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Diana Dors: Hurricane in Mink
Dubbed the British Marilyn Monroe' or the British Bridget Bardot', Diana Dors finally proclaimed I'd rather be known as the hurricane in mink'. The actress was best known for her lavish lifestyle; she was a blonde bombshell with a penchant for flashy cars, opulent mansions, glitzy garb and jet-setting living.
Diana Dors' rise to fame started with being a GI favourite during the war. However, she was keen to ditch her goody-goody image and announced that she wanted to be like Errol Flynn. It worked - she became a huge star, working with the likes of Joan Crawford, and famously starred in 'Yield to the Night', the movie about a murderess that was so powerful it contributed to the abolition of the death penalty in the UK.
But despite the glamour, her affairs, sex parties and OTT lifestyle, including an illicit affair with Rod Steiger left her branded as a scarlet woman, unwanted by the Studios. Undeterred, the indomitable Dors simply worked tirelessly to establish for herself a successful career in cabaret.
Her life wasn't always a bed of roses: her first husband cheated on her, stole from her, beat her and finally died of syphilis. Another lover who she considered faithful two-timed her with Rock Hudson. She finally found love with husband number three, who killed himself five months after her death, unable to cope without her.
This is the amazing story of an actress who loved life and lived it to the full.
Diana Dors' rise to fame started with being a GI favourite during the war. However, she was keen to ditch her goody-goody image and announced that she wanted to be like Errol Flynn. It worked - she became a huge star, working with the likes of Joan Crawford, and famously starred in 'Yield to the Night', the movie about a murderess that was so powerful it contributed to the abolition of the death penalty in the UK.
But despite the glamour, her affairs, sex parties and OTT lifestyle, including an illicit affair with Rod Steiger left her branded as a scarlet woman, unwanted by the Studios. Undeterred, the indomitable Dors simply worked tirelessly to establish for herself a successful career in cabaret.
Her life wasn't always a bed of roses: her first husband cheated on her, stole from her, beat her and finally died of syphilis. Another lover who she considered faithful two-timed her with Rock Hudson. She finally found love with husband number three, who killed himself five months after her death, unable to cope without her.
This is the amazing story of an actress who loved life and lived it to the full.
- GenresBiography
256 pages, Hardcover
Published October 25, 2010
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About the author
David Bret
183 books14 followersDavid Bret is a French-born British author of showbiz biographies. He chiefly writes on the private life of film stars and singers.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 4, 2015
What a turbulent life Diana Dors led. Married three times, each marriage with its own problems, and with a string of friends and celebrity lovers, Diana still managed to carve out a successful career for herself - against all the odds.
Born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon on 23 October 1931, her mother, who had failed to make the show-business grade herself, always wanted Diana to become a star and pushed from the start. She studied at LAMDA where she was successful and when she was on the verge of breaking into show-business she decided (perhaps not surprisingly) to change her name. Reluctant to do so at first because of 'letting the family down', she was eventually persuaded when she was advised to use Dors, which was her grandmother's name. So Fluck became Dors and a legend was about to be born. As for the use of her original name she later made an amusing comment when she said, 'What would happen if my name was in neon lights, and the 'L' went out?' A very good question!
Her film career very nearly began with a bit part in George Formby's 'George in Civvy Street' but when the star asked to see her birth certificate for studio insurance purposes and realised that she was only 15, he decided not to use her. However, he was impressed with her ability and was good enough to pass her name on to Weston Drury Jr, one of London's leading casting directors.
Diana was confident that she would not fail and made her screen debut, unbilled, playing Mildred in 'The Shop at Sly Corner' in 1946. Thus began a film career that saw her make over 70 films of varying degrees of quality. She began as a vamp but eventually proved her worth as a dramatic actress even though some of the films in which she starred were less than good.
In addition she developed a cabaret act as a jazz singer that saw her perform all over the UK and also in America. She cut a number of discs beginning with 'A Kiss and A Cuddle' in 1954 and made a long-playing record 'Swingin' Dors' in 1960.
As for her off-screen activities, they often caused her much trouble as each of her three husbands had their own problems; her first cheated on her, stole from her and constantly beat her; her second eventually decamped to America with her two sons, who he apparently alienated from her; her third and lasting saw her having to defend her husband against various charges after he had constantly, it seemed, got himself into all sorts of scrapes.
Along the way she was not without lovers herself, mostly of a celebrity nature, as she undoubtedly lived life to the full. Branded 'The English Marilyn Monroe' or 'The English Bardot', titles she always hated and disputed, Diana Dors was undoubtedly her own person and she very definitely had her own blond-bombshell image that carried her successfully through her career.
David Bret has written a very engrossing, warts and all, biography that is full of surprises page after page and is well worth the read and, in addition, it provides a lasting legacy to Diana Dors, who sadly died in May 1984.
Born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon on 23 October 1931, her mother, who had failed to make the show-business grade herself, always wanted Diana to become a star and pushed from the start. She studied at LAMDA where she was successful and when she was on the verge of breaking into show-business she decided (perhaps not surprisingly) to change her name. Reluctant to do so at first because of 'letting the family down', she was eventually persuaded when she was advised to use Dors, which was her grandmother's name. So Fluck became Dors and a legend was about to be born. As for the use of her original name she later made an amusing comment when she said, 'What would happen if my name was in neon lights, and the 'L' went out?' A very good question!
Her film career very nearly began with a bit part in George Formby's 'George in Civvy Street' but when the star asked to see her birth certificate for studio insurance purposes and realised that she was only 15, he decided not to use her. However, he was impressed with her ability and was good enough to pass her name on to Weston Drury Jr, one of London's leading casting directors.
Diana was confident that she would not fail and made her screen debut, unbilled, playing Mildred in 'The Shop at Sly Corner' in 1946. Thus began a film career that saw her make over 70 films of varying degrees of quality. She began as a vamp but eventually proved her worth as a dramatic actress even though some of the films in which she starred were less than good.
In addition she developed a cabaret act as a jazz singer that saw her perform all over the UK and also in America. She cut a number of discs beginning with 'A Kiss and A Cuddle' in 1954 and made a long-playing record 'Swingin' Dors' in 1960.
As for her off-screen activities, they often caused her much trouble as each of her three husbands had their own problems; her first cheated on her, stole from her and constantly beat her; her second eventually decamped to America with her two sons, who he apparently alienated from her; her third and lasting saw her having to defend her husband against various charges after he had constantly, it seemed, got himself into all sorts of scrapes.
Along the way she was not without lovers herself, mostly of a celebrity nature, as she undoubtedly lived life to the full. Branded 'The English Marilyn Monroe' or 'The English Bardot', titles she always hated and disputed, Diana Dors was undoubtedly her own person and she very definitely had her own blond-bombshell image that carried her successfully through her career.
David Bret has written a very engrossing, warts and all, biography that is full of surprises page after page and is well worth the read and, in addition, it provides a lasting legacy to Diana Dors, who sadly died in May 1984.
September 10, 2018
A gossipy and perhaps too ernest account of the English blond bombshell's life. She could be a brilliant actress but her dumb blond image was something the public would not let go and she ultimately gave into it both in film and in her personal life. This is the life of someone who could have been more. If I have a complait againt the book, the book could have been more fun. Sometimes it was like reading a grocery list.
May 15, 2019
Fair biography of the British star foists most of Dors’s problems onto the men she married rather than create a deeper portrait.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews