Diane Roter

Diane has taught Algebra to adults at Los Angeles Valley College and is a certified teaching artist. She has had art critic reviews published under the names of Danielle Roter and Duncan Wilde. She has reviewed film, theater, and books during the first decade of the 21st century.

Danielle B. Roter was born on May 26, 1948 in Brussels, Belgium, the daughter of Tovia and Bella Roter.

Along with her younger brother, Michel, the family departed from Cherbourg, France in early December 1948 on the Queen Elizabeth, arriving in New York, New York, USA on December 13, 1948. Diane's father, Tovia, was an actor and director credited as Theodore/Ted Roter and Peter Balakoff.

In 1952 the family officially moved to the United States and in 1957 became American citizens.

After her first role as a little French speaking girl on Ronald Reagan's General Electric Theater in 1959 Diane was sent to a Brussels, Belgium school for the 1961-62 school year. She was multi-lingual and fluent in Dutch and French. Danielle's father became the executive director of the Santa Monica Playhouse giving her progressively larger parts in every play they produced until she reached starring role status.

Danielle left school at the conclusion of her junior year (1965) at Venice High School in the west side of Los Angeles. Venice High is a foreign language and international studies magnet school. She accepted the role of Judge Garth's niece, Jennifer Sommers, at the start of The Virginian's fourth season for NBC. She replaced Roberta Shore who left the series to be married.

After NBC changed her first name to Diane, she remained in the role of Jennifer for twenty-five episodes (1965-1966).

Sara Lane replaced Diane after one season, appearing in over one hundred episodes (1966-1970). Diane has taught mime, movement, and acting in numerous private classes and schools. She has been a journalist and art critic in numerous newspapers. Diane earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bio-Psychology at UCLA.

Identified as Danielle, not Diane, Roter in the cast of the 1968 television series, "Hondo," was not pleased to learn that the script called for her to do a nude screen. The nineteen year old discussed the situation with her actor father, Ted Roter, who did not object and advised her that the bathing scene could be done by using a few well placed flesh colored pieces of fabric.

In one of her only six television shows after her one season on The Virginian, Diane Roter joined Kathy Garver, Jamie Farr, Richard Gates, and Veronica Cartwright in a comedic episode of Family Affair that aired in 1969. They all appeared as "flower children" on the "Flower Power" episode, playing on the dismay of Brian Keith in his role as "Uncle Bill". Kathy Garver and Diane later appeared together on The Marquee Theater stage in El Paso, Texas, USA in 1972 in "Under the Yum-Yum Tree." Diane's husband in real-life, Gregory O. Spencer, was also in the cast. Following her television and film career Diane studied mime in Paris, France under Marcel Marceau.

From 1980 to 1983 under the byline Danielle Roter she wrote a Kings Feature syndicated column as an interviewer and sometimes as a critic. Subjects included Jack Hofsiss, Franco Zeffirelli, Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill, Sandra Reeves-Phillips, Angela Lansbury, Barbi Benton, Scott Glenn, Darryl Hannah, Bruce Boxleitner, George Gaynes, and Sandra Bernhard.

In 2011 Diane directed and co-adapted a new version of of the 19th century Mark Twain and Bret Harte play, "Ah Sin." The Los Angeles Heritage Square Museum was the site for its debut reading.

She was a guest at the 2012 Memphis Film Festival's "A Gathering of Guns 4: A TV Western Reunion" at the Whispering Woods Hotel and Conference Center in Olive Branch, Mississippi.