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Diana Josephine Churchill (21 August 1913 – 8 October 1994) was an English actress. Churchill was a crisp, classy blonde with blue eyes who appeared in several British films, playing the sardonic heroine in a handful of comic chillers during the early 1930s. She was mainly a theatre actress into the war years and after,[1][2] "renowned for her versatility in playing Shakespeare, Restoration comedy, farce, Chekhov and revue".[3]

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Diana Churchill
Churchill in December 1936
Born	(1913-08-21)21 August 1913 Wembley, England
Died	8 October 1994(1994-10-08) (aged 81) Denville Hall, London, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1932–1977
Spouses	Barry K. Barnes ​ ​ (m. 1938; died 1965)​ Mervyn Johns ​ ​ (m. 1976; died 1992)​
Relatives	Glynis Johns (step-daughter) Gareth Forwood (step-grandson)

Early life and education

Churchill was born on 21 August 1913^{[citation needed]} in Wembley, London, where her family resided in Crawford House. One of three sisters, she was the daughter of Ethel Mary Churchill (née Nunn), of the substantial "Nunn" coal merchant family, and Joseph Henry "Harry" Churchill, a doctor of medicine. She is of distant relation to Winston Churchill and his daughter, Diana, who was also an actress. Her father descended from a younger brother of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, who "had an affair with an actress".[2]

On leaving school, she persuaded her father to let her train for the stage.

Career

Churchill made her professional stage debut in 1931 and her screen debut in 1933, but her big break came in 1935 with the British comedy film Foreign Affaires, directed by and starring Tom Walls.

She was one of the first three stars to have their names up in lights in the West End when lighting restrictions were lifted at the end of the Second World War. Churchill performed in a production of Love's Labours Lost at The Old Vic opposite Michael Redgrave, with Hugh Hunt directing.[2]

Churchill was cast in the starring role of Kathleen Scott in Charles Frend's 1948 adventure film Scott of the Antarctic with John Mills as Robert Falcon Scott, for which she was widely praised.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Marriages

Churchill married twice. In 1938, she married actor Barry K. Barnes. Barnes died on 12 January 1965, and she married the already-father of actress Glynis Johns, actor Mervyn Johns, on 4 December 1976 in Hillingdon, London. He too predeceased her, dying on 6 September 1992.

Death and funeral

She died from multiple sclerosis at the age of 81 in Denville Hall in Northwood, London on 8 October 1994.

Churchill was cremated at Breakspear Crematorium in Ruislip, London.

Filmography

• Service for Ladies (1932)
• Sally Bishop (1932)
• Foreign Affaires (1935)
• Sensation (1936)
• Pot Luck (1936)
• Dishonour Bright (1936)
• The Dominant Sex (1937)
• School for Husbands (1937)
• Jane Steps Out (1938)
• Housemaster (1938)
• Yes, Madam? (1939)
• The Spider (1940)
• Law and Disorder (1940)
• The House of the Arrow (1940)
• Scott of the Antarctic (1948)
• The History of Mr. Polly (1949)
• The Winter's Tale (1967)
• The New Avengers, 1 episode (1977)

References

External links

• Diana Churchill at IMDb 
• Diana Churchill at Theatricalia

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