Diane Cilento...

I'm very sorry to hear that the actress Diane Cilento has died. For Queenslanders in the 50s and 60s, the Cilento family were a very big deal. Diane's parents were Sir Raphael and Lady Cilento, both very famous doctors, and Lady Cilento wrote a column called Medical Mother in the Courier Mail, which my mother read religiously. I remember, she examined me when I was in teacher's college, to make sure I was fit to be a teacher. :) She told me to have my ear syringed.

Diane's most famous role was as Molly in Tom Jones, for which she received an Oscar nomination. The scene where she and Tom seduce each other at the dinner table is unforgettable.

 Diane also married Sean Connery (and thus earned the envy of about ninety percent of women in the western world:)

Later, she returned to Australia and opened the Karnak Playhouse at Mossman, here in FNQ. It's a big regret of mine that I still haven't been there to see a performance.

However I did hear Diane read a winning short story at a Tableland Writer's dinner in the Malanda hotel a few years ago. Her voice was amazing, deep, lush, earthy, sensitive. It was a memorable night that proved to me that people become famous because of enormous talent.

Vale Diane Cilento... 1933 -2011