Olga Helen Laruska Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Dianne Foster (born October 31, 1928) is a Canadian actress of Ukrainian descent who began her career at the age of thirteen in a stage adaptation of James Barrie's What Every Woman Knows. At fourteen she began a radio career, subsequently moved to Toronto, and became one of Canada's top radio stars, working with Andrew Allan, drama supervisor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on productions such as Stage '49. For a holiday in 1951 she traveled to London, England, where she and Andrwe Allen married. In London that same year she appeared onstage in Agatha Christie's The Hollow and Orson Welles's Othello. In March 1952 her husband returned to Canada while she stayed in London to honour her five-year contract with a British film company.In 1953, she co-starred alongside Charlton Heston and Lizabeth Scott in the middling Bad for Each Other. In 1954 she was signed by Columbia Pictures and relocated to Hollywood, where her first appearance proper that year was with Mickey Rooney in the well-received Drive a Crooked Road.Foster's marriage to Allen effectively was over before she left for the United States. In 1954, she married Joel A. Murcott, a Hollywood radio-television scriptwriter, during location filming for The Kentuckian. At thirty-nine, Murcott was fourteen years her senior and had been married previously.In 1955, Foster appeared on the cover of Picturegoer, and co-starred in two big films, Glenn Ford's The Violent Men and Burt Lancaster's The Kentuckian.On February 14, 1956, she gave birth to twins: a son, Jason, and a daughter, Jodi. Although her film career continued, it was not on the same upward trajectory as before. In 1957 she co-starred in the biopic Monkey on My Back about boxer, Barney Ross, Night Passage with James Stewart and The Brothers Rico with Richard Conte. That same year she also filed for divorce from Murcott, claiming he struck her in the face and kicked her in the stomach. She asked for custody and $1 in token alimony. The couple reconciled, but it proved to be temporary as they separated twice more before finally divorcing in 1959, with Foster being awarded $250 a month in child support. It was the third time she had filed for divorce, and she gave her age as 24, although she was in fact 31.In 1958, she starred with Alan Ladd in The Deep Six, and that same year she appeared alongside Jack Hawkins in Gideon of Scotland Yard before her last really big picture, The Last Hurrah. It featured an all-star cast that included Spencer Tracy, Pat O'Brien, and Basil Rathbone, and was nominated for two BAFTA awards.In 1960, Foster was the title guest star in the episode "Lawyer in Petticoats" on the short-lived NBC western series Overland Trail starring William Bendix and Doug McClure. Her fellow guest stars were Barton MacLane and Denver Pyle. Foster also appeared in 1960 in three other NBC westerns Bonanza (as Joyce Edwards in "The Mill"), Wagon Train (as Leslie Ivers in "Trial for Murder: Part 2"), and Riverbo
Acting in the theater teaches you a great work ethic. When you do eight performances a week, you develop a discipline and a dedication to go out there and perform in front of an audience over and over again. Along the way you try to find a little extra magic to make it different every night. Once you've had experience working in the theater, it helps serve you when you work in movies . . . I always loved the kind of control an actor has in their performance on stage. In film, the control is really in the hands of the director and editor.
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I always preferred a director who allowed me to contribute something of my own. Some directors don't want any contribution. They prefer to tell you exactly what to do and where to move.
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[2009 interview in "Films of the Golden Age" magazine] The opportunity to communicate with a live audience every time I performed on stage--I really miss that. However, what I found when working in the movies was that the people behind the camera would applaud a good scene. So in that sense, I had a live audience there as well and that was always a thrill for me. I loved acting and all the wonderful people that I had the opportunity to work with.
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Fact
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She was supposed to work with Alan Ladd in a film while she was in England in the early 1950s. She did not agree, however, to the four-year option in the contract because she wanted the freedom of working in theater and already had a binding film contract with Tempean Films. The tabloids papers unkindly suggested that she "walked out" on Ladd. Years later, after coming to America, she was offered the lead in The Deep Six (1958) that was to star Ladd. She thought Ladd would never agree to her casting after the earlier incident. He did, surprisingly, and told her that he admired and respected what she did back then.
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She married first husband Andrew Allan (1907-1974), Scots-born national head of CBC Radio Drama, in 1951 but the marriage was over by the time she made her move to America in 1953. He stayed in England. Son and daughter twins Jason and Jodi were born to her during this five-year second marriage to radio/TV writer Joel Murcott in America. A third marriage in 1961 to a dentist, Dr. Harold Rowe, produced her third child, Dustin Louis. The marriage lasted happily until his death in 1994.
She skipped two grades in elementary school. She was 13 when she started high school.
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Was asked to play the part of Fred MacMurray's new wife on the TV series My Three Sons (1960). She turned the part down in order to stay at home with her three children. The part was eventually played by Beverly Garland.
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Talented and accomplished painter/artist.
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She has five grandchildren: One of them, Jordan Matheson Rowe, was named after the writer Richard Matheson, who lived next door to her when she resided in Hidden Hills, CA. As a result, her son Jason grew very fond of the entire Matheson family.
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She holds dual citizenship: Canadian & American.
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She is of Ukranian descent.
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Fraternal twins: a son Jason and a daughter Jodi (b. 14 February 1956). Jason was named after Jason Robards and Jodi was a combination of their names: Joel & Dianne.
Actress
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Wild Wild West
1966
TV Series
Amanda Vautrain
Green Acres
1966
TV Series
Amy Collins
The Big Valley
1966
TV Series
Therese Marvin
Perry Mason
1962-1965
TV Series
Linda Blakely / Elaine Meacham / Lori Richards / ...
Honey West
1965
TV Series
Maggie Lynch
Slattery's People
1965
TV Series
Claudia Strickland
Ben Casey
1963-1965
TV Series
Karen Fischer / Helen Kulik
My Three Sons
1964-1965
TV Series
Trudy Bennett / Marta Robbins
The Fugitive
1965
TV Series
Janice Cummings
The Rogues
1965
TV Series
Alice Singer
Petticoat Junction
1964
TV Series
Phyllis Marsh
Breaking Point
1964
TV Series
Deborah Phillips
Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?
1963
Mona Kaufman
Kraft Mystery Theater
1962-1963
TV Series
Marge
77 Sunset Strip
1960-1963
TV Series
Connie Beck / Marta Wentworth
Going My Way
1963
TV Series
Edith Sedgewick
The Gallant Men
1963
TV Series
The Contessa
Hawaiian Eye
1960-1963
TV Series
Norma Marriott / Lola Richmond
The Lloyd Bridges Show
1962
TV Series
Virginia Matron
The Eleventh Hour
1962
TV Series
Fay Tyner
Bus Stop
1961-1962
TV Series
Barbara Cullum / Sally Wagner
Gunsmoke
1962
TV Series
Cornelia Conrad
The Detectives
1962
TV Series
Eleanor Curran
Tales of Wells Fargo
1960-1962
TV Series
Ella Congreve / Elaine
Outlaws
1960-1961
TV Series
Lainie McDonough / Ann Dineen
Checkmate
1961
TV Series
Phyllis Wood / Edna Margate
King of Diamonds
1961
TV Series
Sue Bennett
King of the Roaring 20's: The Story of Arnold Rothstein