Diana Napier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Diana Napier (31 January 1905 – 12 March 1982) was an English film actress. She was born Alice Mary Ellis in Bath, Somerset and died in Windlesham, Surrey, aged 77.
Napier, known to her family as "Mollie", was married three times. Her first husband was the actor G.H. Mulcaster whom she married in 1927 and later divorced. Her second was the Austrian tenor, Richard Tauber (1891–1948), to whom she was married from 1936 until his death, and her third was the Polish artist, Stanislaw Wolkowicki (1902-1965), whom she had met during the war and married in 1953. He died in 1965, and she was buried with him in the Churchyard of St Michael and All Angels, Sunningdale, Berkshire in 1982.
Napier was the daughter of Major APB Ellis, an ENT specialist and sometime army surgeon, and Alice Napier. She took her mother's maiden name as her screen name. Having spent much of her childhood in South Africa, where she attended the Maris Stella School in Durban, the family returned to England and she embarked on a stage career. After a few years in repertory, she was offered a screen test by Alexander Korda, and made a few films before he dropped her. She then appeared in 1935 opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in Mimi, a film directed by Paul L. Stein, a childhood friend of Richard Tauber, who had directed Tauber's first British film Blossom Time in 1934. It was through Paul Stein she met Tauber, and appeared with him in three films made in 1935/36, the first of them, Heart's Desire, under Stein's direction. For five years, 1935 until 1940, she rented the Villa Capri at Elstree, where she lived with Tauber from the time of their marriage.
In April 1940 she joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, and after basic training joined an Ambulance Unit in Scotland, where she cared for Polish Soldiers, eventually becoming an NCO in a Polish unit. She later joined the Polish Welfare Unit in London, early in 1945 she travelled to Holland with the Red Cross to care for Polish soldiers escaping from Germany, and after VE Day moved to Meppen in Germany, receiving a high commendation from General Clemens Rudnicki for her work on behalf of Polish Servicemen.
Shortly before Tauber's death, she set up an artists studio in Beauchamp Place, which became the design and display company Diana Display Ltd. (later DNT Associates) based in Parsons Green, Fulham, London. She published a biography of her husband in 1949, a volume of autobiography (My Heart and I, 1959), and collaborated with Charles Castle on This was Richard Tauber, a book and a film issued in 1971 to mark what would have been Tauber's 80th birthday.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 3.103 |
Birthday | 1905-01-31 |
Place of Birth | Bath, Somerset, England, UK |
Also Known As | Mollie Ellis, Alice Mary Wolkowicki, |
1950
Bait
0/0
John Bentley stars as a man who returns home to claim his inheritance. He soon learns his half brother has spent his fortune and is mixed up with jewe...
Watch Now
Bait
1936
Land Without Music
6/3
Believing real life is an operetta, the citizens of the European country Lucco break into song at every blink of an eye. Since everybody's singing, no...
Watch Now
Land Without Music
1932
Her First Affaire
5.5/2
A headstrong young girl falls completely for a writer of trashy novels, and insinuates herself into his household, all to the chagrin of her erstwhile...
Watch Now
Her First Affaire
1934
The Rise of Catherine the Great
5.9/16
The woman who will become Catherine the Great marries into the Russian royal family when she weds Grand Duke Peter, the nephew of Empress Elizabeth. A...
Watch Now
The Rise of Catherine the Great
1932
Wedding Rehearsal
4.5/4
The grandmother of a British nobleman, reluctant to marry, plays matchmaker. He outmaneuvers her by getting all of the matches married off .
Watch Now
Wedding Rehearsal
1935
Heart's Desire
0/0
Richard Tauber, the great Austrian tenor, features in the story of a singing peasant from a Vienna beer-garden who conquers London, but at a cost...
Watch Now
Heart's Desire
1936
Pagliacci
0/0
Canio and his Comedia dell'Arte troupe tour Italy. His wife Nedda meets a young cadet and they plan to elope. He tries to leave her when he finds how...
Watch Now
Pagliacci
1934
The Warren Case
5/1
Chided by his boss for a conspicuous lack of sensational stories, Lewis Bevan takes matters into his own hands to revive his flagging career.
Watch Now
The Warren Case
1935
Mimi
5.2/4
A struggling playwright in 1850s Paris and his mate finds love that furnishes him with the inspiration he has long sought.
Watch Now
Mimi
1933
For Love of You
0/0
The second of two "Jack and Jim" musicals, starring Arthur Roscoe and Naunton Wayne.
Watch Now
For Love of You
1934
The Private Life of Don Juan
6.2/16
What do women want? Don Juan is aging. He's arrived secretly in Seville after a 20 year absence. His wife Dolores, whom he hasn't lived with in five y...
Watch Now
The Private Life of Don Juan
1934
Falling in Love
0/0
British comedy. It was released in the United States the following year under the alternative title Trouble Ahead.
Watch Now
Falling in Love
1928
The Farmer's Wife
5.609/69
Successful middle-aged farmer Samuel Sweetland becomes widowed, then his daughter marries and leaves home. Deciding he wishes to remarry, Sweetland pu...
Watch Now