Diane McBain: Actress - Writer
When you remember Diane McBain, you recall her mercurial rise to fame at a very early age. By the time she reached her sixteenth birthday, Diane's exciting career as a model in print and commercials was already legendary. Soon, small roles in episodic television followed. Before she graduated from Glendale High School, near Los Angeles, a Warner Bros. casting executive spotted her in a play and she was signed to a studio contract. Her first assignment: costarring with Richard Burton in "Ice Palace", an Edna Ferber epic.
While at Warner Bros, her career blossomed. Soon after "Ice Palace", she starred with Troy Donahue, Van Williams and Lee Patterson in the tv series, "Surfside Six". She was only 19 when Jack Warner assigned her to a co-starring role in "Parrish", again with Troy Donahue and the screen luminary, Claudette Colbert. Soon, studio confidence in Diane was such that she was tested for the title role in a film called "Claudelle Inglish", adapted from the Erskine Caldwell novel. She won the role over several notable contenders and her acting career was established.
After leaving Warner Bros., roles in televsion and the theater occupied a good deal of her time. Diane starred in over 250 episodic television shows plus notable leads in such specials as "Donner Pass" - NBC Movie of the Week, "The Grizzley Adams' Christmas Special", "ABC's Wonderful World of Entertainment", "Batman and the Green Hornet"; and recurring roles in "Dallas" and the soap operas, "Days of our Lives" and "General Hospital". Her theatrical experience includes leading roles in "Star Spangled Girl", "The Tender Trap", "Who's Happy Now", and Amanda in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie". She recently joined the Grace Players at the Egyptian Arena Theater in Hollywood in an original drama, "Looking South on Cahuenga Hill". as an entertainer, she toured South Vietnam during the Christmas season of 1966 and 67. Her most recent role was as the grandmother on "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch", currently on Fridays on ABC. Here she proved that 'grandmas' in the 90's are glamorous and elegant, being a terrific role model for the women of her generation to emulate.
For Further information please contact:
Michael Zanuck c/o The Sanders Agency (818) 783-4890 Theatrical SAG - AFTRA - EQUITY  |
Diane has starred in such films as "Mary, Mary!", an adaptation of a broadway play with Debbie Reynolds and Barry Nelson, directed by Mervyn Leroy; "The Caretakers" with Robert Stack and Joan Crawford, "Spinout" with Elvis Presley, "A Distant Trumpet" (with Donahue again), "Black Gold" with Phil Carey, "I Sailed to Tahiti With an All Girl Crew", "Fly from the Hawk", "MaryJane", "The Miniskirt Mob", "Thunder Alley", "Savage Season", "The Delta Factor", "The Deathhead Virgin", "Wicked, Wicked", "The Red Fury" and most recently, "Puppet Master, U".