Diana Dill

Diana Dill
Born Diana Love Dill
January 22, 1923 (1923-01-22) (age 89)
Bermuda
Occupation Actress
Years active 1942–2008
Spouse Kirk Douglas (1943-1951)
Bill Darrid (1956-1992; his death)
Donald Albert Webster (2002-present)
Parents Thomas Dill
Ruth (neé Neilson)

Diana Love Dill (born January 22, 1923) is a Bermudian actress, active in the U.S., who has also appeared professionally under the names Diana Douglas and Diana Douglas Darrid.

Contents

Personal life

Dill was born in Bermuda, the daughter of Ruth Rapalje (née Neilson) and Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Melville Dill (also the name of her great-grand-father, a mariner), who was a former Attorney General of Bermuda, and former Commanding Officer of the Bermuda Militia Artillery.[1] Hers is a prominent Bermudian family, present on the island since the very early seventeenth century. Her sister, Ruth Dill, was married to John Seward Johnson II, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune. Dill was raised in the Church of England.[2] In 2002, at age 79, Ms. Dill married Donald Webster, who once served as Treasury chief of staff under President Richard Nixon.

Marriage

She was once married to Kirk Douglas, with whom she had studied acting before the Second World War. During the War, Douglas was serving in the U.S. Navy when he saw the May 3, 1943, issue of Life magazine, which featured a photograph of Dill on the cover. He showed the cover to his ship-mates and said that he would marry her. The two were married on November 2, 1943. They had two sons, Michael and Joel, before divorcing in 1951.

Dill married actor Bill Darrid, and the two lived with her sons on the U.S. East Coast until his death in 1992. In 2002, Dill married Donald Webster in the old Devonshire Parish Church in Bermuda.

Career

Dill continued to appear in films with Kirk Douglas, most recently in 2003, when he played her husband in It Runs in the Family, in which son Michael Douglas and his son Cameron Douglas also acted. Joel Douglas was an associate producer of the film.

As Diana Douglas Darrid, she published her memoirs, In the Wings: A Memoir (1999) (ISBN 1-56980-151-7), with a preface by her son, Michael. The book received a favorable nod from Publishers Weekly.

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Ancestors of Michael Kirk Douglas
  2. ^ Galloway, Stephen (2010-11-29). "Michael Douglas: One Hell of a Year". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-douglas-hell-year-49839. Retrieved 2010-12-17. 

External links