Diana Lynn

Diana Lynn, born Dolores Eartha Loehr on July 5, 1926, in Los Angeles, California, was an American actress whose career spanned film, television, and Broadway from the 1930s through the 1960s. Her father, Louis Loehr, worked as an oil supply executive, and her mother, Martha Loehr, was a concert pianist. Recognized as a child prodigy, Lynn began piano lessons at age four and was performing with the Los Angeles Junior Symphony Orchestra by the time she was twelve.

Her entry into film came through her piano playing, first appearing in They Shall Have Music and subsequently accompanying Susanna Foster in There's Magic in Music. Paramount Pictures recognized broader potential in her and renamed her Diana Lynn, casting her in roles that allowed her comedic and dramatic abilities to develop. Her scenes opposite Ginger Rogers in The Major and the Minor drew favorable attention, and in 1944 she appeared alongside Betty Hutton in Preston Sturges' The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. She also played writer Emily Kimbrough in two films co-starring Gail Russell, Our Hearts Were Young and Gay and Our Hearts Were Growing Up, and appeared in two Henry Aldrich pictures. One of her most commercially significant roles came in the comedy My Friend Irma, which featured Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in their film debuts; the cast reunited for the sequel My Friend Irma Goes West. Lynn later rejoined Martin and Lewis in You're Never Too Young.

During the 1950s, Lynn continued working steadily in film, portraying Spencer Tracy's daughter in the crime drama The People Against O'Hara and appearing opposite Ronald Reagan in Bedtime for Bonzo. She co-starred as a schoolteacher in the 1955 western The Kentuckian, alongside Burt Lancaster and Walter Matthau. Television also became a significant part of her work during this period, with numerous leading roles, particularly in the middle years of the decade. As a pianist, she released a three-record album in 1947 featuring Mozart's Rondo, Laura, and Body and Soul, and also released at least one single on Capitol Records with orchestral backing by Paul Weston.

Lynn's Broadway career extended from 1933 to 1961 and included appearances in the revue Strike Me Pink, Horses in Midstream, and the play The Wild Duck, in which she starred alongside Maurice Evans in the early 1950s. In 1964, she joined the cast of Mary, Mary for a six-month run, replacing Barbara Bel Geddes in the role. She also appeared in productions of The Moon Is Blue in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

In 1968, Lynn invited playwright Mart Crowley to housesit at her home while she was traveling. During those five weeks, Crowley wrote the majority of The Boys in the Band, his groundbreaking play about LGBT life in America. By 1970, Lynn had relocated to New York City, where she was operating a travel agency. She appeared in the television film Company of Killers and subsequently accepted a role in Paramount's Play It as It Lays, returning to Los Angeles in preparation for filming.

Lynn married architect John C. Lindsay on December 18, 1948; the marriage ended in divorce in June 1953. She married Mortimer Hall, son of New York Post publisher Dorothy Schiff, in 1956. Her daughter Dolly Hall became a film producer, and another daughter, Margaret Hall, pursued an acting career appearing in French and American films during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

In 1942, Parents magazine named Lynn the most talented juvenile actress. She holds two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 1625 Vine Street and one for television at 6350 Hollywood Boulevard. Before filming began on Play It as It Lays, Lynn suffered a stroke and died on December 18, 1971, at the age of 45. Funeral services were held at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City, and a memorial service took place at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, California.