Diana Dors: Portrait of a post war pin-up

Do blondes have more fun? Did 1950s bombshells have platinum curls, voluptuous curves, endless lashes and flirty dresses? Case closed! But while many of us now consider Marilyn Monroe the archetype of that very glamorous decade, all-American, windswept and pouty in that white dress, another blonde sex kitten was making waves on this side of the water. There’s a definite likeness, yes, but there’s a completely different story. And it deserves to be told. Step forward Diana Dors…Martha Hayes has the story.

Born Diana Mary Fluck in 1931, the headstrong film and TV star knew exactly what she wanted from an early age – her name up in lights. Seeing her first film aged three ignited a passion and determination to make it.

She took dance classes, emulated the actresses she saw on the silver screen and fell head over heels for Hollywood by the age of 12 when American troops came over and she performed for them during the Second World War.

Having won her first beauty pageant, and having convinced her parents she could turn her acting dream into a reality, the brown-haired kid from Swindon (who looked much older than she was!) enrolled at LAMDA (the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts) in 1946. At 14, she was the youngest student they’d ever had. She dyed her hair blonde and changed her name to her grandmother’s maiden name, Dors.

‘They asked me to change my name,’ she once said. ‘I suppose they were afraid that if my real name, Diana Fluck, was in lights, and one of the lights blew…’

She was on her way. Following a handful of small roles including crime thriller Shop At Sly Corner and Holiday Camp, Ms Dors signed up to the J. Arthur Rank Organisation, a school established to recruit young actors. She went on to more notably, star in Here Come The Nuggets with Jack Warner in 1948 and play Charlotte in David Lean’s Oliver Twist in the same year.

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