Diana Van Der Vlis, 66; Stage, TV Actress

Diana van der Vlis, an actress popular on Broadway and in such television series as “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and the soap opera “Ryan’s Hope,” has died. She was 66.

Van der Vlis died Oct. 21 in Missoula, Mont., where she maintained a home. She had suffered from respiratory problems, but the cause of death has not been determined.

Born in Toronto and educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, Van der Vlis began acting in Canada and then made a memorable Broadway debut in 1956.

The ingenue surprised even herself by landing a career-making role at one of her first auditions. She was cast as Cordelia Biddle opposite Walter Pidgeon, who played her eccentric father, Col. Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, in “The Happiest Millionaire.”

The role earned her a Tony Award nomination. New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson described her as “an uncommonly talented young lady” who “plunges into the temperamental whirlpool of Cordelia’s adolescent emotions and makes a stunning performance out of them.”

Other roles followed in more hot-ticket fare--”Comes a Day,” “A Mighty Man Is He,” “A Shot in the Dark” and “Visit to a Small Planet.”

She maintained a modest career into the 1980s but was never able to transfer her Broadway charisma to the screen or television with the same degree of success.

In 1963, she portrayed Dr. Diane Fairfax in what was called “one of [Roger] Corman’s more thoughtful films,” the science-fiction “X” or “The Man with X-Ray Eyes.” The philosophical film starred Ray Milland as Dr. James Xavier, the inventor of a serum that gives him X-ray vision and brings him to a bad end.

Van der Vlis found episodic work in several television series of the 1950s and 1960s, including “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Naked City,” “The Fugitive,” “Route 66,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and “The F.B.I.”

She had steady roles in two soap operas, including as Kate Prescott in the original cast of “Where the Heart Is” beginning in 1969, and in the original cast of “Ryan’s Hope” as Dr. Nell Beaulac in 1975. Her Beaulac character was killed off after a year, but she later returned to the series in the late 1980s in another role.

Van der Vlis is survived by her husband, Roger Donald; a son, Matthew of Los Angeles; and a daughter, Adrienne of New York.