Actress. A comedienne of note, she had a British television career spanning more than three decades. Born June Diane Neeltje, she was raised in England from a young age, studied at the Arts Educational School, and was originally a singer and dancer until she was spotted by writer Jimmy Perry while performing with a troupe called the Page Hatton Trio. After making her professional bow as a dancer in a 1950 television movie of "Cinderella", gaining experience in a succession of theatrical productions, and taking her stage name as a nod to her Dutch ancestry, she played the troubled Sarah Maynard on "Crossroads" which ran from 1966 to 1969. Through the 1970s she was kept busy, appearing on such shows as "Sykes" and "Poldark"; Diane's best known credit was to be the snooty ballroom dance teacher Yvonne Stewart-Hargreaves in the BBC comedy series "Hi-de-Hi" aired between 1981 and 1988, the show even making her the "sweetheart" of a group of British soldiers fighting in the Falklands. In the early 1990s she was Magistrate Celia Littlewood on "Grace & Favour", a sequel to "Are You Being Served?", and though best known for television performed on the silver screen in the 1995 "Dillinger and Capone". Her last television appearance came in 2001 in "Casualty" and later that same year she took her final stage bow as the Maiden Aunt in a Royal Ballet presentation of "The Nutcracker". She lived her final years in Godstone, Surrey and died of pneumonia. A nice but rather private person, she was known to comment "I hope people don't think I'm like Yvonne".
Actress. A comedienne of note, she had a British television career spanning more than three decades. Born June Diane Neeltje, she was raised in England from a young age, studied at the Arts Educational School, and was originally a singer and dancer until she was spotted by writer Jimmy Perry while performing with a troupe called the Page Hatton Trio. After making her professional bow as a dancer in a 1950 television movie of "Cinderella", gaining experience in a succession of theatrical productions, and taking her stage name as a nod to her Dutch ancestry, she played the troubled Sarah Maynard on "Crossroads" which ran from 1966 to 1969. Through the 1970s she was kept busy, appearing on such shows as "Sykes" and "Poldark"; Diane's best known credit was to be the snooty ballroom dance teacher Yvonne Stewart-Hargreaves in the BBC comedy series "Hi-de-Hi" aired between 1981 and 1988, the show even making her the "sweetheart" of a group of British soldiers fighting in the Falklands. In the early 1990s she was Magistrate Celia Littlewood on "Grace & Favour", a sequel to "Are You Being Served?", and though best known for television performed on the silver screen in the 1995 "Dillinger and Capone". Her last television appearance came in 2001 in "Casualty" and later that same year she took her final stage bow as the Maiden Aunt in a Royal Ballet presentation of "The Nutcracker". She lived her final years in Godstone, Surrey and died of pneumonia. A nice but rather private person, she was known to comment "I hope people don't think I'm like Yvonne".
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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