Diane Todd

Diane Todd (4 June 1937 – 18 April 2010) was a British-born actress and singer who later became a naturalized South African citizen, working across stage, film, and television. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, she relocated to London at the age of ten when her family followed her father, Eric, who pursued a music career with the Billy Ternent Orchestra and made appearances on BBC radio.

Todd studied singing under Harold Miller, the voice coach who also trained Julie Andrews and Shirley Bassey. She made her West End debut at sixteen in A Girl Called Jo, launching a stage career that would span multiple decades and continents. In 1956 she appeared in the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady, and subsequently performed in the show's Drury Lane and Johannesburg productions as well. Her association with the role of Eliza Doolittle extended further when she took on the part in 1959, touring the United States, Canada, and South Africa. That touring work earned her the distinction of having an American national holiday named in her honor, designated as Diane Todd/Eliza Doolittle Day. Her Broadway credits also include My Fair Ladies, in which she appeared in 1957.

Beyond her work with My Fair Lady, Todd performed in major South African productions of numerous musicals, among them Guys and Dolls, Kiss Me Kate, Daddy Long Legs, Stop the World I Want to Get Off, and The Merry Widow.

Her personal life included several marriages. She wed Douglas Cullinan, a diamond heir and great-grandson of Thomas Cullinan, and the couple settled in South Africa in 1965. Though they separated, they later reunited before Cullinan died of a heart attack in 1975. Todd subsequently married fellow stage actor Robin Dolton; Dolton died while the two were in the process of divorcing. In 2000, she announced an engagement to Andrew Finlay in the Port Elizabeth press, but she was later informed by his former wives and creditors that he had used a false name and misrepresented his background and profession. Todd left South Africa in 2007 and returned to England, where she died of leukemia on 18 April 2010.