Dana Andrews

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Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews (January 1, 1909 - December 17, 1992) was an American actor. He was born Carver Dana Andrews on a farm just outside of Collins, Covington County, Mississippi, the third of nine children of Anice and Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister, his given names being the last names of two of the minister's teachers. The family subsequently moved to Texas, where they settled in Huntsville, where the younger siblings (including actor Steve Forrest) were born.

Dana Andrews attended college there and also studied business administration in Houston, working briefly as an accountant for Gulf & Western.

In 1931, Andrews went to Los Angeles, California seeking opportunities as a singer. He worked at various jobs to earn his 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. Andrews later 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), which starred Gary Cooper.

Andrews' role in the 1943 movie adaptation of The Ox-Bow Incident with Henry Fonda is often cited as one of his better early films. He gave finely calibrated performances in Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), in the film Laura opposite Gene Tierney (1944), and in the Oscar-winning 1946 film The Best Years Of Our Lives. Many thought his performance in the latter film was his best work, deserving of an Academy Award.

By 1950, 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 1972, after four years of sobriety, he became one of the first celebrities to appear in a public service announcement for AA.

In 1963, he was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild.

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). Despite his success as an actor, the family lived in a relatively modest home in Studio City, California.

In the last years of his life Andrews suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and, in 1992, he died of congestive heart failure and pneumonia.

He was the older brother of actor Steve Forrest.

Partial Filmography

Trivia

  • "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!

External links

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