Diane Cilento
Encyclopedia
Diane Cilento was an Australian theatre and film actress and author.

Biography

Cilento's parents, Sir Raphael Cilento
Raphael Cilento
Sir Raphael West Cilento , often known as "Ray", was a notable Australian medical practitioner and public health administrator.-Early life and education:...

 and Lady Phyllis Cilento
Phyllis Cilento
Phyllis Cilento, Lady Cilento was an Australian medical practitioner and journalist.-Personal life:Phyllis Dorothy McGlew was born on 13 March 1894 at Rockdale, Sydney, New South Wales, the daughter of Charles Thomas McGlew and Alice Lane . She grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. She married...

, were both distinguished medical practitioners.

At an early age she decided to follow a career as an actress and, after a period living with her father in New York, Cilento won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...

 (RADA) and moved to England in the early 1950s. She soon secured roles in British films and worked steadily until the end of the decade. In 1956, Cilento was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic)
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
This is a list of winners and nomination of the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress. The award was first presented in 1947.-1940s:* 1947: Patricia Neal – Another Part of the Forest* 1949: Shirley Booth – Goodbye, My Fancy-1950s:...

 for Helen of Troy in Jean Giraudoux
Jean Giraudoux
Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux was a French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright. He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy...

's Tiger at the Gates.

She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...

 for her performance in Tom Jones
Tom Jones (film)
Tom Jones is a 1963 British adventure comedy film, an adaptation of Henry Fielding's classic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling , starring Albert Finney as the titular hero. It was one of the most critically acclaimed and popular comedies of its time, winning four Academy Awards...

in 1963 and appeared in The Third Secret
The Third Secret (film)
The Third Secret is a 1964 British drama film directed by Charles Crichton. The screenplay by Robert L. Joseph focuses on an American newscaster who investigates the mysterious death of his psychoanalyst...

the following year, but she allowed her film career to decline following her marriage to actor Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...

, the second of her three husbands, to whom she was married from 1962 to 1973. They had one son, the actor Jason Connery
Jason Connery
Jason Joseph Connery is an English actor.-Early life:Connery grew up in London. He attended Millfield School, a co-educational independent school in Somerset, England, and later at the independent Gordonstoun School in Scotland. He was later accepted into the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School...

.

In Connery's James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 film You Only Live Twice
You Only Live Twice (film)
You Only Live Twice is the fifth spy film in the James Bond series, and the fifth to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's screenplay was written by Roald Dahl, and loosely based on Ian Fleming's 1964 novel of the same name...

, she doubled for her husband's co-star Mie Hama
Mie Hama
is a Japanese actress, best-known outside Japan for her role as Kissy Suzuki in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice.-Career:...

 in a diving scene because Hama was indisposed.

She starred with Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...

 in the 1965 film The Agony and the Ecstasy
The Agony and the Ecstasy (film)
The Agony and the Ecstasy is a 1965 film directed by Carol Reed, starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II. The film was partly based on Irving Stone's biographical novel of the same name. This film deals with the conflicts of Michelangelo and Pope Julius II...

, and with Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...

 in the 1967 western film Hombre
Hombre (film)
Hombre is a 1967 revisionist western film directed by Martin Ritt, based on the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. It stars Paul Newman, Richard Boone, Martin Balsam, Diane Cilento and Fredric March....

.

In 1985, Cilento married Anthony Shaffer, a playwright, who wrote the script of The Wicker Man; she met him when she appeared in the film in 1973, and he joined her when she returned to Queensland in 1975. During the 1970s, she studied Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...

 under the British spiritual teacher John G. Bennett
John G. Bennett
John Godolphin Bennett, was a British mathematician, scientist, technologist, industrial research director, and author. He is perhaps best known for his many books on psychology and spirituality, and particularly the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff...

.

Cilento continued working as an actress, both in films and in television and, in the 1980s, settled in Mossman
Mossman, Queensland
For the collection of Horsedrawn Carriages see Mossman CollectionMossman is a town in Far North Queensland, Australia, on the Mossman River...

, north of Cairns, where she built her own outdoor theatre, named "Karnak", in the rainforest. The venture allowed her to participate in experimental drama.

In 2001, she was awarded the Centenary Medal
Centenary Medal
The Centenary Medal is an award created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the Centenary of Federation of Australia and to honour people who have made a contribution to Australian society or government...

, for "distinguished service to the arts, especially theatre".

In 2006, Cilento released her autobiography, My Nine Lives.

Filmography

  • All Hallowe'en (1952)
  • Wings of Danger
    Wings of Danger
    Wings of Danger is a 1952 drama film directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Zachary Scott and Robert Beatty.-Cast:*Zachary Scott as Richard Van Ness*Robert Beatty as Nick Talbot*Naomi Chance as Avril Talbot*Kay Kendall as Alexia LaRoche...

    (1952)
  • Moulin Rouge
    Moulin Rouge (1952 film)
    Moulin Rouge is a 1952 film directed by John Huston, produced by Sir John Woolf and James Woolf of Romulus Films and released by United Artists. The film is set in Paris in the late 19th century, following artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in the city's bohemian sub-culture in and around the...

    (1952)
  • Meet Mr. Lucifer
    Meet Mr. Lucifer
    Meet Mr. Lucifer is a black and white British comedy satire film released in 1953 starring Stanley Holloway. Filmed at Ealing Studios, London, The film is based on the play Beggar My Neighbour by Arnold Ridley -Plot:When Mr Pedelty leaves his firm, he is given a...

    (1953)
  • The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp
    The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp
    The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp is a 1956 British black and white part-fantasy comedy film directed by Alan Bromly and starring Felix Aylmer as a second hand store owner, and Diane Cilento as the Angel....

    (1954)
  • Passing Stranger
    Passing Stranger (film)
    Passing Stranger is a 1954 British crime film directed by John Arnold and starring Lee Patterson, Diane Cilento and Duncan Lamont. Various criminals descend on a small British town.-Cast:* Lee Patterson - Chick* Diane Cilento - Jill...

    (1954)
  • Passage Home
    Passage Home
    -Cast:* Anthony Steel as First Mate Vosper* Peter Finch as Captain Lucky Ryland* Diane Cilento as Ruth Elton* Cyril Cusack as Bohannon the steward* Geoffrey Keen as Ike the bosun* Hugh Griffith as Pettigrew* Duncan Lamont as 1st Mate Llewellyn...

    (1955)
  • The Woman for Joe
    The Woman for Joe
    The Woman for Joe is a 1955 British drama film starring Diane Cilento, George Baker, Jimmy Karoubi and David Kossoff. The owner of a circus sideshow and his prize attraction become romantically involved with the same woman.-Cast:...

    (1955)
  • The Passionate Stranger
    The Passionate Stranger
    The Passionate Stranger is a 1957 British drama film, directed by Muriel Box and starring Margaret Leighton and Ralph Richardson. It uses the film within a film device, with the "real" part of the plot shot in black-and-white and the "fictional" element in colour...

    (1957)
  • The Admirable Crichton
    The Admirable Crichton (film)
    The Admirable Crichton is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Kenneth More, Diane Cilento, Sally Ann Howes and Cecil Parker. The film was based on J. M...

    (1957)
  • The Truth About Women
    The Truth About Women
    The Truth About Women is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Muriel Box and starring Laurence Harvey, Julie Harris, Mai Zetterling and Diane Cilento...

    (1957)
  • Jet Storm
    Jet Storm
    Jet Storm is a 1959 British thriller film, where Richard Attenborough plays Ernest Tilley, a man who lost his daughter in a hit-and-run accident. He tracks down the man responsible for the accident and boards the same plane, threatening to blow up himself and everyone on board as an act of...

    (1959)
  • The Full Treatment
    The Full Treatment
    The Full Treatment is a 1960 British mystery film directed by Val Guest and starring Claude Dauphin, Diane Cilento and Ronald Lewis. A racing driver, involved in a bad accident, goes to the Cote D'Azur to recuperate. While there he becomes increasingly prone to violence, and draws a Harley Street...

    (1960)
  • The Naked Edge
    The Naked Edge
    The Naked Edge is a 1961 thriller film starring Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr. The movie was a British-American co-production distributed by United Artists, directed by Michael Anderson and produced by George Glass and Walter Seltzer with Marlon Brando Sr. as executive producer...

    (1961)

  • I Thank a Fool
    I Thank a Fool
    I Thank a Fool is a 1962 British crime film made by Eaton and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Robert Stevens and produced by Anatole de Grunwald from a screenplay by Karl Tunberg based on the novel by Audrey Erskine Lindop...

    (1962)
  • Tom Jones
    Tom Jones (film)
    Tom Jones is a 1963 British adventure comedy film, an adaptation of Henry Fielding's classic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling , starring Albert Finney as the titular hero. It was one of the most critically acclaimed and popular comedies of its time, winning four Academy Awards...

    (1963)
  • The Third Secret
    The Third Secret (film)
    The Third Secret is a 1964 British drama film directed by Charles Crichton. The screenplay by Robert L. Joseph focuses on an American newscaster who investigates the mysterious death of his psychoanalyst...

    (1964)
  • Rattle of a Simple Man
    Rattle of a Simple Man
    Rattle of a Simple Man is a 1964 British comedy film directed by Muriel Box and starring Diane Cilento, Harry H. Corbett and Michael Medwin. After travelling down from Manchester to watch the FA Cup final, a naive young man becomes involved with a prostitute.-Selected cast:* Diane Cilento as...

    (1964)
  • Once Upon a Tractor (1965)
  • The Agony and the Ecstasy
    The Agony and the Ecstasy (film)
    The Agony and the Ecstasy is a 1965 film directed by Carol Reed, starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II. The film was partly based on Irving Stone's biographical novel of the same name. This film deals with the conflicts of Michelangelo and Pope Julius II...

    (1965)
  • Hombre
    Hombre (film)
    Hombre is a 1967 revisionist western film directed by Martin Ritt, based on the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. It stars Paul Newman, Richard Boone, Martin Balsam, Diane Cilento and Fredric March....

    (1967)
  • Negatives
    Negatives (1968 film)
    Negatives is a 1968 British drama film directed by Peter Medak. It stars Peter McEnery and Diane Cilento.-Cast:*Peter McEnery as Theo*Diane Cilento as Riangard*Glenda Jackson as Vivien*Billy Russell as Old Man*Norman Rossington as Auctioneer...

    (1968)
  • Z.P.G.
    Z.P.G.
    Z.P.G. is a British science fiction film that was released in 1972, in the wake of Paul R. Ehrlich's best-selling book The Population Bomb. The film concerns an overpopulated, very polluted future Earth, whose world government executes those who violate a 30-year ban on procreation...

    (1972)
  • Hitler: The Last Ten Days
    Hitler: The Last Ten Days
    Hitler: The Last Ten Days is a 1973 film depicting the days leading up to Adolf Hitler's suicide. It stars Alec Guinness and Simon Ward. The original music score was composed by Mischa Spoliansky...

    (1973)
  • The Wicker Man (1973)
  • Duet for Four (1982)
  • The Boy Who Had Everything
    The Boy Who Had Everything
    The Boy Who Had Everything is a 1984 Australian film written and directed by Stephen Wallace. Its video title was Winner Takes All. It won the award for best screenplay at the Australian Film Institute...

    (1984)


Writings

  • 1968: Manipulator
  • 1972: Hybrid
  • 2006: My Nine Lives

Family

Parents
  • Sir Raphael Cilento
    Raphael Cilento
    Sir Raphael West Cilento , often known as "Ray", was a notable Australian medical practitioner and public health administrator.-Early life and education:...

     (1893–1985)
  • Lady Phyllis Cilento
    Phyllis Cilento
    Phyllis Cilento, Lady Cilento was an Australian medical practitioner and journalist.-Personal life:Phyllis Dorothy McGlew was born on 13 March 1894 at Rockdale, Sydney, New South Wales, the daughter of Charles Thomas McGlew and Alice Lane . She grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. She married...

     (1894–1987)


Siblings
Diane Cilento was the fifth of six children, four of whom became medical practitioners, and the other, Margaret, was an artist.

Husbands and children
Husband Children
1956–1960 Andrea Volpe Giovanna (Gigi) (10 December 1957–)
1962–1973 Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...

 (1930–)
Jason Connery
Jason Connery
Jason Joseph Connery is an English actor.-Early life:Connery grew up in London. He attended Millfield School, a co-educational independent school in Somerset, England, and later at the independent Gordonstoun School in Scotland. He was later accepted into the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School...

 (11 January 1963–)
1985–2001 Anthony Shaffer
(1926–2001)
In 1975 Shaffer made his home in Queensland with Cilento. They married in 1985.
Cilento was Shaffer's third wife; he had two daughters from a previous marriage.

Death

Diane Cilento died at Cairns Base Hospital on 6 October 2011, the day after her 78th birthday, after a long battle with cancer.

External links

  • Diane Cilento's Karnak Playhouse
  • "From Stardom to Sufism" – interview with Cilento by Rachael Kohn on ABC Radio National
    Radio National
    ABC Radio National is an Australia-wide non-commercial radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Radio National broadcasts national programming in areas that include news and current affairs, the arts, social issues, science, drama and comedy...

     May 2006 (MP3/Podcast available)
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