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DIANE MCBAIN
Hollywood broke her heart
Many little girls do not keep their childhood promise
of beauty, but
honey-haired,
blue-eyed Diane McBain grew up to a stunning 5 ft 7 inches, with 120 pounds,
distributed in all the right places. She was one of the most sizzling
personalities of the 60s. Cameramen, long on praise, short on memory, still
claim that along with Hedy Lamarr and Vivien Leigh, Diane was the most photogenic
star they worked with. Seawell’s Hollywood Camera voted her ‘Queen
Of The Camera Lense’. Her beauty was always rendered in high key for
a spirit of fragility, to emphasise her perfect bone structure, wrote the
famed Seawell.
Diane McBain was a girl of innate breeding, provocative, curvaceous, a refreshing throwback to an earlier era when Hollywood was glamour and glamour was Hollywood. She parlayed her ethereal beauty with all the eye-popping extras into an exciting acting career. Her rise to fame was meteoric, and she had five years of solid stardom, before the major Hollywood studios started disintegrating, and independent productions took over.
She was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 18, 1941, and got her break in movies in 1960, while modelling to earn money for her college education. 1959 saw her face splashed across covers of various glossy magazines, when she was named ‘Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses Queen’. The trophies kept piling up with one beauty title after another. It was very natural that a Warner Bros movie scout should spot her and offer her a TV/movie contract.
There were no hardships of banging on producers doors, taking on any job just to make ends meet. Everything came to her on a silver platter. Success just fell into her lap with no struggle at all. Her first project at Warner Bros. was a starring part in an episode of the TV series: 77 Sunset Strip, followed by an important part in their big-budget movie: Ice Palace (1960), based on Edna Ferber’s famous novel, in which she played Richard Burton’s grand-daughter. The studio wasted no time in casting her as a regular in the popular TV series: Surfside Six (1960-62), in which she starred with heartthrob of the day, Troy Donahue. The series and the stars were an enormous hit, and the public clamoured for more of McBain and Donahue.
In 1961, Warners released Parrish starring Troy, Diane and Connie Stevens, which turned out to be a hugely successful soap opera with lathers and lathers of emotion. Diane’s opening scene had audiences spell-bound. Not only were critics enthralled by her beauty, but she also gave a sit-back-and-take-notice performance. The film won her the Golden Globe award as the Most Promising Newcomer of 1961. Of all the blonde actresses that ever graced the screen, Diane McBain wins hands down as the most beautiful of them all. The title of ‘Love Goddess 1961 Style’ was also conferred on her.
A string of starring roles followed at Warner Bros. These included: Claudelle Inglish, playing the title role of Erskine Caldwell’s famed novel for which she received excellent reviews; Black Gold which was a remake of Boom Town; The Caretakers about the inmates of an asylum; Mary Mary, the famous Broadway play in which she co-starred with Debbie Reynolds, and lastly, A Distant Trumpet, sharing acting honours with Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette.
She and Warner Bros came to parting of the ways because she refused to play an inconsequential role in Sex & The Single Girl with Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood. They had nothing else in the offing for her, so the break was mutual. After a spate of roles in top-notch films, stardom should have been assured for her, but as a free-lancer, studios weren’t exactly knocking on her door. There was an offer to star with James Stewart in Fields Of Honour at UI, but the project fell through. Except for one episode of Burke’s Law, she found no work for five months. Nights of endless partying left a vacuum. She then embarked on the self-improvement kick, attending night classes at UCLA, majoring in French, Italian and Spanish.
In 1965, staying alone in her Coldwater Canyon mansion, she began to receive crank calls. Distraught with fear and the emptiness in her life, she decided to leave town. When her parents got back from vacation, they called her, but got no response even after three days. Panic-stricken, they informed the police. Diane McBain became front-cover news with the headlines screaming Fear Felt For Missing Star. Many feared she was kidnapped, some felt she may have been murdered. She was finally located at the Coronado Hotel in San Deigo, where she had registered under an assumed name. She wanted to get away from being out-of-work actress Diane McBain and to think things out she told a battery of reporters. In a personal letter to this writer, she wrote, “My career had fallen off due to unsympathetic glamouress roles. I want to play a real woman and not a schemer. A girl’s life in Hollywood is insecure, dreams can tumble. I thought that this was the land of make-believe, but under the make-believe are problems so real and so serious, I’m not at all sure whether the game is worth the candle. The glamour route is confusing, I’ve had it. If it comes to the case of me losing my identity, I’d rather forfeit the career. I can never do nude scenes in films, I’m much too old-fashioned for it. I’d rather be a regular girl, fall in love, get married and have kids.”
The publicity concerning her disappearance proved to be a turning point in re-igniting her career. MGM signed her for the lead opposite Elvis Presley in Spinout (1966), where she looked as gorgeous as ever. Other starring roles followed in: The Karate Killers, Mary Jane, Thunder Alley, Mini-Skirt Mob, I Sailed To Tahiti With An All-Girl Crew, Five The Hard Way, Savage Season, The Delta Factor and Wicked, Wicked (1973).
Personal happiness seemed to elude her. The one major love of her life was Richard Burton, with whom she became involved during the filming of Ice Palace. Of course, she had the good sense to truncate the relationship when she found out he was married. The press had a field day drawing their own conclusions about the affair that did not happen. Magazines and tabloids put out carefully constructed propaganda to mis-characterise her like being a “home-wrecker”. Her illusions about love and life were shattered, and she nursed her broken heart for years. She eventually found the right guy in the 70s to say “I do”.
Marriage and motherhood put her career on hold for sometime. She later took time out and became a popular entertainer in Vietnam with USO shows. She continued to find work in Italy and Mexico, but the films were a far cry from those big-budget Warner Bros sagas. During the 70s and 80s she starred in Deathhead Virgin, Once Upon A Starry Night, Monster, Mostroids, Donner Pass: The Road To Survival, Flying From The Hawk and lastly, Temporada Salvaje (1987).
Unlike many stars, Diane McBain is still grateful to Warner Bros. for all those well-etched roles in the high-tech, glossy fantasies they churned out — synonymous in the 60s — which under-scored her credentials as a dramatic actress. At 57, her beauty has stilled the march of time. Nothing that is superlative can ever be repeated. The memory of Diane McBain lingers on.
Compiled by Ian Edwards