10 Things You May Not Know About Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews (1909 – 1992) was a major movie star during the 1940s and 1950s. He had major roles in several classic films, including Laura, State Fair, A Walk in the Sun, and The Best Years of Our Lives. He starred on Broadway in Two for the Seesaw, replacing Henry Fonda. He guest starred on numerous television shows and headlined the daytime soap opera Bright Promise (1969 – 1971). For many years he struggled with alcoholism, which damaged his career during the 1950s. He eventually got sober and was active with the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.

1. He was born Carver Dana Andrews in Mississippi, the third of 13 children.

2. He was a popular actor at the famed Pasadena Playhouse where he once carried a spear in a     production of Julius Caesar.

3.     He was under contract to both Samuel Goldwyn and Twentieth Century-Fox, an unusual arrangement during the days of the major Hollywood studios.

4.    Andrews appeared in five films with Gene Tierney: Tobacco Road, Belle Starr (both 1941), Laura (1944), The Iron Curtain (1948), and Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950).

Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney kiss in Laura.

5.     A trained opera singer, Andrews had his singing voice dubbed in the musical State Fair (1945), costarring Jeanne Crain.

6.    Speaking of Jeanne Crain, she and Andrews starred in four movies together: State Fair, Duel in the Jungle (1954), Madison Avenue (1961), and the cult classic Hot Rods to Hell (1967).

7.    He was director Otto Preminger’s favorite leading man. He made more films with Andrews than with any other actor: Laura, Fallen Angel (1945), Daisy Kenyon (1947), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), and In Harm’s Way (1965).

8.    The disaster movie parody Airplane! (1980) got most of its material from Zero Hour! (1957) Starring Andrews and Linda Darnell.

Linda Darnell (far left) and Dana Andrews (far right) try to land a commercial airliner in Zero Hour!

9.     Actor Steve Forrest, best know for his role as Lt. Hondo Harrelson in the television series S.W.A.T., is Andrews’s younger brother.

10.   He was never nominated for an Academy Award.


If you’re interested in learning more about Dana Andrews, I recommend you check out the biography Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews by Carl Rollyson.