Diane Cassidy

Diane Cassidy had a promising start after getting a supporting role in Invitation (1952) at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where she was seen as a successor to the aging Arlene Dahl. She appeared in several movies like Skirts Ahoy! (1952) and Lovely to Look At (1952) that year with positive feedback, but demanded that she be released from her contract so she could wed an oilman worth hundreds of millions of dollars. She dated a lot of millionaires during her tenure as a starlet like Peter Salm and Robert Neal. It was wealth that was on the mind of the budding starlet, not fame. She once told a reporter that becoming an actress "is a lot like going to school on the honor system. We are told about classes but if we cut one, nobody punishes us. It's our own loss. Next time a part is open, it goes to the person who has been studying."

Mary Diane Cassidy began modeling as a teenager with John Robert Powers' agency. She appeared in advertisements for products like soap, cigarettes, cosmetics, and beef. 1951 was when she flew to Hollywood at the urging of an agent who took her to 20th Century-Fox for lunch. He had planned to introduce her to people there, but director Mervyn LeRoy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer spotted her and offered her a contract before other studios did. $200 a week was Diane's salary, a fraction of what she had after marrying Bartholmay Sanchez. She never appeared onscreen again, instead supporting her husbands endeavors and eventually retiring to West Palm Beach, Florida with her two sons.