Diana Millay

Diana Claire Millay (June 7, 1934 – January 8, 2021) was an American actress and writer born in Rye, New York. She built a career spanning stage, film, and television, accumulating guest appearances in nearly 100 prime time television programs and recurring roles on two daytime soap operas.

Before her professional stage and screen work, Millay began as a model, first appearing as a child in the Montgomery Ward catalogue and later working as a top Conover model for John Robert Powers. During her high school years, she spent seven seasons in summer stock productions, taking leading and featured roles in plays including Our Hearts Were Young and Gay, Come Back, Little Sheba, The Seven Year Itch, Bell, Book and Candle, Picnic, The Little Foxes, Tobacco Road, and Life With Father, among others.

Millay's Broadway career ran from 1957 to 1965. Her first Broadway appearance came in 1957 in the comedy Fair Game, in which she starred alongside Sam Levene and Ellen Burstyn. Her subsequent Broadway credits included Drink to Me Only opposite Tom Poston, Roger the Sixth opposite Alan Alda, The Glass Rooster opposite Michael Allinson, and Boeing-Boeing opposite Ian Carmichael. She also spent a year touring the United States and Canada opposite Eddie Bracken in The Seven Year Itch.

Her film work began with the 1957 United Artists release Street of Sinners, opposite George Montgomery. She later appeared in Paramount's Tarzan and the Great River, shot in Brazil opposite Mike Henry and Jan Murray, and in MGM's 1971 Night of Dark Shadows opposite David Selby.

Millay's television career began with a role in the anthology series Star Tonight, followed by a position as timekeeper on Masquerade Party in 1956. She appeared in numerous live television productions, including Robert Montgomery Presents, Kraft Television Theatre, Studio One, The United States Steel Hour, Playhouse 90, and The Philco Television Playhouse. Her filmed television credits included guest roles on Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Virginian, Rawhide, Wagon Train, Maverick, The Rifleman, Route 66, 77 Sunset Strip, My Three Sons, Father Knows Best, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and many others. She made three appearances on the CBS courtroom drama Perry Mason, playing Debra Bradford in a 1961 episode, the title character Sue Ellen Frazer in another 1961 episode, and murder victim Eula Johnson in a 1963 episode. In 1962, she was designated Miss Emmy in recognition of her extensive primetime television presence. She also made three television pilots for prospective series: Slezak and Son, Boston Terrier, and Las Vegas Beat.

In November 1966, producer Dan Curtis cast Millay in the contract role of Laura Collins on the ABC daytime series Dark Shadows. She appeared in sixty-two episodes, becoming the show's first supernatural character as an immortal phoenix-woman who is consumed by fire and reborn to live another century. Following her present-day storyline, she returned in a 19th-century flashback arc as a further reincarnation of the same character. In 1970, Millay joined the CBS soap opera The Secret Storm as Kitty Styles, a role that reunited her with former Dark Shadows producer Robert Costello and actor Joel Crothers, who had played Joe Haskell on Dark Shadows and Ken Stevens on The Secret Storm.

Beyond acting, Millay pursued writing and published several books, including I'd Rather Eat Than Act, The Power of Halloween, and How to Create Good Luck. She was married to Broadway producer Geoffrey Jones; the two separated after the birth of their son, Kiley Christopher. Millay died on January 8, 2021, at the age of 86.