Diane Franklin commanded a lot of influence in the ’80s right from the first time she appeared on screen in the 1982 coming-of-age drama The Last American Virgin. She went on to wow her audiences with more outings including the hugely successful 1985 comedy Better Off Dead which propelled her into the mainstream. She vanished from the limelight in the early 90s but returned in 2006.
Franklin has since been in only lesser-known projects except for her return to the Amityville horror sequel The Amityville Murders released in 2018. Here is a look at Diane Franklin’s life journey through Hollywood as well as her personal life.
Diane Franklin’s Bio
Diane Franklin was born in Plainview, New York on the 11th of February 1962 as the only child to German and Austrian immigrants. She was raised in Long Island, New York where at the age of 10, she began pursuing a career as a model. However, upon noticing that her short height would be a limiting factor, she dabbled in acting. Her parents were very supportive of her passion for the entertainment industry and drove her to all of the auditions she attended.
Franklin would come to land commercial gigs for the likes of Coca-Cola, Maxwell House coffee, and Trident, and Jell-O. She also did voice-over and theater work and in 1981 got her very first film role as an extra in Endless Love. The film featured as the main character and Franklin would come to reveal that Shields’ warm and very likable personality was something she immediately wanted to emulate going forward in her career.
In 1982, Diane Franklin scored parts in the horror film Amityville II: The Possession, as well as The Last American Virgin, produced and directed by Isreali filmmaker, Boaz Davidson. Franklin would later come to reveal that the storyline in The Last American Virgin was similar to a real-life experience she’d had when she was at NYU where broke up with her boyfriend who was ready to marry her in order to focus on her acting career.
She portrayed a native French speaker in Second Time Lucky (1984) before landing her role as a French exchange student, Monique Junet in Better Off Dead (1985) which became her breakthrough. In the 80s, Franklin also booked a handful of TV parts including in Finder Of Lost Loves, Freddy’s Nightmares, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
After resurfacing in the mid-2000s, Diane Franklin acted in mostly short films and TV movies. However, she recently in 2018 revealed that she still enjoys acting and plans to stay on for a longer period. Some of her most recent works include; The Final Interview, Wally Got Wasted, and Waking Nightmare.
Family – Husband and Children
Diane Franklin prioritizes her family above all else and she is one of the faithful ones. Since the 6th of May 1989, she has been married to writer Ray DeLaurentis. He has been writing scripts for episodes of animated TV series since the 80s. He has written several episodes of TV shows such as The Fairly OddParents (including the story for its TV movie A Fairly Odd Christmas), Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!, Xiaolin Showdown, and many others.
Together, the couple shares two kids, a daughter named Olivia DeLaurentis and a son named Nick DeLaurentis. Both kids have followed in their parent’s footsteps to pursue a career in showbiz. Nick is a musician and part of the band Swatches and plans to release his first single in 2019 while Olivia is a comedian, director, and filmmaker. She made her directorial debut in the 2019 feature film, This Gets Ruff. Alongside Sydney Heller, she is the co-founder of the YouTube Channel Barely Legal Comedy where Diane has made a few appearances. Diane Franklin has also acted in a number of short films produced by her daughter Olivia.
Height and Other Facts
• Diane Franklin doesn’t rank among the tallest ladies in the industry, standing at just a height of 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m) tall.
• Franklin was among the pioneers of the curly hair trend in the ’80s thanks to her popularity at the time.
• She has a distinct beauty mark right above the right side of her lips. and she has problems hearing with her left ear.
• On the 1st of June 2014, Diane Franklin sang the national anthem at the Dodger Stadium.
• Diane Franklin has for years been teaching kids from as far as the 8th grade the basics of acting.
• She has a thing for accents and spoke with a Long Islan accent as a kid. However, she had to drop it for the sake of her acting career.
• She is also a writer and as of this writing has penned two books with plans to add another about her experience filming Better Off Dead.
