Dana Delany Biography

Dana Welles Delany (born March 13, 1956) is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, presenter, and health activist.

Delany has been active in show business since the late 1970s. Following small roles early in her career, Delany garnered her first leading role in 1987 in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender and achieved wider fame in 1988"1991 as Colleen McMurphy on the ABC television show China Beach, for which she won two Emmy Awards. She received further recognition for her performances in the films Light Sleeper (1992), Tombstone (1993), Exit to Eden (1994), The Margaret Sanger Story (1995), Fly Away Home (1996), True Women (1997) and Wide Awake (1998). Since the mid-1990s, Delany has served on the board of the Scleroderma Research Foundation.

In 2000s she returned to television with a string of short-lived television series beginning with Pasadena (2001), Presidio Med (2002"2003), and Kidnapped (2006"2007). From 2007 to 2010 Delany played Katherine Mayfair on the ABC series Desperate Housewives. From 2011 to 2013 she played the lead role of Megan Hunt on the ABC drama series Body of Proof.

Delany is also a voice-actress. She played Lois Lane in the DC animated universe, as well as in The Batman animated series. In an interview, she said she loves to play "complicated characters".

Early life

Delany was born in New York City to parents of Irish descent and was raised Catholic. 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 that included jazz composer Bill Cunliffe, software executive Peter Currie, artist Julian Hatton, poet Karl Kirchwey, writer Nate Lee, editor Sara Nelson, restaurateur Priscilla Martel and sculptor Gar Waterman. "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 playing opposite Peter Kapetan as Emile. 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 appeared in a student video directed by classmate Jonathan Meath in a film class taught by Steve Marx. 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. Later, in an interview, she reported that she sometimes had eating issues during this time of her life. She said: "I binged... I starved ... I was one step from anorexia –a piece of toast and an apple would be all I would eat in a day."

Career

1980s: Stage, television, China Beach

After college, she found acting work in New York City in daytime soap operas. She starred in the Broadway show A Life and won critical acclaim in 1983 in Nicholas Kazan's off-Broadway Blood Moon, where the New York Times cited her "skillful verisimilitude" handling a difficult part requiring two roles "and she does them both with authority." Delany moved to Hollywood and during the next few years found work guest starring in TV shows like Moonlighting and Magnum, P.I..

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, who had directed her in the film Patty Hearst, 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. After several seasons the show suffered from mediocre ratings and was discontinued in 1991.

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 and theater. In addition, she established herself as a significant voice talent.

Delany won leading roles in a string of feature films such as the TV movie A Promise to Keep, Light Sleeper, Housesitter and Fly Away Home as well as appearing in the TV mini-series Wild Palms. She also took on controversial roles, such as Mistress Lisa in Exit to Eden, where one 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 and 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.

Work as Lois Lane

Dana Delany has performed 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. She returned to the DC Universe in an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold as Vilsi, an alternate universe variation of Lois Lane. She will also reprise her role in the upcoming animated movie, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.

2000s: Television, movies, stage, Desperate Housewives

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 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 Van De Kamp, 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 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.

2010s: Television series and movies

In March 2010, Delany appeared as FBI agent Jordan Shaw in a two-part story on the TV series Castle, which stars Nathan Fillion, who played her character's second husband on Desperate Housewives.

Delany left Desperate Housewives to star in the new ABC series Body of Proof originally slated to begin airing in late 2010. Delany also voiced a character Margaret Rosenblatt in the film Firebreather in 2010.

In 2011 in Body of Proof, Delany plays a brilliant neurosurgeon turned medical examiner after a car accident causes her to lose dexterity in her hands. Delany in real life had an experience similar to her character of Dr. Megan Hunt. Two weeks before filming the pilot episode, Delany's car was hit by a bus in Santa Monica; two fingers of her hand were broken and her car was totaled. Delany describes her character in Body of Proof as being "complicated, smart, and definitely complex."

In April 2011 Delany came 9th in People magazine's annual 100 Most Beautiful list.

In May 2011 Delany was the host of the fourth annual Television Academy Honors.

Delany appeared in the crime drama Freelancers with director Jessy Terrero. The film also stars Robert De Niro, Forest Whitaker, and 50 Cent. It was released to DVD on August 21, 2012, and had a limited release in theatres in September.

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, 2006 and 2009 to raise money for scleroderma research. Scleroderma "robs these women of not only their own lives in many cases, but robs their families which include countless children," she explained in 2002.

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. Delany explained her support for the arts in an interview: "I just think it's so important for children and the future of the country and people's general happiness. I'm one of those people who, whenever I feel cut off spiritually or emotionally, I go to a museum or a play or a movie, and I'm just transported." 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."

Delany, in 2003, tried having an injection of botox in her forehead, but the needle hit a nerve and created a hematoma which affected the muscle in her right eye, causing it to droop slightly. In 2010, she vowed she will never have plastic surgery. She told Prevention in 2010 that she prefers eating healthily, including vegetables, tofu, fish, gluten-free pasta, and bread. Since she plays a mortician in her new ABC drama Body of Proof, she refuses to eat turkey sausage because of a perceived similarity with intestines seen on the set.

In April 2011 Delany came 9th in People magazine's annual 100 Most Beautiful list.

Filmography

Year	Film/play/TV/other	Role	Other notes
1974	South Pacific	Nellie Forbush	Musical at Phillips Academy
1978	Ryan's Hope	Ryan's bar patron
1979	Love of Life	Amy Russell
1980	A Life		Broadway play
1981	The Fan	Saleswoman in record store
	As the World Turns	Hayley Wilson Hollister
1983	Wisk detergent	Lady in an elevator	TV commercial (opposite Tom McBride)
	Blood Moon	Innocent pre-med student	Off-broadway production by Nicholas Kazan
1984	Almost You	Susan McCall
	Threesome	Laura Shaper
	The Streets	Jeannie
1985	Moonlighting	Jillian Armstrong	"Knowing Her," episode 206
	Magnum, P.I.	Cynthia Farrell	Episodes 7.1, 7.2, 7.19
1986	A Winner Never Quits	Nora
	Where the River Runs Black	Sister Ana
	Liberty	Moya Trevor
1987	Sweet Surrender	Georgia Holden
1988	Patty Hearst	Gelina
	Masquerade	Anne Briscoe
	Moon over Parador	Jenny
	thirtysomething	Eve	South by Southeast season 1, episode 10
	China Beach	Colleen McMurphy	62 episodes 1988"1991
1990	A Promise to Keep	Jane Goodrich
	The Earth Day Special	Doctor
1992	Light Sleeper	Marianne
	Housesitter	Becky Metcalf
	Cheers	Susan Metheny	Season 11, episode 11
1993	Wild Palms	Grace Wyckoff
	Donato and Daughter	Lieutenant Dena Donato
	Tombstone	Josephine Marcus
	Batman: Mask of the Phantasm	Andrea Beaumont	(voice)
1994	The Enemy Within	Betsy Corcoran
	Exit to Eden	Lisa Emerson
	Texan	Anne Williams
1995	Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story	Margaret Sanger
	Live Nude Girls'	Jill
	Fallen Angels	Helen Fiske
	Translations	Maire	Broadway play (short-lived)
1996	Superman: The Animated Series	Lois Lane	(voice) (43 episodes 1996"2000)
	Fly Away Home	Susan Barnes
	The Adventures of Mowgli	Bagheera	(voice) English version
	For Hope	Hope Altman
	Wing Commander Academy	Gwen Archer Bowman	(voice) 13 episodes
1997	True Women	Sarah Ashby McClure
	Spy Game	Honey Trapp	Season 1, episode 4
	Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man	Dr. Susan Fox	(voice)
1998	Wide Awake	Mrs. Beal
	The Curve	Dr. Ashley
	Rescuers: Stories of Courage "? Two Couples	Johtje Vos
	The Patron Saint of Liars	Rose Cleardon Abbott
	The Batman/Superman Movie: World's Finest	Lois Lane	(voice)
	Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu		Documentary
1999	Outfitters	Cat Bonfaim
	Sirens	Sally Rawlings
	Resurrection	Clare Miller
	Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story	Elaine Gunn
2000	The Right Temptation	Anthea Farrow-Smith
	Dinner With Friends	Beth	Stage; Pulitzer-prize script
2001	Final Jeopardy	Alexandra Cooper	Delany was actor, co-executive producer
	Family Law	Mary Sullivan	Episode "Safe At Home"
	Pasadena	Catherine McAllister	13 episodes (2001"2002)
2002	Conviction	Martha
	Mother Ghost	Karen Bennett
	Superman: Shadow of Apokolips	Lois Lane	(voice)
	Presidio Med	Dr. Rae Brennan	13 episodes
2003	Intimate Portrait: Dana Delany	Herself
	Justice League	Lois Lane, Maggie Sawyer	(voice) (3 episodes 2003)
	Spin	Margaret Swift-Bejarano
	A Time to Remember	Britt Calhoun	aka "Turning Homeward"
	Much Ado About Nothing	Beatrice	Stage, San Diego
2004	Baby for Sale	Nathalie Johnson
	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Carolyn Spencer	"Obscene", episode 603
	Justice League Unlimited	Loana, Lois Lane	(voice) (4 episodes 2004-2005)
	Boston Legal	Samantha Fleming	1 episode
2005	Related	Francesca Sorelli	Season 1, episodes 7,18
	Getting to Know You	Marla
	Kojak	Kate McNeil
2006	Battlestar Galactica	Sesha Abinell
	Superman: Brainiac Attacks	Lois Lane	Voice
	The Woman with the Hungry Eyes	Theda Bara	Voice
	Kidnapped	Ellie Cain	13 episodes (2006"2007)
	The L Word	Senator Barbara Grisham
	Vietnam Nurses with Dana Delany	Host	Documentary
2007	Drunkboat	Eileen
	The Batman	Lois Lane	Voice (2 episodes)
	Life on the Refrigerator Door	Narrator	Audio book by Alice Kuipers
2007"2010, 2012	Desperate Housewives	Katherine Mayfair	Series Regular (3 seasons; 64 episodes) Special Guest Star (1 episode, Series Finale)
2008	Route 30	Amish Martha
	Flying Lessons	Jeanne
2009	Multiple Sarcasms	Annie
	A Beautiful Life	Anne
	Camp Hope	Patricia
	PoliWood	Herself	Documentary
	Annul Victory	Herself	Documentary
2010	Castle	Agent Jordan Shaw	2 episodes; season 2, episodes 17"18
	Batman: The Brave and the Bold	Vilsi Vaylar	voice
	Firebreather	Margaret	voice
2011"2013	Body of Proof	Dr. Megan Hunt	Series regular
2011	Television Academy Honors	Host
2012	Freelancers	Lydia Vecchio
2013	Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox	Lois Lane	(voice)
	The Parisian Woman	Chloe	Play

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film or series	Result
1989	Emmy	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	China Beach
1989	Q	Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series	China Beach
1990	Emmy	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	China Beach
1990	Golden Globe	Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-series drama	China Beach
1990	Q	Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series	China Beach
1991	Emmy	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	China Beach
1991	Golden Globe	Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-series drama	China Beach
1991	Q	Best Actress in a Quality Drama Series	China Beach
1992	Emmy	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	China Beach
1998	Lone Star Film & Television	Best TV Actress	True Women
2001	Emmy	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series	Family Law
2007	TV Land Award	Lady You Love to Watch Fight for Her Life in a Movie of the Week	Movie of the week
2008	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Desperate Housewives
2009	Prism	Best Performance in a Comedy Series	Desperate Housewives
2009	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Desperate Housewives

General source for awards:

Additional sources"?Family Law: Prism: Screen Actors Guild: Lone Star Film & Television: TV Land: