biography of diana dors

"I was the first home-grown sex symbol, rather like Britain`s naughty seaside postcards." Diana Dors

Diana Dors was born Diana Mary Fluck on 23rd October 1931 - the only child of parents Winifred Maud Mary and Albert Edward Sidney Fluck, at the Haven Nursing Home, Kent Road, Swindon, Wiltshire. 

From an early age Diana loved visits to the cinema with her mother, and she had no doubt of what she wanted to be when she grew up... a famous actress!

By 1946 the 14 year old Diana Fluck was ready to reach for her dreams of becoming a movie star - moving to London, she joined the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. At the end of the 40s Diana had more than 12 stage and screen appearances under her belt!

One can only imagine the determination, focus and bravery Diana possessed, to leave the comfort and safety of her parents home to venture out on her own, to study, work and live in London at such a young age.

The 1950s saw the transformation of promising young actress to the iconic blonde bombshell most people recognise today. During this period Diana made over 24 films and also achieved Hollywood stardom. She made regular TV appearances, and was successful in cabaret. This decade she starred in the film she would forever be most proud of - Yield to the Night (1956)

The 50s were also the era of marriage, widowhood and remarriage.

A new decade brought with it Diana's biggest transformation of all - she became a mother to her first son Mark in 1960, he was followed by brothers Gary in 1962 (both with second husband Richard Dawson) and Jason in 1969 (with third husband Alan Lake) Diana continued with her career appearing in a further 25+ films! 

Arguably the most tumultous era for Diana were the 1970s. The day of the fifties blonde ruling the silver screen had gone, Diana was now competing with a very different generation of movie star - unhappy with the scripts she was offered, the industry was a minefield. Further to this, her personal life became a challenge with health issues and problems that would leave the very best of us exhausted and miserable, but despite this, Diana continued to work and began to build a superstructure on the foundation of her strong and undefeatable personality.

The 1980s began with such promise, personal issues in Diana's life had begun to settle. She had found success as an author and enjoyed the process of writing. In 1981 she became the first fifties Bombshell to appear in a music video Prince Charming by Adam and the Ants  - Diana star was rising again and the public loved her. 

In 1982 came a shock diagnosis of ovarian  cancer. After a seemingly successful operation Diana appeared to have been in remission, but sadly tragedy was on the horizon just two years later on 4th May 1984 at about 9pm Diana would pass away after a battle she so valiantly and courageously fought.

"Whatever I've done, was done because I wanted to do it. Nobody pushed me and I went in with my eyes open. 

I have absolutely no regrets - but a lot of great memories" - Diana Dors

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

DIANA DORS, ACTRESS IN BRITAIN

• May 5, 1984

Diana Dors, the actress who was once described as Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe, died of cancer today at Princess Margaret Hospital. She was 52 years old.

Miss Dors, who had meningitis and twice underwent surgery to remove cancerous tumors, collapsed at her home near Windsor last Saturday with acute stomach pains. She was taken to the hospital and underwent surgery Monday. Her husband, Alan Lake, an actor, said surgeons had found cancer ''everywhere.''

Born Diana Fluck in 1931, she was the daughter of a railway clerk. When she was 15 years old, a film agent saw her acting in a school play in her hometown of Swindon, west of London. She had her first major film role at the age of 17 as a barmaid.

By the time she was 25 years old, Miss Dors was Britain's highest-paid actress, with a $3 million contract. A mink bikini that she first used on a film set in Venice became a trademark. Her films were not memorable, but she continued to hold attention with publicity photographs that included bubble-bath scenes and stories about her private life and three marriages. Married a 'Svengali'

At 19, she married Denis Hamilton, the man she called her Svengali. Six years later they separated. Mr. Hamilton died shortly afterward at 33. In 1959, Miss Dors married Dickie Dawson, a Canadian-born comedian. They moved to Beverly Hills, Calif., and had two sons. They were divorced in 1967.

Eighteen months later, Miss Dors married Mr. Lake who was nine years her junior. They had one son.

Miss Dors made some efforts to break into serious drama and won acclaim for her portrayal of a condemned murderer in the film ''Yield to the Night.'' Later, she was sued for back taxes, and went bankrupt.

She took her ill-fortune with equanimity and talked candidly about herself. She became a popular guest on television shows, describing her struggle with cancer, introducing weight- reducing methods and reminiscing about her past. In recent months, she had dispensed advice to the lovelorn on ''Good Morning Britain,'' the country's Independent Television program.

Related media

Selected credits

Related collections

Related people and organisations

Old News, Vintage News, Historical News, Retro News

The steamy life and times of diana dors, britain’s marilyn monroe.

When Marilyn Monroe emerged as the ultimate Hollywood bombshell, it was inevitable that other actresses in her orbit would suffer. One of those was British sensation Diana Dors, who was frequently compared to the iconic star. However, Dors’ rise to fame pre-dated that of her American counterpart. For many, she was an icon in her own right.

Like Monroe, she was blonde and beautiful, with a flair for publicity and a quick wit, not to mention acting talent. However, she also had a cultural identity all her own. Talking to Mike Wallace decades ago, the actor proclaimed , “I don’t want to sort of be a carbon copy of Marilyn. I want to be England’s Diana Dors.”

Diana Dors breaks onto the scene

Born in Swindon, England in 1931, Diana Fluck, as she was known, had her attention grabbed by the big screen from an early age. She was the youngest ever student at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She was 14, yet everyone believed she was older. It helped that she’d lied about how old she was to get an offer from the school.

It was in 1947 that she appeared in her first film, The Shop at Sly Corner , and she continued to act in smaller productions until her breakthrough part in 1949’s Diamond City , a period drama set in 19th-century South Africa. While a commercial flop , it brought the actor’s face to the masses, affording her several opportunities, including Worm’s Eye View (1951), one of the most popular films of the year in the United Kingdom.

Other notable performances during the 1950s included that of a convicted murderess in 1956’s Yield To The Night and a hostess in Tread Softly Stranger two years later. These demonstrated that “she was not just a pretty face and body, but an actress to be reckoned with.”

It was only a matter of time before Dors had a shot at Hollywood. Publicists were keen to put her in the Marilyn Monroe bracket, although her talents were underestimated.

Diana Dors’ troubled marriage to Dennis Hamilton

When Mike Wallace asked Diana Dors about starting “in the same way that Marilyn Monroe” did, her response was rapid . “No, I didn’t, Mike,” she said. “I was given a part in a film. And by the time I was fifteen I was under contract to the Rank Organization, and then I had made something like 23 pictures by the time I was seventeen.”

Unfortunately for Dors, she went to Tinseltown with her then-husband, Dennis Hamilton, whom she’d married in 1951. An actor-turned-salesman, he was an exploitative and violent man who took control of her business affairs. A 2010 Express article quoted her as saying:

“I never fell in love with Dennis nor loved him in the truest sense of the word. Rather I was the fly caught in the spider’s web. […] I was married to a virtual stranger. It was so sickening that I began to hate Dennis almost as much as I hated myself for being so stupid.”

Hamilton reportedly involved her in sex parties and quashed opportunities that could have made her a name across the pond. Her association with Hollywood came to a disastrous end during a party thrown for her by Hamilton. The trouble started when “Diana and Hamilton plus Diana’s US agent and a dress designer were posing for photos by the pool.”

Apparently, “pressmen surged forward, toppling all four into the pool.” Hamilton’s reaction was ruthless. He “emerged furious, punched the nearest photographer to the ground and kicked him in the head until he lost consciousness.” This scandal created a flurry from which Dors felt she needed to get away.

Return to the United Kingdom

Diana Dors returned to the United Kingdom and resumed her acting career, starring in The Long Haul (1957). She split with Dennis Hamilton, although the union left her struggling, financially. She continued to act and received positive reviews, and earned sidelines in cabaret and much later as a TV agony aunt.

Arguably, the comparisons with Marilyn Monroe ended as she grew older, though the pair shared an emotional connection of a kind only experienced by the famous and adored.

“You see, we’re really talking about two different people: We are talking about the Diana Dors that the world knows, as a kind of publicity, film actress, who only faces things, likes to go out, and be seen at premieres and nightclubs,” she told Mike Wallace. “But the other Diana Dors, which is the one that I am inside, really doesn’t like any of these things at all.”

Diana Dors’ later life and death

Behind the scenes, Diana Dors went on to marry Richard Dawson between 1959-66, with the pair living in the United States. She continued to appear in films, and returned to the United Kingdom following her divorce. In 1968, she got hitched to actor Alan Lake, with her career by this point largely consisting of television and supporting roles.

Tragically, Dors was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the early 1980s and passed away in ’84, at the age of 52. Her final movie role was in the acclaimed drama Steaming (1985), directed by Joseph Losey and starring Vanessa Redgrave and Sarah Miles. It was a welcome highlight for her fans, but her personal life ended on a devastating note.

More from us: Rare Behind-the-Scenes Photos From Our Favorite Classic Movies

Alan Lake took his own life a few months after Dors’ death, taking with him the whereabouts of her fortune, which was said to be in the region of £2 million. She supplied the family with a cryptic code, but only Lake knew how to unlock it, leading to a mystery that continues to this day.

Diana Dors: Britain's Blonde Bombshell

• TV documentary

A documentary charting the highs and lows of Diana Dors 's career, presenting her finest moments on screen. Also features James King , Samira Ahmed , Jess Conrad , Bonnie Langford , Anna Cale and more .

Key details

Diana Dors is one of Britain's most celebrated screen actors. She was probably best-known in her lifetime as a 'blonde bombshell' and pigeonholed as Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe . Changing circumstances forced Diana to be a queen of reinvention.

Her career embraced theatre, film, TV variety shows, easy-listening records, sitcoms, cabaret tours and even stints as a TV presenter and chat show host.

As a woman awaiting execution in the 1956 movie Yield To The Night , she is credited with giving one of the best performances in British cinema. Her death in 1984 from ovarian cancer, at the age of 52, prompted critics to speculate that her talent never quite found a proper expression.

Diana's private life was as well-known to the public as her career, given that she married three times and enjoyed numerous affairs. The bad behaviour of her first husband, Dennis Hamilton, wrecked her chances of Hollywood stardom, and led to the couple being kicked out of Tinseltown. In a bid to recoup money that Hamilton stole from her, allegedly at gunpoint, she sold the story of his steamy sex parties to a tabloid newspaper for £35,000. In turn, the Archbishop of Canterbury denounced her as a 'wayward hussy'.

This documentary charts the highs and lows of Diana's career, presenting her finest moments on screen alongside contributions from her surviving family, friends, fans and co-stars. We get to know the real Diana Dors and celebrate all that she achieved, from her big break with Sir David Lean in 1948 , as part of the cast of Oliver Twist , to her final film, Steaming , released posthumously in 1985 .

Additional details

• The Unforgettable Diana Dors (Working title)

Broadcast details

• Friday 3rd February 2023 at 10:00pm on C5

Share this page

Donate to british comedy guide.

Join us in our mission to support and promote British comedy across the decades.

Subscribe to our newsletters

Get all the latest news and information in your inbox, with our range of email newsletters to meet all interests.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

‘Diana Dors screamed about George Best while rubbing herself against a young man’: how we made Deep End

‘A friend,’ recalls director Jerzy Skolimowski, ‘told me a story about a diamond that was lost for ever after being dropped in snow. I thought: “But you could grab the snow, melt it and get it back.” It seemed a great idea for a film’

Jerzy Skolimowski , director

I had problems in Poland with my film Hands Up! It had a strong anti-Stalinist message and the government withdrew it from the Venice film festival and banned it. I was told I couldn’t make that kind of film any more in Poland. So I took the first available project, just to make a living. This was an expensive comedy, The Adventures of Gerard , shooting in Rome with Claudia Cardinale and Peter McEnery. It was going terribly and it was my fault: I just didn’t know how to make a film like that.

The studio made us come to London for editing. While there, a Polish friend told me a story about something that had just happened: a diamond was lost for ever after being dropped in snow. I immediately thought: “You could grab all the snow, melt it, and eventually find the diamond.” I saw it as a great idea for a film. Then I worked backwards. Where could you melt snow? Ideally, a swimming pool. Where do you find this swimming pool? Finally, we arrived at a story about public bath attendants. A couple of weeks later, I had the first draft. The first producer I approached, Jack Bernard, said OK. Two months later, we started shooting.

I had just come out from behind the iron curtain. I didn’t know anything about British films, nor who to cast. So Jack gave me some pictures and the colour of Jane Asher’s hair caught my attention. She agreed to do the film and we met at Selfridges to look for possible costumes. I instantly spotted some yellow raincoats. When I put one on her shoulders, it was sensational.

The one person I did know was Diana Dors, a sex symbol whose films I had seen in Poland. Working with her brought back all my memories of being a very young man. Of course she looked different now, but she had one of the best scenes in the film, screaming about George Best while rubbing herself against a young attendant.

We did a lot of shooting in Munich. It was the first week of May and, of course, there was no sign of snow. We had artificial snow, but that would only cover a small part of the park where Jane was to drop the diamond. Then one morning, I woke up at five, looked out of the window – and it was snowing! That was incredible.

Jane Asher, played Susan

Jerzy had seen me in a TV show, part of a series called Wicked Women in which I played a very unpleasant Victorian murderess. He obviously thought: “She’s got a nasty side.” I was sent the script and thought it was really interesting, although the dialogue didn’t exactly flow. I mean, at that time, Jerzy spoke almost no English. But I thought, “This is a cracking part” and didn’t hesitate. I don’t think I’m very like Susan, the pool attendant who is engaged, having an affair with an older man, and also adored by a teenage colleague. But it’s always more interesting to play a character you have to act, rather than be.

Susan is so interesting. She’s a girl using her power, enjoying her colleague’s desperate longing. She’s playing with him, being very cruel in a way that young people can be. They haven’t experienced enough life to totally understand other people’s sensitivities. She is also furious at the way older men felt they could use her, having a bit of fun on the side and all that. She won’t give in to them.

after newsletter promotion

When we started, every night my teen co-star John Moulder-Brown and I would pretty much rewrite our next scene. Rewrite is maybe too strong, but we certainly improved the English, making it more colloquial. That’s partly what gives the film its strange quality. The language is all a little different. But then it was written by a Pole and acted by a largely German cast who all got dubbed.

One or two scenes were improvised, such as the one with the pregnant-man poster. I think you can tell. I came up with a joke I was very proud of. I ripped the man’s face off and said: “Defacing government property!” I remember thinking: “That was very clever, Jane!”

Doing nudity is never easy. But having done The Masque of the Red Death in the 60s, with these awful nipple stickers that kept floating off , I knew to just go with it. People get bored looking at you. It was needed for the final scene, where John’s character embraces Susan in the water. Jerzy was such a good director, I knew he’d cut it to look interesting rather than prurient. I was more worried about being able to hold my breath underwater long enough to get the shots.

Deep End screens BFI Southbank, London , as part of the BFI and Kinoteka’s Jerzy Skolimowski season , which runs until 29 April, and is available on BFI Player

• How we made
• Drama films

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

• Adult social care
• Advantage card
• Armed forces support
• Births, deaths and ceremonies
• Building Control
• Business rates
• Cemeteries and crematoria
• Children and families
• Community safety and crime
• Community support
• Conservation
• Council and democracy
• Council tax and benefits
• Domestic abuse
• Elections and voting
• Emergencies
• Energy and sustainability
• Equalities and diversity
• Food safety
• Freedom of information
• Homelessness
• Jobs and careers
• Licensing and regulation
• Make a planning application
• Parks and open spaces
• Planning and Building control
• Planning policy
• Public Health
• Public transport
• RBWM Property Company Limited
• Recycling and rubbish
• Regeneration
• Rights of way
• School transport
• Schools and education
• Trading standards
• Transparency
• Transport and streets
• Tree management
• Volunteering
• Windsor Guildhall
• Winter services
• Leisure and culture
• Local history and heritage
• Local historical figures
• Diana Dors (1931-1984)

Table of Contents

• Ivor Novello (1893-1951)
• Jemina Durning Smith (1843-1901)
• Peter Osgood (1947-2006)
• Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959)
• Sir Sydney Camm (1893-1966)
• William Grenfell (Baron Desborough) (1855-1945)
• William Herschel (1738-1822)
• William Nicholson (1820-1916)

Diana Dors was born Diana Mary Fluck on 23 October 1931 in Swindon. At 15 she enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and was almost immediately spotted and put into films, making her debut in 1946 in the thriller The Shop at Sly Corner. She was offered a 10-year contract with the Rank Organisation and joined the ill-fated Rank Charm School which had been set up to discover and groom British stars to match Hollywood idols like Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe. She changed her name to Diana Dors (her grandmother's maiden name) but despite a brief appearance in David Lean's Oliver Twist she was already being typecast as the sleazy blonde good-time girl in third-rate crime films. Her screen career never really took off and her Rank contract lapsed in 1950. As with her most famous American counterpart, Marilyn Monroe, any possible acting talent was deliberately marginalised by a ruthless publicity machine mainly interested in the promotion of glamour, sex appeal and scandal. Her long platinum-blonde hair, full-lipped pout and pneumatic curves were fully exploited by her first publicist - Dennis Hamilton, the man she married in 1951.

Fabricating a colourful personal life not yet entirely a reality, he ensured that the gossip columns were provided with a steady flow of sensational stories and created the image of the 'blonde bombshell', Britain's first sex symbol in the American mould. The couple moved to Hollywood but a contract with RKO came to nothing when the company went bust.

During the 1950s she appeared in a succession of uninspired luridly titled crime films with the one exception of Yield to the Night when she played the unglamorous character based on the murderess Ruth Ellis. The marriage to Hamilton ended in a blaze of publicity in 1957 and two years later she married a New York comedian, Dickie Dawson with whom she had two sons, Mark and Gary.

When her eight-year marriage to Dawson ended, she lost custody of her two sons. She married her third husband, Alan Lake, an actor, in 1967 and they had one son, Jason. She was declared bankrupt that year despite having been paid £35,000 in 1960 for a 12-week serialisation of her memoirs by the News of the World. They were pretty racy for their time, prompting the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Geoffrey Fisher, to denounce her as "a wayward hussy".

During the 70s there were brief revivals in her acting career, notably playing a brassy widow in Three Months Gone at the Royal Court Theatre and a good part in Jerzy Skolomowski's film Deep End, but a television series Queenie's Castle, despite being written for her by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, was unsuccessful and her acting and screen career entered a terminal decline. But she remained a celebrity, publishing further instalments of her sensational memoirs and appearing as a regular and popular guest on television shows like Jokers Wild, Blankety Blank and Celebrity Squares.

In 1983, now weighing over 15 stone, she presented a diet and nutrition slot for TV-AM. She survived a serious attack of meningitis in 1974 but ten years later died of cancer. Her toughness and resilience, courage and cheerfulness in the face of adversity earned her widespread admiration and affection and she was genuinely mourned on her death.

Her connection with the borough

She and her first husband Dennis Hamilton moved to Brook Cottage on Brayfield Road in Bray in 1954, later moving to Woodhurst, an 89-roomed mansion on Ray Mead Road, Maidenhead. She and Dennis converted it into rental flats, building for themselves a luxurious penthouse which they called called Bel-Air, over the marble swimming pool in the grounds. The late-night celebrity parties for guests such as Petula Clark and the Kray twins became the stuff of local legend.

The late 50s saw the rise of coffee bar culture and they turned one of the shops on the Colonnade in Maidenhead High Street into the El Toucan coffee bar. It was managed for a year by a local theatrical costumier called Henry Greene who described it as all done in Hawaiian style, "The walls were covered in half-cut pieces of bamboo and there were little nooks and crannies done in crazy paving where you could sit and drink your coffee. Right at the back, before you went into the kitchen, was the area where the toucans lived. It was very upmarket."

In 1956 Stanley Spencer met Diana Dors at a cocktail party given by Sir Charles and Lady Ellis of Dial Close, Cookham. He wanted to paint her, though it came to nothing, saying "Diana had a simple beauty. Her pouting lips are particularly pretty."

She and her third husband were close friends of Louis Brown, the owner of the Skindles night club where she celebrated her 50th birthday.

She died on 4 May 1984 at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Windsor and over 1,000 friends and admirers attended her funeral. She was buried in Sunningdale, where she had made her home in later life.

Local and family history : Contact details

For further information, please contact us by:

• Tools and Resources
• Customer Services
• Agriculture
• Armed forces and intelligence services
• Art and architecture
• Business and finance
• Education and scholarship
• Individuals
• Law and crime
• Manufacture and trade
• Media and performing arts
• Medicine and health
• Religion and belief
• Royalty, rulers, and aristocracy
• Science and technology
• Social welfare and reform
• Sports, games, and pastimes
• Travel and exploration
• Writing and publishing
• Christianity
• Download chapter (pdf)
• Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Article contents

Dors [ married names hamilton, dawson, lake ] , diana [ real name diana mary fluck].

• Peter Waymark
• https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/31043
• Published in print: 23 September 2004
• Published online: 23 September 2004
• This version: 06 January 2011
• Previous version

Diana Dors ( 1931–1984 )

by Frank Buckingham? , 1955

Dors [ married names Hamilton, Dawson, Lake ] , Diana [ real name Diana Mary Fluck] ( 1931–1984 ), actress , was born on 23 October 1931 in Swindon, Wiltshire, the only child of Albert Edward Sidney Fluck (1893–1963) of Swindon, a railway clerk and former army captain, and his wife, Winifred Maud Mary Padget, née Payne (1889–1955) . She was educated at a local private school and when she was nine she wrote in a school essay, ' I am going to be a film star, with a swimming pool and a cream telephone. ' At thirteen, pretending to be seventeen, she entered a beauty contest and came third, and during the Second World War she entertained troops at camp concerts.

At fifteen Diana Fluck enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where she was spotted in a production and put into films, making her début in a thriller, The Shop at Sly Corner , in 1946. After other parts she was offered a ten-year contract by the Rank Organization and she joined the Rank Charm School, which had been set up to discover and groom British stars. She changed her surname to Dors , after her maternal grandmother. Her performances in such films as Good Time Girl (1948), Dance Hall (1950), and the popular Huggett series, where she showed a flair for comedy, introduced an earthier strain into a genteel middle-class cinema. But her screen career failed to develop and the Rank contract lapsed in 1950. The publicity machine, however, was already starting to take over. With her long, platinum blonde hair, full lips, sensational figure, and colourful private life, she was projected as the British answer to Marilyn Monroe ; and for the rest of her life her professional achievements came a very poor second to her status as a celebrity.

The early publicity stunts were masterminded by Dors's first husband, Dennis Hamilton (1924–1959) , whom she married in 1951. Born Dennis Hamlington Gittings , he was the son of Stanley Gittings , manager of a public house in Luton. A Svengali figure, ruthless and domineering, he fed the gossip columns with a stream of Dors stories, many of them fabricated. The couple took off for Hollywood. Diana Dors continued to appear in films, most of them forgettable. An exception was Yield to the Night (1956), loosely based on the Ruth Ellis case, in which Dors eschewed her usual glamour roles to play a condemned murderess. It showed her potential as a serious actress, though the public found the switch from blonde bombshell difficult to take. Her marriage foundered, and ended, in the now customary blaze of publicity, in 1957. Dennis Hamilton died in 1959 and in the same year she married in New York an American comedian, Dickie Dawson . They had two sons, Mark and Gary . In 1960 she was paid £35,000 for her memoirs by the News of the World . Lurid by the standards of the time, the series ran for twelve weeks. The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Geoffrey Fisher , denounced her as a wayward hussy.

By now the film parts were getting smaller. Dors put on weight and the erstwhile sex symbol gave way to a middle-aged mother figure. She had to return to England in 1966 to support her family, for she was sole breadwinner. She played Prince Charming in pantomime and did a cabaret act in the northern clubs. Her private life continued to make the headlines. Her marriage to Dawson ended after eight years and she lost custody of her two sons. On 23 November 1968 she married an actor, Alan Lake (1940–1984) , son of Cyril Foster Lake , glaze maker. They had a son, Jason . In 1967 she was declared bankrupt, owing the Inland Revenue £48,413 in tax. She admitted to being hopeless with money. In October 1970 Lake was sent to prison for eighteen months for his part in a public house brawl.

Dors's acting career enjoyed a brief revival when she played a brassy widow in Three Months Gone at the Royal Court Theatre in London (1970) and there was a strong part in Jerzy Skolimowski's film, Deep End (1970). But a television comedy series written for her by the distinguished team of Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall , Queenie's Castle (1970), proved disappointing. Her Jocasta in Sophocles' Oedipus at the Chichester Festival in 1974 was a brave, but isolated, stab at the classics.

In 1974 Diana Dors came close to death from meningitis and she underwent operations for cancer in 1982 and 1983. Resilient and cheerful in the face of such adversity, she produced further instalments of her memoirs as well as an autobiography, ran an agony column in a Sunday newspaper, and, by now over 15 stone , did a slimming series for breakfast television. A celebrity to the end, she died of cancer in hospital at Windsor, Berkshire, on 4 May 1984 and was buried on 11 May in Sunningdale. Her death was widely and genuinely mourned. Vulgar she may have been but there was admiration for her courage and tenacity. Alan Lake never got over his grief and he killed himself on 10 October 1984, the sixteenth anniversary of their first meeting.

Diana Dors was a potent early example of a media-created celebrity, who became famous more for what she was than for what she did. She was able to exploit a growing openness about sexuality, not least in the press, and she embodied, albeit in an extreme form, the ordinary person's aspiration for a better life as the nation moved from post-war austerity to 1950s affluence. Although she flaunted the trappings of her wealth, the mink coats, the Rolls-Royces, and the luxury homes, she never lost the common touch and, despite condemnation from the puritan establishment, the public stayed with her.

• J. Flory and D. Walne, Diana Dors : only a whisper away (1987)
• contemporary newspaper reports and reviews of films and stage appearances
• C. Geraghty, ‘Diana Dors’, All our yesterdays : 90 years of British cinema , ed. C. Barr (1986)
• The Times (7 May 1984)
• personal knowledge (2004)
• BFINA , ‘Dors … the other Diana’, Channel 4, 27 May 1990
• BFINA , Arena , BBC 2, 26 Dec 1999
• BFINA , ‘The unforgettable Diana Dors’, ITV, 24 March 2000
• BFINA , Icons , Channel 4, 23 Feb 2001
• BFINA , performance recordings
• BL Sound and Moving Image Catalogue , documentary recordings
• BL Sound and Moving Image Catalogue , performance recordings
• F. Buckingham?, photograph, 1955, Kobal Collection, London [see illus.]
• photographs, Hult. Arch.

Wealth at Death

£250,167: probate, 28 May 1985, CGPLA Eng. & Wales

View the article for this person in the Dictionary of National Biography archive edition .

External resources

• Bibliography of British and Irish history
• National Portrait Gallery
• BBC, Desert Island Discs
• British Pathe

Printed from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 27 April 2024

• Cookie Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Legal Notice
• Accessibility
• [66.249.64.20|81.177.182.159]
• 81.177.182.159

Character limit 500 /500

Diana Dors (1931-1984)

IMDbPro Starmeter See rank

• Pearl Delaney

• Mrs. Wickens the Housekeeper

• Miss Scarlett

• Fairy Godmother

• Kate Winterton

• Woman with Rose

• Jenny Stride

• Helen of Troy

• based on book "Dors by Diana" by

• performer: "So Little Time"
• performer: "His Name Is Galaxy" (uncredited)

• performer: "Just One Of Those Things", "How Long Has This Been Going On?" (uncredited)
• performer: "Hokey Pokey Polka"

Personal details

• Miss Diana Dors
• 5′ 5½″ (1.66 m)
• October 23 , 1931
• Swindon, Wiltshire, England, UK
• May 4 , 1984
• Windsor, Berkshire, England, UK (ovarian cancer)
• Spouses Alan Lake November 23, 1968 - May 4, 1984 (her death, 1 child)
• Children Mark Dawson
• Parents Albert Edward Sidney Fluck
• Ruby Lake (Grandchild)
• Other works Music video: Appeared in Adam and the Ants video for "Prince Charming" as his fairy godmother.
• 1 Biographical Movie
• 9 Print Biographies
• 4 Portrayals
• 4 Interviews
• 35 Articles
• 16 Pictorials
• 30 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

• Trivia At age 20, she was the youngest registered owner of a Rolls Royce in the country.
• Quotes I said to this priest "Am I expected to believe that if I went out and had an affair that God was really going to be upset? Okay, thou shalt not kill... steal... but thou shalt not commit adultery? If no one is any the wiser, what the hell difference does it make?". He was lovely. He told me the Commandments were laid down for a lot of guys living in the desert.
• The Siren of Swindon
• The Hurricane in Mink
• The English Marilyn Monroe
• The Blonde Bombshell
• Salaries Adventures of a Private Eye ( 1977 ) £525
• When did Diana Dors die?
• How did Diana Dors die?
• How old was Diana Dors when she died?

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Add demo reel with IMDbPro

How much have you seen?

Recently viewed

• Coming Soon Theaters • Online
• Advanced Search
• Collections Top 500
• Recommendations Movies • TV Shows
• Search by Name
• Popular Top 500
• My TV Shows
• My Calendar
• Coming Soon Premieres
• Dexter Fletcher: ‘I sat on Diana Dors’s knee and she said: “Aren’t you lovely!”’ The Guardian May 25, 2023
• Filmography
• Screenshots

Top Rated Movies

Filmography chart

• Mystery 10%

Actress — 101

Drama, 1 hr 42 min United Kingdom • Joseph Losey

• Friends : —
• Kinorium : —
• Critics: —

Comedy, Drama, 2 hr 8 min United Kingdom • Jonathan Miller

Sci-Fi, Horror, Thriller, 1 hr 55 min United Kingdom • Alastair Reid

Horror, Drama, Fantasy, 52 min United Kingdom • Peter Sasdy...

• Kinorium : 6.4

Comedy, 1 hr 37 min United Kingdom • Willy Roe

Short, Comedy, 28 min United Kingdom • Eric Sykes

Drama, 50 min United Kingdom • Marek Kanievska...

Comedy, 22 min United Kingdom • David Crossman...

Short, Comedy, 30 min United Kingdom • Hugh David

• IMDb : —

Action, Adventure, Biography, 30 min United Kingdom • Charles Crichton...

Comedy, Crime, 1 hr 36 min United Kingdom • Stanley A. Long

Comedy, Drama, Family, 22 min United Kingdom • John Davies

Comedy, 1 hr 34 min United Kingdom • Robert Young

Comedy, Crime, 1 hr 29 min United Kingdom • Stanley A. Long

• Kinorium : 4.9

Comedy, 1 hr 16 min United Kingdom • Wolf Rilla

Comedy, Music, 1 hr 30 min United Kingdom • Martin Campbell

Comedy, 1 hr 33 min Sweden, United States • Vernon P. Becker

Action, Crime, Drama, 1 hour United Kingdom • Tom Clegg...

Comedy, 1 hr 26 min United Kingdom • Derren Nesbitt

Thriller, 1 hr 36 min United Kingdom • Freddie Francis

Horror, Drama, Fantasy, 1 hr 38 min United Kingdom • Kevin Connor

• Kinorium : 5.7
• Critics: 60%

Comedy, Sport, 1 hr 39 min United Kingdom • Peter Sykes

Comedy, Drama, Horror, 1 hr 40 min United Kingdom • Douglas Hickox

• Kinorium : 6.7
• Critics: 88%

Comedy, 30 min United Kingdom • Roger Cheveley...

Horror, Crime, Mystery, 1 hr 30 min United Kingdom • Peter Sasdy

• Kinorium : 5.8

Horror, Crime, Drama, 1 hr 5 min United Kingdom • Shaun O'Riordan...

Drama, 1 hr 32 min United Kingdom • Joseph W. Sarno

Family, Mystery, Fantasy, 1 hr 39 min United Kingdom • Lionel Jeffries

Musical, Drama, Fantasy, 1 hr 26 min United Kingdom, West Germany, United States • Jacques Demy

Crime, Drama, Western, 1 hr 25 min United Kingdom • Burt Kennedy

• Kinorium : 5.9

Drama, 30 min United Kingdom

Comedy, 50 min United Kingdom • Marcus Plantin...

Comedy, Drama, Romance, 1 hr 32 min West Germany, United Kingdom • Jerzy Skolimowski

• Critics: 90%

Comedy, Romance, 1 hr 35 min United Kingdom • Roy Boulting

• Kinorium : 6.0

Comedy, 30 min United Kingdom • Ian Davidson...

Comedy, 1 hour United Kingdom • James Gatward...

Drama, 1 hr 33 min United Kingdom • Alastair Reid

United Kingdom

Drama, Thriller, 1 hr 40 min United Kingdom • David Miller

• Kinorium : 5.3

Horror, Mystery, Thriller, 1 hr 36 min United Kingdom • Jim O'Connolly

Action, Drama, Thriller, 1 hr 32 min United Kingdom • Seth Holt

Romance, 50 min United Kingdom • John Gorrie...

Drama Franklin J. Schaffner

Comedy, 1 hr 35 min United Kingdom • Robert Hartford-Davis

Comedy, 1 hr 27 min France • Robert Dhéry...

• Kinorium : 6.9

Crime, Drama, 1 hr 33 min United Kingdom • Michael Winner

Action, Adventure, Crime, 1 hour United States • Don Weis...

Comedy, 1 hr 22 min United Kingdom • Max Varnel

Spain • José María Ochoa

Drama, 1 hour United States • Jack Arnold...

Horror, Crime, Drama, 50 min United States • Alf Kjellin...

Crime, Drama, 25 min United Kingdom • Paddy Russell...

Adventure, 30 min United States • William D. Faralla...

Biography, Crime, Drama, 1 hr 46 min United States • Joseph M. Newman

Adventure, Comedy, War, 1 hr 32 min (in credits: Miss Diana Dors) United States • Melville Shavelson

Adventure, Crime, Mystery, 2 hr 5 min United States • Jack Cardiff

• Critics: 80%

Crime, Drama, 1 hr 26 min United Kingdom • Alvin Rakoff

Crime, Drama, 1 hr 30 min United Kingdom • Gordon Parry

Comedy, Drama, 1 hr 25 min United States • Hal Kanter

Comedy, Romance, 1 hr 42 min Italy, France • Luigi Zampa

Film Noir, Crime, Drama, 1 hr 34 min United States • John Farrow

Film Noir, Crime, Drama, 1 hr 40 min United Kingdom, United States • Ken Hughes

Drama, 1 hour United Kingdom • Philip Saville...

Crime, Drama, 1 hr 39 min United Kingdom • J. Lee Thompson

Comedy, Crime, 1 hr 8 min United Kingdom • Leslie Arliss

Musical, Comedy, Romance, 1 hr 28 min United Kingdom • J. Lee Thompson

Drama, Mystery, 25 min United States • Robert Stevens...

• Kinorium : 7.5

Comedy, Romance, 1 hr 30 min United Kingdom • Ken Annakin

Comedy, 1 hr 33 min United Kingdom • Ralph Thomas

Crime, Drama, 45 min United Kingdom • Douglas Moodie...

Comedy, Drama, Family, 1 hr 36 min United Kingdom • Carol Reed

• Critics: 67%

Musical, Comedy, Drama, 1 hr 31 min United Kingdom • J. Lee Thompson

Crime, Drama, 1 hr 28 min United Kingdom • J. Lee Thompson

Comedy, Drama, Sport, 1 hr 20 min United Kingdom • Maurice Elvey

Comedy, 1 hr 42 min United Kingdom • John E. Blakeley

Crime, Mystery, 1 hr 13 min United Kingdom • Seymour Friedman

Comedy, 1 hr 20 min United Kingdom • Maurice Elvey

Drama, 23 min United States, United Kingdom • Lance Comfort...

Crime, Drama, 1 hr 24 min United Kingdom • Terence Fisher

• Kinorium : 6.1

Comedy, 1 hr 17 min United Kingdom • Jack Raymond

Comedy, 1 hr 30 min United Kingdom • Frank Launder

Comedy, 1 hour Canada, United States • Seymour Berns...

Drama, 1 hr 20 min United Kingdom

Drama, Music, Romance, 1 hr 20 min United Kingdom • Charles Crichton

Comedy, 30 min United States • Frederick De Cordova...

• Kinorium : 4.0

Comedy, 30 min United Kingdom

Drama, Adventure, 1 hr 30 min United Kingdom • David MacDonald

Comedy, Romance, Drama, 1 hr 32 min United Kingdom • Ralph Smart

Comedy, Adventure, 1 hr 17 min United Kingdom • Roy Rich...

Comedy, 1 hr 24 min United Kingdom • Ken Annakin

Action, Crime, Drama, 1 hr 30 min United Kingdom • Gordon Parry

Comedy, Drama, 1 hr 33 min United Kingdom • Ken Annakin

Drama, 1 hr 37 min United Kingdom • Harold Huth

Drama, 1 hr 56 min United Kingdom • David Lean

• Kinorium : 7.6
• Critics: 100%

Drama, Mystery, 47 min United Kingdom • Slim Hand

Crime, Drama, 1 hr 21 min United Kingdom • David MacDonald

Drama, 1 hr 19 min United Kingdom • Arthur Crabtree

Adventure, Comedy, Crime, 1 hr 33 min United Kingdom • Ken Annakin

Film Noir, Crime, Drama, 1 hr 23 min United Kingdom • John Paddy Carstairs

Drama, 1 hr 31 min United Kingdom • George King

Writer — 1

Biography, Drama, 1 hr 40 min United Kingdom • Robert Bierman

Other — 123

The best website for movie search and thoughts sharing with friends

• Browser extension

Tragic last days of Diana Dors' son Jason Dors Lake who was found dead in his flat after turning 50

The youngest son of Diana Dors died days after turning 50 after reportedly relapsing back into alcoholism

• 10:14, 16 Sep 2019
• Updated 10:23, 16 Sep 2019

Jason Dors Lake's tragic last days included a cancelled birthday trip and downing booze alone at his council flat, sources close to the late actor have revealed.

The youngest of Diana Dors' three sons was found at his flat by a friend just days after turning 50.

Mr Dors Lake was open with his struggles with alcoholism throughout his adult life and is said to have returned to drinking after witnessing the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017.

In the days before his death, friends say Mr Dors Lake had planned a trip to Columbia with his girlfriend, but he wasn't allowed to board the plane because he was too drunk.

His girlfriend is said to have gone on without him, leaving Dors Lake to return to his council flat in west London alone, reports the Daily Mail.

Speaking of his final hours, a friend said: "I think he was just drinking a huge amount and had taken some pills and just didn’t wake up.

"A friend had to climb through the window to check he was okay and found him."

They added: "Jason had a hedonistic lifestyle so this was always on the cards. I know he’s been living a precarious life for quite a long time and he goes up and down."

It is not yet known how Dors Lake died but family and friends are said to be shocked at his sudden death.

The sad news was announced on Facebook  group Diana Dors: The Legacy announced the death over the weekend.

A statement read: "Good morning, it saddens me to inform you of the passing of Diana's youngest son, Jason Dors Lake at the age of 50.

"Please join me in offering condolences, thoughts and prayers to Jason's loved ones and close friends at this time."

Mr Dors Lake had been just 14-years-old when his mother Doris, dubbed Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe, died from ovarian cancer.

Five months later his father, actor Alan Lake, shot himself dead outside his son's bedroom at the family's Berkshire mansion.

Mr Dors Lake later said that before the deaths of his parents he'd been exposed to their wild lifestyles, claiming he was 'smoking pot' aged nine and given a champagne bottle 'to keep him quiet' while in his pram. 

Orphaned Dors Lake was sent to live with a half-brother in California after his parents' death. He returned to England in 2013 where he tried to make a career as an actor and landed a role in TV daytime drama Doctors.

Nine years ago, Dors Lake fell from a balcony of the third floor apartment he shared with his girlfriend - falling head first onto the pavement below shattering multiple bones.

Mr Dors Lake broke his neck, arm, hip and foot.

Then in 2016 he was back in the spotlight as he cut a glum appearance at Hammersmith Magistrates court.

Mr Dors Lake admitted shoplifting two bottles of wine from Waitrose, telling the court he felt suicidal after rowing with his girlfriend.

He had tried to turn his life around but was said to have been deeply affected by the Grenfell Tower Tragedy two years ago and returned to drinking.

Jason leaves behind daughter Morgana Ruby Lake, 29, from his first marriage to Maya Firth Sendall.

MORE ON Diana Dors Alan Lake Alcoholism

Celeb obsessed get a daily dose of showbiz gossip direct to your inbox.