Actress. One of her generation’s “blonde bombshells”, she was a pinup model, sometimes singer, and film actress with over 100 credits whose full ability was probably not realized due to her relegation to sex-kitten status. Born Diana Mary Fluck, she was educated at Colville House, Swindon, and was expressing her theatrical ambitions as early as eight; Diana entertained British troops during World War II and studied at London’s Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts before making her silver screen bow in 1947’s “Code of Scotland Yard”. Her first significant role came in the 1948 “Here Come the Huggets” while 1951’s “Lady Godiva Rides Again” fully confirmed her as a sex symbol. Rich by the time she was 20 she was called “England’s Marilyn Monroe” during the 1950s and probably hurt herself by taking roles in works that were virtually pornographic as well as by being willing to play thoroughly unpleasant characters in such pieces as “Yield to the Night” (1956) and 1957’s “The Unholy Wife”. Indeed, a 1961 episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” entitled “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” was deemed too violent to be shown for many years. Diana’s personal life was at times troubled; her first marriage to Dennis Hamilton which ended with her husband’s death in 1959 had been plagued by financial difficulties and mutual allegations of infidelity. Her second to future game show host Richard Dawson between 1959 and 1966 fared little better and ended in bankruptcy, though with her third and last to actor Richard Lake in 1968 she finally found a measure of stability. Her film career having died out during the 1960s, she started a comeback with the well received West End production of “Three Months Gone”. Diana was to keep working for the remainder of her life, albeit never again at the level she had during the 1950s. Her final film, “Steaming”, was posthumously released in 1985. On occasion being asked to sing in her movies she released a number of singles over the years along with one album, the 1960 “Swinging Dors”. Diana died two years after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer; many of her movies are preserved on DVD and Shaw Ridge has a statue of her. One mystery remains: prior to her death she gave one of the sons she bore with Richard Dawson half of a code that could be used to locate a fortune she had banked at an unknown location. Lake supposedly had the other half but following his suicide six months after Diana’s death it was never found. Cryptologists decoded Dawson’s portion of the cipher but to date the money has not been located. Speaking of herself Diana once said: “I’m the kind of girl things naturally happen to. When they don’t, I give them a push”. (bio by: Bob Hufford)  Family links:  Spouses:  Alan Lake (1940 – 1984)  Richard Dawson (1932 – 2012)* *Calculated relationshipCause of death: Ovarian cancer Inscription:Always RememberedForever Lovedonly a whisper away