Alice Mary Wolkowicki (née Ellis, formerly Mulcaster and Tauber; 31 January 1905 – 12 March 1982), known professionally as Diana Napier, was an English film actress."Napier, Diana" , British Film Institute
Biography
Napier was born 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
Richard Tauber (16 May 1891 – 8 January 1948) was an Austrian tenor and film actor.
Early life
Richard Tauber was born in Linz, Austria, to Elisabeth Seifferth (née Denemy), a widow and an actress who played soubrette roles at the local theat ...
(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 hen she worked for the Polish Red Crossand married in 1953. He died in 1965, and she was buried with him in the Churchyard of St Michael and All Angels,
Sunningdale
Sunningdale is a large village with a retail area and a civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. It takes up the extreme south-east corner of Berkshire, England. It has a railway station on the (London) Waterloo to Reading ...
, 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
A repertory theatre is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation.
United Kingdom
Annie Horniman founded the first modern repertory theatre in Manchester after withdrawin ...
, she was offered a
screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a came ...
by
Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)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
Elstree is a large village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire, England. It is about northwest of central London on the former A5 road, that follows the course of Watling Street. In 2011, its population was 5,110. It forms part of t ...
, where she lived with Tauber from the time of their marriage.
In April 1940 she joined the
First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteer Corps) (FANY (PRVC)) is a British independent all-female registered charity formed in 1907 and active in both nursing and intelligence work during the World Wars. Its members wear a mili ...
, 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
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...
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. etails in her book 'My Heart and I', London, 1959, pages 155-177
Shortly before Tauber's death, she set up an artist's studio in
Beauchamp Place
Beauchamp Place (pronounced "Beecham Place") is a fashionable shopping street in the Knightsbridge district of London. It was known as Grove Place until 1885.
It was once better known for its brothels and lodging houses, but since the Edwardia ...
, 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.
The Private Life of Don Juan
''The Private Life of Don Juan'' is a 1934 British comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Korda and starring Douglas Fairbanks, Merle Oberon and Benita Hume. At the age of 51, it was the final role of Fairbanks, who died five years later. Th ...
Royal Cavalcade
''Royal Cavalcade'', also known as ''Regal Cavalcade'', is a 1935 British, black-and-white, drama film directed by six separate directors: Thomas Bentley (Supervising Director), Herbert Brenon, Norman Lee, Walter Summers, W. P. Kellino and Mar ...
Falling in Love
Falling in love is the development of strong feelings of attachment and love, usually towards another person.
The term is metaphorical, emphasizing that the process, like the physical act of falling, is sudden, uncontrollable and leaves the ...
Land Without Music
''Land Without Music'' is a 1936 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Richard Tauber, Diana Napier and Jimmy Durante. It was made at Denham Studios. The film was one of a number of operetta films made in Britain during the ...