Diane McBain (born May 18, 1941) is an American actress who, as a Warner Brothers contract player, reached a brief peak of popularity during the early 1960s. She is best known for playing an adventurous socialite in the 1960-62 TV series Surfside 6 and as one of Elvis Presley's leading ladies in 1966's Spinout.
A native of Cleveland, Diane McBain moved to the Hollywood area at an early age and began her show business career as an adolescent model in print and television advertisements. During her senior year at Glendale High School she was, while appearing in a Los Angeles play, spotted by a Warner Brothers talent scout and added to the studio's roster of contract performers who were appearing in an assembly-line-style mass production of TV episodes and theatrical features.
Starting with the fall 1955 ABC-TV three-shows-in-one Warner Brothers Presents, the studio's TV arm, Warner Brothers Television, provided the network with nearly twenty shows, including seven western and four detective series. At the age of seventeen, Diane McBain was immediately put to work, making her TV acting debut in two episodes of Maverick, March 8 and November 22, 1959, as well as the October 16 episode of 77 Sunset Strip. Her first director, at the helm of the March 8 installment, "Passage to Fort Doom", was Warners stalwart Paul Henreid, best known as Victor Laszlo in the studio's 1942's Oscar-winner Casablanca who, while still occasionally acting was, during this period, directing feature films and numerous TV episodes for Warners and other studios.
Having received a positive reaction to Diane's initial performances, the studio realized that it had a potential star under contract. The beautiful young blonde was beginning to be seen as Warners' possible answer to Carroll Baker, Grace Kelly and even Marilyn Monroe. She was given a prominent ingenue role in her first feature Ice Palace, a top-budget 143-minute generational saga based on the Edna Ferber novel dramatizing the lives and families of the pioneers who settled and developed Alaska between World War I and statehood. Diane, whose character appeared only in the last part of the film, held her own against the three female leads, Martha Hyer, Carolyn Jones and Shirley Knight as well as stars Richard Burton and Robert Ryan. The filmed-on-___location Technicolor epic was released on January 2, 1960 to mixed reviews, but Diane's notices were generally favorable.
Warners continued to keep Diane busy during 1960 with numerous appearances in episodes of their TV shows. She returned to 77 Sunset Strip on February 26, nine days later was back in the 49th state with a guest role in the March 6 installment of The Alaskans, eight days after that, she was in the March 14 Bourbon Street Beat and the following day, on the March 15 Sugarfoot. Another episode of Bourbon Street Beat followed two weeks later on March 28, and still another 77 Sunset Strip on May 6. In another eight days, on May 15, she was in an episode of Lawman and three weeks after that, on June 6, a third episode of Bourbon Street Beat in as many months.
Bourbon Street Beat turned out to be the only one of Warners' four detective series to last but a single season. The 1959-60 Monday night series starred Andrew Duggan, Richard Long and Van Williams as a trio of New Orleans-based investigators. After completing 39 episodes the series was cancelled, but two of its detectives found other jobs. Richard Long's character made the long move to Los Angeles and joined the agency at 77 Sunset Strip and Van Williams' character, Ken Madison, made a shorter move east and, with two partners, started a new agency, Miami Beach's Surfside 6 in the same Monday night time slot. The final repeat episode of Bourbon Street Beat was thus followed a week later by the October 3, 1960 premiere of Surfside 6. In addition to Ken Madison, the other two handsome, clean-cut, beach-boy-type detectives were Dave Thorne, played by Lee Patterson and Sandy Winfield II, played by Troy Donahue, whose male-model, blonde good looks made him the idol of millions during his brief period of stardom which paralleled that of Diane McBain.
1960 was a banner year for Diane—in addition to appearing in a top feature film and guest-starring in eight TV episodes, she was assigned two more theatrical features—the first would offer her one of three ingenue roles in a major "A" film, Parrish and the other, the title role in her own "B"-film vehicle, Claudelle Inglish. She was also given what would turn to be her only regular part in a prime-time series—Daphne Dutton on Surfside 6.
Warners' super-fast, corner-cutting production methods tended to stereotype actors and Diane's blonde-princess looks suggested upper-class party girls, heiresses and debutantes. Daphne precisely fit the category—a flighty heiress whose yacht was moored alongside the Surfside 6 houseboat, she constantly stopped by for visits and occasionally participated in some cases. As with all multi-cast Warners shows, most episodes starred a single cast member, with the others appearing at the beginnings and ends of episodes, thus allowing for simultaneous filming of multiple episodes, each utilizing a separate film unit. While the majority of the episodes of Surfside 6 bookended Daphne's appearances, a number of them showcased her fairly prominently and a handful, such as October 9, 1961's "Daphne, Girl Detective", built the entire plotline around her.
Diane McBain's second and third feature were released at the end of Surfside 6's first season, Parrish on May 4 and Claudelle Inglish on September 20, 1961. Parrish, at 140 minutes (later slightly edited to 138), was nearly as long as The Ice Palace, as well as being another big-budget, Technicolor "A" picture. Diane had one of three ingenue roles, Daphne Dutton taken to much higher level, a flirtatious, sexually provocative and ultimately vindictive, spoiled daughter of Dean Jagger, a wealthy, but philosophical and humane tobacco plantation owner. The other two ingenues were, like Diane, young Warners contract players—blonde Connie Stevens, a regular on another detective show, Hawaiian Eye, and brunette Sharon Hugueny. The three were competing for the attention of the audience as well as that of the title character, portrayed by Diane's Surfside 6 co-star Troy Donahue. The four young actors were also competing for acting honors with a veteran cast which, in addition to Dean Jagger, included Claudette Colbert (as Troy Donahue's mother) and Karl Malden (as Sharon Hugueny's father).