Diana Dors in the 1956 film Yield to the Night:
Diana Dors was born on this day in 1931.
Diana Dors (October 23, 1931 – May 4, 1984) was an English actress and sex symbol. She was born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, England. She was considered the English equivalent of the blonde bombshells of Hollywood. She also had significant acting ability, which was destined never to be fully utilised (most of her later work is made up of sex-themed comedies that featured scenes near to soft-core pornography). Her success was such that, aged 20, she was the youngest registered owner of a Rolls Royce in the UK. Her best work as an actress may have been when she played a murderess in the 1956 film Yield to the Night.
Dors left a mark on popular culture; the "50s blonde bombshell look" popularized by Dors and, in the US, by "The Three 'Ms'" Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren and Marilyn Monroe.
A year or two before The Smiths catalogue was sold to Warner Brothers, a still of Diana Dors from the film Yield to the Night (1956) was considered by Morrissey for a Smiths 'greatest hits' compilation then being prepared by their record label at the time, Rough Trade.
That greatest-hits album never materialized because the rights to The Smiths catalogue were sold to Warner Brothers Records. Using Morrissey's concept, Warner Brothers used the Diana Dors image one year later as the cover of the final Smiths reissue.
