Diana Love Douglas-Darrid-Webster (Dill)

Diana Dill was a Bermuda-born American actress, who also appeared professionally under the names Diana Douglas and Diana Douglas Darrid.

Diana Love Dill was born in Bermuda, the daughter of Ruth Rapalje (née Neilson) and Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Melville Dill (also the name of her great-grandfather, a mariner), who was a former Attorney General of Bermuda, and former Commanding Officer of the Bermuda Militia Artillery. Hers is a prominent Bermuda family, present on the island since the very early 17th century. Her sister, Ruth Dill, was married to John Seward Johnson I, heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune.

She was once married to Kirk Douglas, with whom she had studied acting before the Second World War. During the War, Douglas was serving in the US Navy when he saw the May 3, 1943 issue of Life Magazine, which featured a photograph of Dill on the cover. He showed the cover to his shipmates and said that he would marry her. The two were married on November 2, 1943. They had two sons, Michael and Joel, before divorcing in 1951.

Dill married actor Bill Darrid, and the two lived with Diana's sons on the US East Coast until his death in 1992. In 2002 Dill married Donald Webster, in the old Devonshire Parish Church in Bermuda.

Dill continued to appear in films with Kirk Douglas, most recently in 2003, when he played her husband in It Runs in the Family, in which son Michael Douglas and his son Cameron also acted. Joel Douglas was an associate producer of the film.

As Diana Douglas Darrid, she published her memoirs, In the Wings: A Memoir (1999) (ISBN 1-56980-151-7), with a preface by her son, Michael. The book received a favorable nod from Publishers Weekly.

• Reference: Wikipedia

Actress Diana Douglas Webster, mother of Michael Douglas and former wife of Kirk Douglas, died of cancer on July 3, 2015 in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 92.

Born Diana Love Dill on January 22, 1923 in Devonshire, Bermuda, Webster appeared on film, television and stage. She appeared in more than 20 films, including “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and “It Runs in the Family,” in addition to TV roles on “The West Wing” and “Love is a Many Splendored Thing.”

Webster met Kirk Douglas when they were both acting students at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. They married in 1943 and had Michael, and Joel (now a producer) in 1947.

After a divorce from Kirk Douglas in 1951, Webster married actor William "Bill" Darrid in 1956 and then Donald A. Webster upon her second husband’s death.

Diana is survived by her husband Donald A. Webster

A memorial service will be held in Los Angeles.

Her wishes were that she be cremated and her ashes be spread over Bermuda.

Few people are lucky enough to experience close-up those mutually attracting worlds of politics and entertainment. Donald Webster is one of those. From his earliest memories he set his sights on Washington, D.C., where he imagined the fate of the world was decided. Over the years he realized his youthful dream --working in the Congress, the Treasury and the White House. But his political career failed to provide a sense of creative satisfaction, and when his first wife died, he cut loose from Washington and headed to a California beach and later to New York to study painting and photography. A long and winding trail finally led him to writing as his preferred means of creative self expression. His transformation from the world of politics to that of the arts took a decisive leap forward after he fell in love with actress Diana Douglas.Diana Douglas, the first wife of Kirk Douglas and mother of Michael Douglas, died Saturday in Los Angeles. She was 92.

Douglas died of cancer at a motion picture industry retirement home in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, according to an obituary from Michael Douglas's production company, Furthur Films. It cited Diana Douglas's husband of fifteen years, Donald A. Webster of Washington, D.C.

Born Diana Love Dill in Bermuda, where her family had lived for centuries and her father was the attorney general, Douglas later moved to New York and met Kirk Douglas while they were both studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

She later went to California on a $200-a-week contract with Warner Bros. against Douglas's advice that she try for Broadway instead.

She went on to have a six-decade as an actress and model, appearing in dozens of movies and television episodes, including the 1987 Steve Martin film "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and the TV shows "ER" and "The West Wing."

She also did stage roles, including some on Broadway.

In May 1943, Douglas appeared on the cover of Life magazine, modeling spring fashions.

"Kirk Douglas, by then serving in the Navy during World War II, saw her on the cover and told his shipmates he would marry her," according to the obituary.

They wed that November and went on the have two sons, Michael and Joel, before divorcing in 1951.

"We had brought to marriage such different concepts of what it constituted, what was expected due," she wrote in her memoir, "In the Wings and Beyond."

The two remained on amicable terms. She even appeared with him in several movies, including her last film, 2003's "It Runs in the Family," which also starred Michael Douglas and one of her grandsons, Cameron.

Douglas was also married to actor Bill Darrid from 1956 until his death in 1992.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Feb 25 2020, 11:40:55 UTC

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GEDCOM Note

NOT Hannalore Marx - this was wife number one

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Dill-772