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Diana Dors was one of the most famous women in the world, renowned for her charisma, social life, and sex appeal. Born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, on October 23, 1931, she studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and made her movie debut with a walk-on part in the 1947 crime film The Shop at Sly Corner.
She was asked to change her name to Diana Dors before signing that first contract. Of the situation, she reportedly said, “They asked me to change my name. I suppose they were afraid that if my real name Diana Fluck was in lights and one of the lights blew.”
Dors quickly became a sex symbol – a “blonde bombshell” — the British version of American stars like Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Mamie Van Doren. She became known for her roles in sex comedies, modeling considered risqué at the time, and her roles on television and in cabaret before becoming a bona fide leading lady. She also developed a reputation as a party girl.
Her most notable movie roles included 1949’s Diamond City, 1950’s Dance Hall, 1958’s Tread Softly Stranger, 1961’s On the Double, and 1973’s Theatre of Blood. On television, she appeared in shows like the comedy series How Do You View?, the anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, as the eponymous character in the sitcom Queenie’s Castle, the police procedural Z-Cars, the police drama The Sweeney, and the television film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Tragically, on May 4, 1984, Diana Dors passed away at the age of just 52. But how did it happen?
How did Diana Dors die?
Diana Dors had various health troubles towards the end of her life. She endured meningitis and had two operations to remove cancerous tumors.
According to The Guardian, her death occurred not long after she had collapsed at her home, suffering from stomach pains. She underwent surgery to remove an intestinal blockage at the nearby BMI Princess Margaret Hospital in Windsor. Still, she later passed away from a recurrence of ovarian cancer, which had first been diagnosed two years earlier.
Dors’s passing deeply affected her husband, the actor Alan Lake. The couple had been married for 16 years, having wed soon after they met. Five months after Dors died and immediately after Lake had done a telephone interview with journalist Jean Rook of the Daily Express, he took his own life by shooting himself in the mouth with a shotgun in the bedroom of Jason Lake, his and Dors’ son.
Dors’ funeral service took place on May 11, 1984, at the Sacred Heart Church in Sunningdale — the church she had turned to 12 years earlier when she converted to Catholicism after a life of excesses and tragedy. May she rest in peace.