Diana Fairfax
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Diana Vida Jean Fairfax (19 December 1927 – 28 January 2019) was an Australian-born British actress.
Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,[1][better source needed] in 1945 she sailed on the SS Stratheden from Sydney to Southampton, arriving there on 3 December 1945, aged 17.[2] She made her career in England.[1]
In 1950, Fairfax played Daisy Harding in a touring stage production of School for Spinsters by Roland Pertwee, with The Stage noting her "excellent performance".[3]
An early lead role on television came in January 1958, in an Armchair Theatre production of The Shining Hour, opposite Peter Wyngarde.[4] That same year she also played Lady Castlemaine/Barbara Palmer in eleven episodes of the BBC serial The Diary of Samuel Pepys.[5] She went on to star as Esther Summerson in Bleak House (1959).[6]
In 1960, Fairfax played the title role in Emma, a live BBC television serial in six parts, based on Jane Austen's Emma, directed by Campbell Logan.[7]
She played Lady Verney in Moll Flanders (1975), Mrs Brown in Just William (1977), and Emily Warbeck in Love in a Cold Climate (1980).
In August and September 1987, Fairfax played Lucetta in The Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.[8]