Diane Cilento

Cilento was born on 2 April 1932{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f1eaf97|title=Diane Cilento|work=British Film Institute|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220124204202/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f1eaf97|archive-date=24 January 2022}}"[https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6sz767w Cilento, Diane (1932–2011)]". snaccooperative.org. Retrieved 5 January 2024.{{Citation|title=Australian Biography Series 8: Diane Cilento|year=2015|publisher=Kanopy Streaming | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/211300875 }}{{cite web|url=https://www.library.qut.edu.au/about/collections/cilento/dianecilento.jsp|title=Diane Cilento|work=Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Library|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204212600/https://www.library.qut.edu.au/about/collections/cilento/dianecilento.jsp|archive-date=4 December 2013}}{{cite book|first1= Albert|last1=Moran|first2=Chris|last2=Keating|title=The A to Z of Australian Radio and Television|year=2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810870222|page=87|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OYRPAH2FrfcC&pg=PA87}}[https://www.onthisday.com/birthdays/date/1932/april Famous People Born in April 1932 - On This Day] in Brisbane, Queensland, the daughter of Phyllis (née McGlew) and Raphael Cilento, both medical practitioners in Queensland.{{cite web |title=Australian Biography: Diane Cilento |url=https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/australian-biography-diane-cilento |access-date=19 February 2022 |publisher=National Film and Sound Archive}}{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |author1=Finnane, Mark|year=2007|title=Cilento, Sir Raphael West (Ray) (1893–1985)|id=A170212b|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110304051037/http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A170212b.htm|archive-date=4 March 2011|pages=216–17|volume=17}}{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |author1=Mahoney, Mary D.|year=2007|title=Cilento, Phyllis Dorothy (1894–1987)|id=A170211b|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110304051014/http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A170211b.htm|archive-date=4 March 2011|pages=214–15|volume=17}} She was the fifth of six children; four of her siblings became medical practitioners, while her sister Margaret was an artist.{{cite news|date=19 January 2007|title=Margaret Cilento|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1539873/Margaret-Cilento.html|url-status=live|access-date=3 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180213195123/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1539873/Margaret-Cilento.html|archive-date=13 February 2018}} Cilento's paternal great-grandfather, Salvatore Cilento, arrived from Naples, Italy, in 1855.Desmond O'Connor, [http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2328/642/1/O'ConnoItaliansinSA1993.pdf Italians in South Australia: The first hundred years] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070920194009/https://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2328/642/1/O%27ConnoItaliansinSA1993.pdf |date=20 September 2007 }}, In D. O’Connor and A. Comin (eds) 1993. "Proceedings: the First Conference on the Impact of Italians in South Australia, 16–17 July 1993", Italian Congress: Italian Discipline, The Flinders University of South Australia: Adelaide, pp.15–32.

It was from a young age that Cilento decided to follow a career as an actress. After being expelled from school in Australia, she was schooled in New York while living with her father. Cilento later won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and moved to Britain in the early 1950s.

After graduation, Cilento found work on stage almost immediately and was signed to a five-year contract by Alexander Korda. Her first leading film role was in the British film Passage Home (1955), opposite fellow Australian Peter Finch.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47615890 |title=MARIAN MARCH PAGE. |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=23 November 1954 |access-date=11 February 2012 |page=16 |via=National Library of Australia}} She was in The Woman for Joe (1955) playing a Hungarian.{{cite magazine|access-date=22 March 2025|date=22 March 2025|first=Stephen|magazine=Filmink|last=Vagg|title=Forgotten British films: The Woman for Joe|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-films-the-woman-for-joe/}}

File:Diane Cilento with Peter Finch.jpg

She soon secured roles in British films and worked steadily until the end of the decade. In 1956, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for Helen of Troy in Jean Giraudoux's Tiger at the Gates. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Tom Jones in 1963[http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ The Official Academy Awards® Database], Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1963 and appeared in The Third Secret the following year.

She starred with Charlton Heston in the 1965 film The Agony and the Ecstasy, and with Paul Newman in the 1967 western film Hombre, and had a supporting role in The Wicker Man (1973).

Cilento continued working as an actress, in films and television. In the 1980s, she settled in Mossman, north of Cairns, where she built her own outdoor theatre, named "Karnak", in the tropical rainforest. The venture allowed her to participate in experimental drama.{{cite news|last1=Vallance|first1=Tom|title=Diane Cilento: Actress who won Oscar and Tony nominations and was married to Sean Connery and Anthony Shaffer|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/diane-cilento-actress-who-won-oscar-and-tony-nominations-and-was-married-to-sean-connery-and-anthony-2367400.html|access-date=17 November 2015|newspaper=The Independent|date=24 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117073500/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/diane-cilento-actress-who-won-oscar-and-tony-nominations-and-was-married-to-sean-connery-and-anthony-2367400.html|archive-date=17 November 2015|url-status=live}}

In 2001, she was awarded the Centenary Medal for "distinguished service to the arts, especially theatre".{{cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1118439|website=It's An Honour – Australia Celebrating Australians |title=Cilento, Diane |date=1 January 2001|access-date=7 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223074203/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1118439|archive-date=23 February 2019|url-status=live}}

In 1955, Cilento married Andrea Volpe, an Italian.{{cite news|title=Mother Did Not Know Diane Cilento Wed|newspaper=Leicester Mercury|date=15 February 1955|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/793405500}} She gave birth to their daughter Giovanna in 1957.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45647207 |title=How they live: Comfort for the Cilentos |work=The Australian Women's Weekly |date=2 July 1958| page=21}} Cilento and Volpe divorced in 1962. Later that year, Cilento married actor Sean Connery, with whom she had a son, Jason (born 1963).[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46240687 Surprise gift for Diane] The Australian Women's Weekly 25 December 1968 p. 2 – Contains photo of Sean, Gigi, Jason and Diane Cilento and Connery separated in 1971 and divorced in 1974.{{cite news|agency=Associated Press|title=Sean Connery, Wife Reveal Separation|newspaper=The La Crosse Tribune|date=17 February 1971|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/513436646}}{{cite news|author=Gardner, Hy|title=Personal Postscripts|newspaper=Lansing State Journal|date=3 August 1974|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/207289176|quote=Sean Connery finally got his divorce from lovely Diane Cilento}} In her autobiography My Nine Lives, Cilento said that Connery was emotionally and physically abusive during their marriage.{{cite news|last=McFarlane|first=Brian|date=29 April 2006|title=My Nine Lives|work=The Age|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/book-reviews/my-nine-lives/2006/04/28/1146198332897.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101114061847/http://www.theage.com.au/news/book-reviews/my-nine-lives/2006/04/28/1146198332897.html|archive-date=14 November 2010}}{{cite news|date=26 September 2005|title=Jealous Connery beat me, says ex-wife|newspaper=The Scotsman|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/jealous-connery-beat-me-says-ex-wife-2509499|access-date=21 August 2021}}{{cite news|last=Neal|first=Aly|date=12 February 2012|title=No more free passes to famous men who abuse women|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/02/12/no-more-free-passes-to-famous-men-who-abuse-women/?noredirect=on|access-date=31 October 2020}} In 1985, Cilento married playwright Anthony Shaffer, whom she met in 1972 while working on The Wicker Man. They remained married until his death in 2001.{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/nov/08/guardianobituaries.nigelfountain |title=Obituary: Anthony Shaffer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305183811/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/nov/08/guardianobituaries.nigelfountain |archive-date=5 March 2017 |date=8 November 2001 |work=The Guardian| url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/feb/10/arts.artsnews?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 |title=Playwright's family fight off mistress's claim to share legacy | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924150401/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/feb/10/arts.artsnews?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 |archive-date=24 September 2016 | date=10 February 2004| work=The Guardian|url-status=live}}

Cilento died of cancer at Cairns Base Hospital on 6 October 2011.{{cite news |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-07/diane-cilento-dies/3340782| title=Actress Diane Cilento dies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007134416/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-07/diane-cilento-dies/3340782 |archive-date=7 October 2011 |date=7 October 2011 |work=ABC News Australia|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/07/diane-cilento-obituary|title=Diane Cilento obituary|author=Bergan, Ronald |newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=11 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201214704/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/07/diane-cilento-obituary|archive-date=1 December 2016|url-status=live|date=7 October 2011}}{{Cite news|last=Keepnews|first=Peter|date=8 October 2011|title=Diane Cilento, Oscar-Nominated Actress, Dies at 78 [sic]|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/movies/diane-cilento-oscar-nominated-actress-dies-at-78.html}}{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15211014|title=Australian actress Diane Cilento dies aged 78 [sic]|newspaper=BBC News|access-date=20 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181102200952/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15211014|archive-date=2 November 2018|url-status=live|date=7 October 2011}}

• 1967 novel: The Manipulator. Charles Scribner's Sons.
• 1970 novel: Hybrid. Dell Publishing.
• 2007 autobiography: My Nine Lives. Penguin Books. {{ISBN|9780143006077}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|0162284}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20221219071934/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f1eaf97 Diane Cilento] at the British Film Institute
• [http://www.karnakplayhouse.com.au/ Diane Cilento's Karnak Playhouse] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317030718/http://www.karnakplayhouse.com.au/ |date=17 March 2012 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080420063610/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/spirit/stories/s1629329.htm "From Stardom to Sufism"] – interview with Cilento by Rachael Kohn on ABC Radio National May 2006 (MP3/Podcast available)
• [https://www.library.qut.edu.au/about/collections/cilento/ The Cilento Gift] – a collection of books, memorabilia, posters, furniture and original scripts from Diane Cilento's estate

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Category:1932 births

Category:2011 deaths

Category:20th-century Australian actresses

Category:21st-century Australian actresses

Category:Age controversies

Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Category:Australian film actresses

Category:Australian people of Italian descent

Category:Australian stage actresses

Category:Australian television actresses

Category:Deaths from cancer in Queensland

Category:People from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Category:Queensland Greats