Cause of death Suicide Role Theatre Producer Nationality Australian | Occupation Theatre producer Education National Art School Name Diana Bliss | |
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Full Name Diana Gwenyth Bliss Alma mater East Sydney Technical College Religion Christianity (Methodism) Similar People Alan Bond, Frederick M Zollo, Timberlake Wertenbaker | ||
Nominations Tony Award for Best Play | ||
Diana Gwenyth Bliss (11 November 1954 – 28 January 2012) was an Australian theatre producer.
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Early life
Bliss was born on 11 November 1954 in Temora. Her father, Douglas Bliss, was a Methodist minister in the nearby town of Ardlethan. The family later moved to Epping.
Career and marriage
Bliss studied fashion design at the East Sydney Technical College and subsequently became an air hostess for Qantas. She went on to work in public relations at the Parmelia Hilton Hotel in Perth, where she first met businessman Alan Bond in 1979.
In 1989 Bliss was involved in an insider trading investigation when she purchased 500,000 shares in Petro Energy at eight cents per share, just before Bond Corporation launched a takeover bid paying 14 cents per share.
Bliss became a successful theatrical producer, working in the West End, New York and Sydney. Her notable projects included Our Country's Good in 1991 and The Holy Terror in New York in 1993.Our Country's Good won the Laurence Olivier BBC Award in 1988 for best play. The Broadway production was nominated for six Tony awards. Wayne Harrison of the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) said "Bliss was instrumental in bringing several theatrical properties quickly to the STC, the most notable being Oleanna, which became one of the great STC successes of the 1990s. Without her intervention, that important piece of 'of the moment' theatre wouldn't have happened in Sydney, and subsequently around Australia." Bliss produced Tracy Letts' Killer Joe in 1996.
In 1995 Bliss married Alan Bond at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Bond had divorced his first wife, Eileen, in 1992.
Bliss was the subject of a 1997 documentary on Australian Story entitled The Parson's Daughter. A further, updated, program was aired on Australian Story in 2012.
Death
During the night of 28 January 2012, Bliss was found dead in the swimming pool at the family home in Cottesloe. She had been receiving treatment for depression and had attempted suicide on two previous occasions. She left a suicide note thanking her family and friends for their understanding and support.
Her funeral was conducted on 4 February 2012 in the chapel of Christ Church Grammar School.