Dana Delany Bio

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Dana Welles Delany (born March 13, 1956) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is known especially for her two-time Emmy Award winning role as Colleen McMurphy on the ABC television show China Beach (1988-91), in more recent times as Katherine Mayfair on Desperate Housewives and, as a voice-actress, Lois Lane in the DC Animated Universe as well as the TV series The Batman. Delany has been active in film, television, and stage since the late 1970s.

Dana Delany: Biography

Dana Delany - Early life

Delany was born in New York City. She has remarked that, even as a child, she always wanted to go into acting. "The reason a person first gets into acting is because you want attention from your parents as a child," she told a reporter. In her childhood, she went with her family to many Broadway shows, and was fascinated by films.

After growing up in Stamford, Connecticut, she attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts for her senior year, and was a member of the school's first co-educational class. "Andover was the best time of my life," she recalled. She played the lead role of Nellie Forbush in the school's spring musical production of South Pacific. She commented: "It was just a little awkward to be Nellie at first because she hesitates to marry Emile since he had once lived with a Polynesian woman -- I don't agree with her reasoning so that made things a bit hard at the beginning." She graduated in 1974 with the academic honor of "cum laude" which was awarded to 80 out of 378 graduating seniors. She majored in theater at Wesleyan University, worked in summer stock productions during vacations, and graduated in 1978.

Dana Delany - 1980s: Stage, television, China Beach

Delany at the 1992 Emmy awards

After college, she found acting work in New York City in daytime soap operas. She starred in the Broadway show A Life. She won critical acclaim in 1983 in Nicholas Kazan's off-Broadway Blood Moon. New York Times critic Mel Gussow cited her "skillful verisimilitude" handling a difficult part requiring two roles "and she does them both with authority." He elaborated: "The impressionable Miss Delany is alternately tantalized and suspicious, but even as the audience senses that she is in jeopardy, she allows herself to fall under Mr. Canary's spell ... Miss Delany has to step awkwardly in and out of scenes and to address the audience."

Delany moved to Hollywood and during the next few years found work guest starring in TV shows like Moonlighting and Magnum, P.I.. Some roles had dark undercurrents requiring deft handling; for example, in the Moonlighting episode "Knowing Her", she played detective David Addison's seemingly friendly ex-girlfriend while secretly planning his murder. These guest appearances led to the leading role in a major television series.

Dana Delany's first audition for the lead role of nurse Colleen McMurphy was unsuccessful. "They thought I wasn't pretty enough", she said in an interview, but heeding advice from director Paul Schrader, she "cut her long tresses into a bob" and re-auditioned with this new haircut, successfully, after the producers lost their first choice. She won the lead role on the critically acclaimed China Beach, which appeared weekly from 1988 to 1991 and brought intense media attention to the actress. This role not only garnered two Emmy Awards, but two other Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. New York Times TV critic John J. O'Connor wrote: "Ms. Delany, whose clean-cut, no-frills style is consistently refreshing, clearly serves as the anchor figure in the weekly repertory company ... Her character can't help radiating compassion from beneath the protective shell she uses to cope with the horrors of war." But after several seasons the show suffered from mediocre ratings and was discontinued in 1991.

Dana Delany - 1990s: Movies, television, voice

In 1991, Dana Delany was chosen by People magazine as one of the "50 most beautiful people in the world." In the years following China Beach, Delany worked steadily in television, movies, theater. In addition, she established herself as a significant voice talent.

Delany won leading roles in a string of feature films. One script made her weep "from beginning to end", she said in an interview, and she agreed to appear in the TV movie A Promise to Keep (1991) about a woman who raises her dead sister's four children. She appeared in Light Sleeper (1992), a film with "mordant wit and ... rigorous, unfakable honesty" according to New Yorker critic Terrence Rafferty. She starred alongside comedian Steve Martin in the film Housesitter (1992), a film which earned mixed to negative reviews. She appeared in Tombstone (1993), a movie dubbed by one critic as a "designer western". The movie Fly Away Home (1996) featured Canadian geese flying after an ultra-light aircraft which leads them to safety, described by one critic as a sentimental film which "allows us to enjoy our emotions without feeling we've been criminally manipulated." She appeared in Wild Palms (1993). described by television critics as "a total original" and a "denser and more disorienting" version of the TV series Twin Peaks which establishes a "consistent mood of subtle menace."

Delany took on controversial roles, such as Mistress Lisa in Exit to Eden (1994). This film, aiming for a sweet spot between wholesomeness and X-rated fare, was adapted from the Anne Rice book and earned mixed to negative reviews; at one point, Delany appears naked. A Tampa Bay film critic commented "The script was awful -- Dana looked great." Delany commented in a 2008 interview about the audience reaction: "I had already got pilloried for playing the Exit to Eden dominatrix after China Beach because audiences had a certain image of me as Colleen and didn't want to see it change." The provocatively titled Live Nude Girls included frank discussion by women of their sexual fantasies at a bachelorette party using a low-budget improvisational comedy format with strong chemistry between the actors. Reviews were mixed: Los Angeles Times critic Richard Natale liked the film but wrote older male film executives believed it to be "uncommercial"; another critic agreed it was "genuine girl talk" but "didn't have a lot of substance" and viewers "don't get to know the characters in the film". She also starred as Margaret Sanger in the TV movie Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story (1995), about a controversial nurse who crusaded for women's reproductive rights in the early 1900s.

In 1995, Delany appeared in the Broadway show Translations. New York Times critic Vincent Canby wrote it had an "able cast" but "uninspired" direction. In May 1997, Delany returned to her alma mater Phillips Academy to work with theater students as an artist-in-residence. She appeared in TV movies such as True Women (1997) and Resurrection (1999).

In 1998, Delany reportedly turned down the role of Carrie Bradshaw in the hit TV show Sex and the City. She commented in a subsequent interview: "The show's creator Darren Star asked me to play Carrie ... Darren got the idea of televising Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City from seeing me and Kim (Kim Cattrall) in Live Nude Girls." Delany declined the role partly after remembering the negative audience reaction she received with a similar film, Exit to Eden, a few years back. Sex and the City became a successful series, and the role of Carrie made Sarah Jessica Parker world-famous.

Delany played a gun-toting mother in an episode of the TV series Family Law (1999) for which she earned an Emmy nomination, but the series was not rerun due to sponsorship withdrawal.

In 2007, she recorded an audio book Life on the Refrigerator Door by author Alice Kuipers.

Work as Lois Lane

Dana Delany did substantial voice work periodically. She portrayed Andrea Beaumont in the 1993 animated feature film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm based on the popular TV show Batman: The Animated Series. Delany's voice performance in the film impressed filmmakers and led to her being cast as Lois Lane in Superman: The Animated Series. She was also mentioned by name in the theme song of Animaniacs, another Warner Bros. production. She reprised her role as Lois Lane for the character's guest appearances in Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and The Batman. Coincidentally, Delany's future Desperate Housewives co-star, Teri Hatcher, also portrayed Lois Lane on the live-action TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Dana Delany - 2000s: Television, movies, stage, Desperate Housewives

Delany, Teri Hatcher, Brenda Strong and Andrea Bowen at the 2009 GLAAD Media Awards.

Delany continued to find work in a variety of projects, doing pilots, TV series, made-for-TV movies, and feature films. She appeared in the NBC drama Good Guys/Bad Guys (2000), which Newsweek termed a "Sopranos knock-off". She appeared in the short-lived Pasadena (2001), a critically acclaimed Fox production which was "underpromoted and endlessly pre-empted" and described as a "twisted rich-family saga" with a "great cast". Delany commented in an interview: "You can see Pasadena as a black comedy or see it as really tragic. A lot of soaps on television now don't have that layer of tragedy to them." She was an actor and co-executive producer of the film Final Jeopardy (2001). New York Daily News TV critic David Bianculli gave a positive review to both her performance as an actor -- "Delany, as always, does pensive and independent better than most actresses" -- and as a producer. She played a doctor in the TV series Presidio Med (2002), described as a "conventional but pleasant drama populated by characters dedicated to medicine who also have messy personal lives." She appeared in TV movies such as A Time to Remember (2003), and Baby for Sale (2004). She appeared in feature films by indie film producers, such as The Outfitters (1999), Mother Ghost (2002), and Spin (2003).

Returning to theater, she played an artsy and incompetent woman who questions the "imposed conventions of society" after discovering her husband's affair in the Pulitzer-prize winning Dinner With Friends (2000, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston); her performance earned positive reviews generally. She played Beatrice in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (2003, San Diego); one critic described the "verbal sparring" between Delany and actor Billy Campbell as a "joy".

From 2004 to 2006, Delany played many guest roles on TV shows, such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Boston Legal, Kojak, Related, The L Word, and Battlestar Galactica. She also starred in the short-lived TV series Kidnapped (2006). One critic wrote "Delany is alternately furious and despondent as Ellie, and she and Hutton (Timothy Hutton) can do more without words than other actors can do with pages of dialogue. They're absolutely convincing as rich, complicated Manhattanites and as parents who come face to face with the scary reality that they can't always protect their kids."

Delany appeared as a guest on numerous TV talk shows throughout her career, including Xpose, The Bonnie Hunt Show, Rachael Ray, Live With Regis and Kathie Lee, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The View, The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, The Martin Short Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Late Show with David Letterman, The Larry Sanders Show, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She was a presenter at the Emmy awards.

The actress appeared as herself in the TV documentary Vietnam Nurses with Dana Delany which explored their lives and treatment after returning to the United States. Delany has become "something of a heroine to the nurses who served in Vietnam", according to Los Angeles Times writer Susan King, who noted that the actress worked on a nationwide nurse recruitment program in 1990 called the McMurphy project.

In 2007, Delany appeared in the films A Beautiful Life, Camp Hope, and Multiple Sarcasms.

Delany initially declined the offer to play one of the four Desperate Housewives principal characters, Bree Hodge, saying it was too similar to her role on Pasadena. The show became a popular prime-time soap opera with substantial ratings. But in 2007 she was again offered a role by producer Marc Cherry, this time as a supporting housewife and guest actor, and she joined the cast of the well-established series for the 2007-08 season. Reaction to the addition of Delany was positive; one critic wrote "...casting Dana Delany as Katherine Mayfair in Season 4 is one of the smartest things Cherry has ever done ... Not many actors can deftly deliver both comedy and drama, but Delany makes it look easy." She commented about playing housewife Katherine Mayfair: "The hardest thing for me was figuring out the tone of the piece because it's such a specific tone - so it was more of an acting challenge than anything else." She commented in 2008: "I hope that she (Katherine Mayfair) doesn't lose her snarkiness, because that's always fun to play." On May 13, 2008, it was announced that Delany would reprise her role on Desperate Housewives for season five, having been promoted to the sixth lead.

Dana Delany - Personal and public life

Since the mid-1990s, Delany has served on the board of the Scleroderma Research Foundation, and with her friend Sharon Monsky, she helped campaign for support in finding a cure for scleroderma. Working with director Bob Saget, she starred in the TV movie For Hope (1996), based on Saget's sister Gay, who had died as a result of the disease. She appeared as a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy in 2001 and 2006 to raise money for scleroderma research.

Delany is a board member of the arts advocacy organization Creative Coalition. She appeared in June 2009 in an onstage meeting in New York alongside White House social secretary Desiree Rogers to discuss ways to promote American cinematic creativity. In August 2009 Delany was named co-president of the Creative Coalition, joining Tim Daly in the leadership of the organization. She participated as a celebrity guest in fundraising events which support the rights of same-sex couples to marry. In addition, she has supported Planned Parenthood. She attended the organization's 90th birthday celebration in New York City in 2006. Delany said: "It's hard to imagine where we'd be in this country had Margaret Sanger not founded that first clinic here in New York, 90 years ago." She attended events sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Delany commented about her personal life in an interview in 2006: "I turned 50 and I'm ready to get married ... I don't know who he is yet but I'm ready ... He has to be smart, funny and kind." She added a year later: "Marriage has never been a big deal for me ... But I think I'm ready now ... I got to have all the fun in the world, to experience a lot of people and figure out what I really like." Delany (in 1988) said she doesn't find being a celebrity to be that appealing: "I'm not a 'personality'. I am never recognized, which I take as a compliment. I have a love-hate thing with publicity."

Since the mid-1990s, she has had a notable Internet presence. She has participated in several online chat events promoting various projects. Her official web site, online since 1996, includes a guestbook in which she participates.