Many pay tribute to former sex symbol

Press, 7 May 1984, Page 6

Many pay tribute to former sex symbol

NZPA-AP Windsor Many have paid tribute to Diana Dors, the onetime curvaceous blonde bombshell of British cinema who died on Saturday after a two-year battle against cancer. The actress, who once confessed, “I was lucky . . . because I was the first. Until I appeared, sex was a dirty word,” was aged 52. In a career spanning more than 30 years, she made her name as a sex symbol in the 1950 s and 19605, became a competent actress, and lately was a wise and witty television talk-show guest and television agony aunt who spoke from experience, having been through three sometimes stormy marriages. Her husband, Mr Alan Lake, who was at her bedside when she died at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Windsor, 40km west of London, said the cause of, death was cancer.

“When they opened her up they found it everywhere,” he said.

Miss Dors, who had twice beaten cancer in the last two years, collapsed at her home near Windsor more than a week ago with acute stomach pains. She was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery.

on Tuesday for a suspected bowel obstruction believed related to cancer. Her condition deteriorated seriously on Friday. ‘ t She first had a caiicerous tumour removed during surgery for an ovarian cyst in 1982. Lhst year she had another tumour removed. After the second operation, she bravely told viewers in an interview on a breakfast-time channel, TVAM, “Of course I’m scared . . . (but) I know I’m going to be all right. I just know it.” She was 15 when a film

agent first spotted her in a school play in her home town, Swindon, 123 km west of London.

Her first starring role was as a barmaid in the movie, “Diamond City,” in 1947. Her most acclaimed movie role was in “Yield to the Night,” in which she played a murderess about to be executed.

At 25 she was Britain’s top-paid actress with a $4.5 million contract. In her sex symbol days she was rarely out of the news, with sexy poses and racy stories about her private life. She posed nude for the London Camera Club, did daring bubble-bath scenes and once posed for cameramen in a mink bikini.

Paying tribute, a singer, Frankie Vaughan,, who was an old friend, said, “During the last few years she really battled on and threw off all the blues and problems. I am very much in limbo ... It’s terrible.”

The London “Daily Telegraph” said she rivalled the late American actress, Marilyn Monroe, as a sex symbol. The “Daily Express” called her a “much loved star.” The “Daily Mail” called her “legendary.”