Who is Diana Dors?

When you think of Diana Dors, visions of a glamorous, larger-than-life movie star may come to mind. Often referred to as Britain’s answer to Marilyn Monroe, Dors captivated the public with her beauty, charisma and penchant for drama. But there is so much more to her than the glitzy persona she projected. Behind the dazzling smile and platinum hair, Diana Dors was a complex, savvy woman who continually reinvented herself, both on and off screen.

The early life of Diana Dors

Born Diana Mary Fluck on 23rd October 1931 in Swindon, England, at the Haven Nursing Home. Her mother, Winifred was married to Albert Fluck, who was a railway engineer. At the time of her conception, her mother had been having an affair, and admitted she had no idea if the other man or her husband was the father.

Diana was educated at a small private school in Swindon, from which she was eventually expelled. During the war, Diana dated Desmond Morris, who was from one of the wealthier families in the area. He would take her rowing in his boat on the lake in his family’s garden.

From a tender age of 8, she enjoyed going to the cinema to see her heroines, Hollywood starlets like Veronica Lake, Lana Turner, and Jean Harlow. Towards the end of the war, she entered a beauty contest to find a pin-up girl for Soldier Magazine, coming in third place. This led her to model for art classes, and she began to appear in local theatre productions.

Diana Dors – her early career

She began her journey to stardom early, with ambitions as bright as spotlights. Even as a teenager, she possessed a rare allure that Hollywood wouldn’t be able to ignore. After lying about her age, she was offered a place to study at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) at the age of 14. Upon starting in January 1946, she became the college’s youngest student.

After acting in public theatre pieces for LAMDA productions, she was spotted by casting director Eric L’Epine Smith. He suggested her for what would be her on-screen debut in the noir film The Shop at Sly Corner (1947).

During the signing of contracts, in agreement with her father, she changed her surname to Dors, the maiden name of her maternal grandmother. Returning to LAMDA two weeks later, her agent asked her to audition for Holiday Camp (1947) by dancing a jitterbug with John Blythe. Her third film, also released in (1947) was Dancing With Crime opposite Richard Attenborough during one of the coldest winters in 50 years.

Following her return to LAMDA, she graduated and won the London Films Cup in Spring 1947. Dors timed her return to Swindon to visit her parents with the local release of The Shop at Sly Corner.

Rank Organisation

When she was 15, Diana signed a contract with The Rank Organisation, and joined the “Charm School” for young actors, appearing in many of their films. This Charm School was established by producer Sydney Box, who had been appointed as head of production at Gainsborough Studios, one of the companies under the Rank umbrella. She hated the Charm School, but she did receive more promotion, partly because of her willingness to be photographed in glamour shots and attending premieres. An article written in 1947 said her nickname was “The Body”.

Following some small roles, Dors landed her first significant role in a B movie, Penny and the Pownall Case (1948) for Highbury Productions. Starring as the second female lead after Peggy Evans. Bob Monkhouse would later write in his memoirs that he thought the film was “really bad”, but was impressed by the vitality and rawness of her acting.

It was her energy that at first attracted me. 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.

Bob Monkhouse

Dors was promoted into a leading lady in the late 1940s, quickly establishing herself as one of Britain’s most captivating sex symbols. Her role in Diamond City (1949) marked her debut as a bombshell, and she soon became a household name with films like Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951) and Yield to the Night (1956). In Yield to the Night, Dors stunned critics by showing her range, portraying a woman on death row in a gritty, serious role that veered away from her sex symbol image. She didn’t want to be typecast as the blonde beauty; she craved critical recognition.

What set Diana apart was her confidence and boldness in a time when women, especially actresses, were often expected to play into specific roles. She defied the expectations placed on her. Whether she was wearing mom or sequins, or headlining gossip columns with her high-profile relationships, Diana always cried herself with a defiant charm. Off-screen, she embraced the limelight with as much enthusiasm as she embraced her career.

In the 60s and 70s, as her film career began to wane, Diana reinvented herself once again. She became a regular on television, appearing in variety shows and sitcoms. One of her most memorable was as a regular guest on talk shows, where her wit and humour charmed audiences all over again. Diana was never a wallflower, she stayed relevant, even in an industry notoriously fickle toward aging stars.

The Private Life of Diana Dors

In 1949, while filming Diamond City, she was in a relationship with businessman Michael Caborn-Waterfield, who later went onto found Ann Summers, which he named after a former girlfriend. During their short relationship, Diana became pregnant, but had a backstreet abortion paid for by Caborn-Waterfield, which took place on a kitchen table in Battersea. Their relationship continued for a time, before she met Dennis Hamilton Gittens on the set of Lady Godiva Rides Again, and while with him she had her second abortion in 1951.

During her relationship with Hamilton, and up until a few months before her death, Dors regularly held adult parties at her home. There a number of celebrities, fueled with alcohol and drugs, mixed with young starlets with both hardcore and softcore porn playing in the background. The young starlets were made aware of the arrangements and were allowed to attend for free as long as they made sure that their celebrity partners performed in bed at the right angles for the cameras she had placed around her home. Diana later enjoyed watching the films, and even kept an archive of what she deemed the best performances.

Dors would become an early subject of celebrity expose tabloids. For the most part, she brought this attention on herself, Following her separation from Hamilton in 1958, she was in need of money. This drove her to give a full and frank interview in which she described their lives, including the adult parties. This interview was serialised over 12 weeks, creating negative publicity.

The passing of Diana Dors

Towards the end of her life, Diana contracted meningitis and underwent surgery twice to remove cancerous tumours. After collapsing at her home near Windsor with acute stomach pain, she passed away on 4th May 1984 at the age of 52.

Her funeral was held on the 11th May 1984 at the Sacred Heart Church in Sunningdale. She was buried in Sunningdale Catholic Cemetery.

Following her death, her husband Alan Lake burned all of Dors’ remaining clothes and tell into a deep depression. On the 10th October 1984, he did a telephone interview with journalist Jean Rook for the Daily Express. He then walked into their son’s bedroom and took his own life with a shotgun. He was just 43. This was five months after her death, and 16 years to the day that they had met. Alan had no alcohol or illegal drugs in his system at the time of his death.

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