Dana Andrews
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dana Andrews | |
|---|---|
 from the trailer for the film The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). |
|
| Born | Carver Dana Andrews January 1, 1909 Covington County, Mississippi |
| Died | December 17, 1992 (aged 83) Los Alamitos, California, USA |
| Spouse(s) | Janet Murray (1932-1935) Mary Todd (1939-1992) |
Dana Andrews (January 1, 1909 - December 17, 1992) was an American film actor.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
He was born Carver Dana Andrews on a farm just outside of Collins, Covington County, Mississippi, the third of nine children of the Rev. Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister and his wife Annis. The family subsequently moved to Huntsville, Texas, where his younger siblings (including actor Steve Forrest) were born.
Andrews attended college there and also studied business administration in Houston, working briefly as an accountant for Gulf & Western. In 1931, he travelled to Los Angeles, California seeking opportunities as a singer. He worked at various jobs to earn a living, including pumping gas at a filling station in Van Nuys. One of his employers believed in him and paid for his studies in opera and also at the Pasadena Playhouse, a prestigious theater and acting school.
[edit] Career
Andrews signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn and nine years after arriving in Los Angeles was offered his first movie role in William Wyler's The Westerner (1940), starring Gary Cooper. In the 1943 movie adaptation of The Ox-Bow Incident with Henry Fonda, often cited as one of his best films, he played a lynching victim.
He gave a finely calibrated performance in Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), followed by the Andrews' two signature roles -- as an obsessed detective in Laura (1944) opposite Gene Tierney, and as a soldier returning home from the war in the Oscar-winning 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives.
By the 1950s, alcoholism had derailed Andrews' career, and on a couple of occasions nearly cost him his life on the highway. He was forced into supporting roles and character parts in B-movies, albeit good ones (he once said that he'd made more money in real estate than he'd ever made as an actor). In 1963, he was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild. Between 1969 and 1972, he appeared in a leading role as college president Tom Boswell on the NBC daytime soap opera, Bright Promise. In 1972, after four years of sobriety, he became one of the first celebrities to appear in a public service announcement for AA.
[edit] Personal life
Andrews married Janet Murray on New Year's Eve, 1932. She died in 1935, not long after the birth of their son, David (a musician and composer who died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1964). On November 17, 1939, he married actress Mary Todd. They had three children, Katharine (born in 1942), Stephen (born in 1944), and Susan (born in 1948). For 20 years the family lived in Toluca Lake in the home now owned by Jonathan Winters. After his children were grown, Andrews lived out his later years with his wife Mary in the Studio City home bought from his friend, film director Jacques Tourneur (director of Canyon Passage and Curse of the Demon, in which Andrews appeared).
In the last years of his life Andrews suffered from Alzheimer's disease and in 1992 he died of congestive heart failure and pneumonia at the age of 83.
[edit] Partial filmography
|
|
[edit] Cultural references - Miscellaneous facts
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- "Dana Andrews was trained as a singer before his movie career began, but the only time he sang in a movie, State Fair (1945), — his voice was dubbed!" - Ripley's Believe It or Not!
- Andrews' role in the movie Night of the Demon in 1957, inspired the line, "Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes" from the song "Science Fiction/Double Feature" in the musical Rocky Horror Picture Show.
[edit] External links
- Dana Andrews at the Internet Movie Database
- Dana Andrews at Allmovie
- Profile @ Turner Classic Movies
- Dana Andrews at Find A Grave
|
|||||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrews, Dana |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Andrews, Carver Dana |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1909-1-1 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Covington County, Mississippi |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 17, 1992 (aged 83) |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Los Alamitos, California, USA |
