Diana Hyland

Diana Hyland a striking knowing beauty with a confident air about her was born Diane Gentner on January 25 1936 in Ohio and appeared on stage in summer stock as a teen before graduating from Cleveland Heights High School Moving to New York in 1955 to test her acting mettle the slimfaced honeyblonde actress began to find TV roles almost immediately one of her first being a Robert Montgomery Presents episode in between supplementing her income as a switchboard operator Initially billed Diane Gentner she changed it to Diana Hyland taking her mothers maiden name Following a tour of the play Look Back in Anger she broke through quite impressively on the Broadway boards as the neurotic ingénue in the acclaimed 1959 Tennessee Williams production of Sweet Bird of Youth starring Paul Newman and Geraldine Page Her role of Heavenly Finley could have made her a film star had she been allowed to take it the big screen but Shirley Knight was given that honor In the early 60s Diana focused on the small screen with strong emotional roles on such soaps as Young Dr Malone 1958 and Peyton Place 1964 in a particularly showy role as a ministers alcoholic wife She also scored well in a series of guest parts notably The Twilight Zone The Fugitive The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Alcoa Presents the last for which she received an Emmy nomination She was a particularly soughtafter presence on medical shows as well spicing up such popular tearjerkers as Ben Casey Dr Kildare The Doctors and the Nurses Medical Center and Marcus Welby MD Strangely Diana made noticeably few films during her career her best showcase being that of the unconventional ministers wife opposite Don Murrays Rev Norman Vincent Peale in One Mans Way 1964 In addition to a small downbeat supporting turn in The Chase 1966 starring Marlon Brando Robert Redford and Jane Fonda she also costarred with Fess Parker in the routine western yarn Smoky 1966 Remaining focused on TV Diana continued to brightened up the TV medium into the 1970s with an emphasis on crime Kojak Harry O Cannon Mannix etc IMDb Mini Biography By Gary Brumburgh grhomepacbellnet