At 80 Diane Wilson is still feisty, still a fighter. Still has a marvellously powerful personality. She has a magnificent voice and can and will be heard. She is honest, speaks fast in clear well enunciated sentences.

She is what makes the actor’s world vibrant and dramatic. Eccentric. She is good at her job, and she has drawn audiences in whatever play she has been cast in. She has strong ideas on theatre etiquette, behaviour on stage, timing, and punctuality.

She has had an enviable career. Never idle for a day. Filling in with top radio dramas when the opportunity presented.

Diane began her stage career as a child under the tutorship of the nationally admired and beloved Joan Brickhill. She left Durban and joined Brain Brook. Her parents sent her to London where she again found an agent and learnt the demands needed for an actor to survive. Back in South Africa she joined the Performing Arts Councils, PACT and then CAPAB. Performing at night and learning a new play by day.

She has marvellous endurance and vitality. She is a remnant of what theatre was like a mere thirty years ago when the state subsidised and supported theatre. Albeit a white industry,  it was mammoth, offering productions to match the best of the West End, Berlin or Broadway. Diane was part of that era and has continued up until today.