Diane Cilento - late actor Claimed

Diane Cilento, a famed international stage and screen actress, lived much of her life in the Cairns region. She passed away at Cairns Hospital in October, 2011, and she is buried at Highgate Cemetery, London..

Diane Cilento has been hailed as a profound creative spark for the Tropical North Queensland region. Internationally know for her movie career in the 1960s and 70s, and as the wife of James Bond star Sean Connery, in the Cairns region Cilento is revered for the lasting artistic legacy she has left the region, most prominently in the dedication of the Karnak Playhouse at Upper Whyanbeel, an hour's drive north of Cairns, to the people of Queensland.

It was her passionate belief that theatre could change people's lives, together with a dedication to developing up and coming artists, which will be remembered most. She bequeathed Karnak to the State of Queensland, to keep encouraging indigenous performers, especially.

After her marriage to Sean Connery unwound, Diane Cilento returned to Queensland in 1975 and married playwright Anthony Shaffer, before the pair established the magical, open-air Karnak Theatre in the Whyanbeel Valley rainforest in the 1980s.

After years