• Diane Franklin is an actress, fashion model and producer, best known for her role in the 1985 comedy film "Better Off Dead".
• As of mid-2019, her net worth is estimated to be over $9 million.
• She began her career in the entertainment industry as a commercial model during her teenage years.
• She has appeared in various films and television shows and published a memoir in 2012 entitled "Diane Franklin: The Excellent Adventures of the Last American, French Exchange Babe of the 80s".
• She is active on social media, with accounts on Twitter and Facebook.
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Who is Diane Franklin?
Diane Franklin was born on 11 February 1962, in Plainview, New York State USA. She is an actress, fashion model, and producer, perhaps best known for her role in the 1985 comedy film entitled “Better Off Dead”, in which she played a foreign exchange student. She’s been working in the entertainment industry since her teenage years.
The Net Worth of Diane Franklin
How rich is Diane Franklin? As of mid-2019, sources estimate a net worth that is over $9 million, earned through success in her various endeavors. She’s done modelling and commercial work, becoming involved in campaigns such as for Trident gum as well as Maxwell House Coffee.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Very little is known about Diane’s life prior to her beginning a career in the entertainment industry. There are no details about her family, childhood, and education. It is known that she started working as a commercial model during her teenage years, with one of her first projects being a commercial for Coca-Cola. The popular carbonated soft drink is known internationally and her work with them helped her to gain more projects, though her commercials were mainly aired in the US.
She then worked on commercials for Trident gum, before working with the company Jell-O, a brand of gelatin desserts, cream pies and puddings, with the original gelatin dessert being a signature of the brand, in existence since 1881. She also gained recognition working with Maxwell House coffee. The US brand was considered the top selling coffee brand in the country until the 1980s.
Transition to On-Camera Roles
In 1982, Franklin was cast in her first film role, playing Karen in “The Last American Virgin”, a sex comedy film which is a remake of the 1978 Israeli film called “Lemon Popsicle” or “Eskimo Limon”. The film franchise in Israel was highly successful and the producers wanted to find similar success in the US. During the same year, she also worked on the film “Amityville II: The Possession” which is a supernatural film based on the novel entitled “Murder in Amityville” written by parapsychologist Hans Holzer, and starred Burt Young in one of his darker roles.
She then started gaining roles on television, working on the show “Bay City Blues”, cast as an extra for two episodes. Two years later, she made a guest appearance in “Finder of Lost Loves”, a drama series which aired on ABC during 1984. After working on the film “Second Time Lucky”, she then got her breakthrough role as Monique Junet in the film “Better Off Dead”, a dark romantic comedy film starring John Cusack. It follows the story of a high school student, who after breaking up with his girlfriend before Christmas, becomes suicidal.
Later Career
Diane continued her work on television in the next few years, getting a two episode role in the show “Matlock” which is a legal drama starring Andy Griffith. The show is similar to “Perry Mason” with the titular characters discovering perpetrators and confronting them in dramatic courtroom scenes. She also made a guest appearance in “Freddy’s Nightmares – A Nightmare on Elm Street; The Series”, which is a spin-off from the film “Nightmare on Elm Street”. Her mainstream film work slowed down in the late 1980s, and one of her last projects during this period was “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”.
Diane had a few more guest appearances in popular shows of the 1990s, including “Murder, She Wrote”, “Providence”, and “Family Law”. She then took a six year break from acting, before returning in 2006 to appear in the independent film “Punchcard Player”, continuing with independent short films over the next few years, including “The Adventures of Iass”, “Toon Wolf”, and two “Adventures of Iass” sequels. In 2012, she published a memoir called “Diane Franklin: The Excellent Adventures of the Last American, French Exchange Babe of the 80s” through Amazon. In 2018, she returned to the Amityville franchise in the film “The Amityville Murders”, starring alongside John Robinson.
5 days until the MOST EXCELLENT day of the year!! – Bill and Ted’s Day 6/9 🙂 pic.twitter.com/Q2B4hNWrcl
— Diane Franklin (@DianeFranklin80) June 5, 2018
Personal Life and Social Media
For her personal life, it is known that Franklin married animation writer Ray De Laurentis in 1989. They have two children together, one of whom is comedian and filmmaker OIivia De Laurentis, who is the owner of the YouTube channel called Barely Legal Comedy. In 2019, her daughter made her directing debut entitled “This Gets Ruff”. Her other child is Nick De Laurentis, an aspiring musician.
Diane is the only actress to be murdered twice in the same film, but as different characters. She is also credited for kick starting the curly hair fashion trend of the 1980s. She is deaf in her right ear, so she has to manage that while working.
Similar to numerous actresses, she is highly active online through accounts on social media. She has an account on Twitter on which she has over 5,000 followers, using the platform to promote some of her recent and upcoming acting projects, and to communicate with fans and express her day to day thoughts. She also posts a lot of throwback photos. Diane also has a personal Facebook page which was created to promote her acting work.
