in 1972, while working on the film ''The Wicker Man''. They remained together until his death in 2001.

Death

Cilento died of cancer at

Cairns Base Hospital Cairns Hospital, known as the Cairns Base Hospital between 1932 and 2013, is the largest major hospital in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is located at 165 The Esplanade, Cairns North, Cairns. The hospital offers general services to Cairns ...

on 6 October 2011. A collection of items from her estate was donated to the

Queensland University of Technology Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public research university located in the urban coastal city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is located on two campuses in the Brisbane area viz. Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. The univ ...

and is housed in the library.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Writings

* 1968: ''Manipulator''.

Charles Scribner's Sons Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan R ...

. * 1972: ''Hybrid''. Dell Publishing. * 2007: ''My Nine Lives.''

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Diane Cilento
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

Diane Cilento's Karnak Playhouse

– interview with Cilento by Rachael Kohn on ABC

Radio National Radio National, known on-air as RN, is an Australia-wide public service broadcasting radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. History 1937: Predecessors a ...

May 2006 (MP3/Podcast available)
The Cilento Gift
– a collection of books, memorabilia, posters, furniture and original scripts from Diane Cilento's estate {{DEFAULTSORT:Cilento, Diane 1932 births 2011 deaths 20th-century Australian actresses 21st-century Australian actresses Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Australian film actresses Australian people of Italian descent Australian stage actresses Australian television actresses Deaths from cancer in Queensland People from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland Recipients of the Centenary Medal Queensland Greats