Diana Napier

Diana Napier (31 Januari 1905 – 12 Maret 1982) adalah seorang aktris film Inggris. Dia dilahirkan sebagai Alice Mary Ellis di Bath, Somerset dan meninggal di Windlesham, Surrey, pada usia 77 tahun. Napier, yang dikenal keluarganya sebagai "Mollie", menikah tiga kali. Suami pertamanya adalah aktor G.H. Mulcaster yang dinikahinya pada tahun 1927 dan kemudian bercerai. Yang kedua adalah tenor Austria, Richard Tauber (1891–1948), yang dinikahinya dari tahun 1936 hingga kematiannya, dan yang ketiga adalah artis Polandia, Stanislaw Wolkowicki (1902-1965), yang ia temui selama perang dan dinikahinya pada tahun 1953. Dia meninggal pada tahun 1965, dan dia dimakamkan bersamanya di Halaman Gereja St Michael dan All Angels, Sunningdale, Berkshire di 1982. Napier adalah putri Mayor APB Ellis, seorang spesialis THT dan kadang-kadang ahli bedah tentara, dan Alice Napier. Dia mengambil nama gadis ibunya sebagai nama layarnya. Setelah menghabiskan sebagian besar masa kecilnya di Afrika Selatan, di mana dia bersekolah di Maris Stella School di Durban, keluarganya kembali ke Inggris dan dia memulai karir panggung. Setelah beberapa tahun dalam perbendaharaan, dia ditawari tes layar oleh Alexander Korda, dan membuat beberapa film sebelum dia membatalkannya. Dia kemudian muncul pada tahun 1935 berlawanan dengan Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. di Mimi, sebuah film yang disutradarai oleh Paul L. Stein, teman masa kecil Richard Tauber, yang menyutradarai film Inggris pertama Tauber Blossom Time pada tahun 1934. Melalui Paul Stein dia bertemu Tauber, dan muncul bersamanya dalam tiga film yang dibuat pada tahun 1935/36, yang pertama, Heart's Desire, di bawah arahan Stein. Selama lima tahun, 1935 hingga 1940, dia menyewa Villa Capri di Elstree, tempat dia tinggal bersama Tauber sejak pernikahan mereka. Pada bulan April 1940 ia bergabung dengan First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, dan setelah pelatihan dasar bergabung dengan Unit Ambulans di Skotlandia, tempat ia merawat Tentara Polandia, dan akhirnya menjadi NCO di unit Polandia. Dia kemudian bergabung dengan Unit Kesejahteraan Polandia di London, pada awal tahun 1945 dia melakukan perjalanan ke Belanda dengan Palang Merah untuk merawat tentara Polandia yang melarikan diri dari Jerman, dan setelah VE Day pindah ke Meppen di Jerman, menerima pujian tinggi dari Jenderal Clemens Rudnicki atas karyanya atas nama Prajurit Polandia. Sesaat sebelum kematian Tauber, dia mendirikan studio seniman di Beauchamp Place, yang menjadi perusahaan desain dan tampilan Diana Display Ltd. (kemudian DNT Associates) yang berbasis di Parsons Green, Fulham, London. Dia menerbitkan biografi suaminya pada tahun 1949, volume otobiografi (My Heart and I, 1959), dan berkolaborasi dengan Charles Castle pada Ini adalah Richard Tauber, sebuah buku dan film yang diterbitkan pada tahun 1971 untuk menandai ulang tahun ke-80 Tauber.

Diana Napier (31 January 1905 – 12 March 1982) was an English film actress. She was born Alice Mary Ellis in Bath, Somerset and died in Windlesham, Surrey, aged 77. Napier, known to her family as "Mollie", was married three times. Her first husband was the actor G.H. Mulcaster whom she married in 1927 and later divorced. Her second was the Austrian tenor, Richard Tauber (1891–1948), to whom she was married from 1936 until his death, and her third was the Polish artist, Stanislaw Wolkowicki (1902-1965), whom she had met during the war and married in 1953. He died in 1965, and she was buried with him in the Churchyard of St Michael and All Angels, Sunningdale, Berkshire in 1982. Napier was the daughter of Major APB Ellis, an ENT specialist and sometime army surgeon, and Alice Napier. She took her mother's maiden name as her screen name. Having spent much of her childhood in South Africa, where she attended the Maris Stella School in Durban, the family returned to England and she embarked on a stage career. After a few years in repertory, she was offered a screen test by Alexander Korda, and made a few films before he dropped her. She then appeared in 1935 opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in Mimi, a film directed by Paul L. Stein, a childhood friend of Richard Tauber, who had directed Tauber's first British film Blossom Time in 1934. It was through Paul Stein she met Tauber, and appeared with him in three films made in 1935/36, the first of them, Heart's Desire, under Stein's direction. For five years, 1935 until 1940, she rented the Villa Capri at Elstree, where she lived with Tauber from the time of their marriage. In April 1940 she joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, and after basic training joined an Ambulance Unit in Scotland, where she cared for Polish Soldiers, eventually becoming an NCO in a Polish unit. She later joined the Polish Welfare Unit in London, early in 1945 she travelled to Holland with the Red Cross to care for Polish soldiers escaping from Germany, and after VE Day moved to Meppen in Germany, receiving a high commendation from General Clemens Rudnicki for her work on behalf of Polish Servicemen. Shortly before Tauber's death, she set up an artists studio in Beauchamp Place, which became the design and display company Diana Display Ltd. (later DNT Associates) based in Parsons Green, Fulham, London. She published a biography of her husband in 1949, a volume of autobiography (My Heart and I, 1959), and collaborated with Charles Castle on This was Richard Tauber, a book and a film issued in 1971 to mark what would have been Tauber's 80th birthday.