Diana Alice Bellamy (September 19, 1943 – June 17, 2001) was an American character actress of stage, film, and television, during the 1980s and mid-90s who was often cast in both comedic and dramatic roles to great acclaim. Bellamy is known for her starring role as Head Nurse Maggie Poole in the NBC comedy 13 East, as Principal Cecilia Hall in Popular, as Mrs. Pananides in Outbreak, and as Switchboard Operator in Air Force One.
Life and career
Bellamy was born on September 19, 1943, in Los Angeles, California.[1] Her family had ties to the establishment of Early Virginia and her father, Victor "Vic" Bellamy, was a Juilliard graduate and opera singer who later became a local Western actor.[2] Diana did her undergraduate work at The University of South Florida in Tampa.She was active in the Theater Department. She attended Southern Methodist University (SMU) from which she graduated with a fine arts master's degree in 1970.[3][4] She began her career with her own puppet theatre in her native Los Angeles and later began working professionally on the stage. Some of her stage work consists of appearances in The House of Blue Leaves at the Pasadena Playhouse, The Skin of Our Teeth at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego and the title role in Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You at Theater Geo in Los Angeles, and the handicapped Mrs. Nichols in Dorothy Parker’s The Ladies of the Corridor at the Tamarind Theater.[5] In 1986, the Los Angeles Times wrote that she became her character of a snake handler in Talking With... (1986). "This is not an actress," they wrote, "this is a swamp woman holding a box with holes in it."[6] She was praised in her role of Sister Mary in Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You at Theatre Geo in 1994.[7] The Los Angeles Times wrote, "When Bellamy is good, she is very, very good."[7]
In 1986 she was the strong and shapely policewoman who helped the young protagonists to defeat the criminal gang in Tom Trbovich's Free Ride.
She died from cancer at her home in Valley Village, Los Angeles, three months later on June 17, 2001, at the age of 57.[10] A memorial service was held for Bellamy on July 7, 2001, at the Court Theater in West Hollywood, California,[5] and her cremains were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.[11] Bellamy, in her own words, said of her health in a 1999 interview, "I had tried crying and being in a snit about blindness, but that was real boring. I've learned to live with it as best I can, and I feel very blessed that this has happened."[12]
