Dana Delany


Dana Welles Delany is an American actress, producer, and activist. After appearing in small roles early in her career, Delany received her breakthrough role as Colleen McMurphy on the ABC television drama China Beach, for which she twice received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1989 and 1992. She received further recognition for her appearances in the films Light Sleeper, Tombstone, Exit to Eden, , Fly Away Home, True Women, and Wide Awake.
In the 2000s, Delany appeared in main roles on several short-lived television series, including Pasadena, Presidio Med, and Kidnapped. From 2007 to 2010, she starred as Katherine Mayfair on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives, for which she received a Prism Award in 2009. Delany then starred as Megan Hunt on the ABC medical drama Body of Proof , and as Crystal Harris on the Amazon drama series Hand of God.

Early life

Delany was born in New York City, the daughter of Mary and Jack Delany. She has a sister, Corey, and a brother, Sean. She is of Irish and English descent and was raised Roman Catholic. She has stated that, even as a little girl, 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 little girl," 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, which included jazz composer Bill Cunliffe, software executive Peter Currie, artist Julian Hatton, poet Karl Kirchwey, writer Nate Lee, editor Sara Nelson, restaurateur Priscilla Martel sculptor Gar Waterman, and acted in one scene with future magazine publisher Sloane Citron. Then-senior Delany wrote an op-ed in 1974 about her experience of being a one-year student during the school's first year of co-education. "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 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 nomination to the school chapter of the Cum Laude Society, awarded that year to 80 out of 378 graduating seniors.
She majored in theater at Wesleyan University, where she appeared in one of the first performances of María Irene Fornés feminist play Fefu and Her Friends. Delany also worked summer stock productions during vacations before graduating in 1978. Later, in an interview, she reported that she sometimes had eating disorders 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 including Love of Life and As the World Turns, and supported herself by acting in commercials such as for Wisk laundry detergent. 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. and Thirtysomething.
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. She finally won the role after she showed up to her next audition with her "long tresses cut into a bob" after the producers lost their first choice.China Beach aired weekly from 1988 to 1991 and brought intense media attention to the actress. This role not only garnered two Primetime Emmy Awards, but two additional Primetime Emmy Award nominations and two Golden Globe Award nominations. The show ended after four seasons in 1991.

1990s: Movies, television, voice

In 1991, 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." 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 , about the 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, she 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 and Resurrection.
In 1998, Delany reportedly turned down the role of Carrie Bradshaw in the hit TV show Sex and the City. She declined the role partly because of the negative audience reaction she received with a similar film, Exit to Eden, a few years prior. 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 for which she earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, but the series was not rerun due to sponsorship withdrawal.

Voice acting

Delany has performed substantial voice work. She portrayed Andrea Beaumont in the 1993 animated feature film ' based on the popular TV show '. Delany's voice performance in the film impressed filmmakers and led to her being cast as Lois Lane in '. She was also mentioned by name in one variation of 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 ' as Vilsi, an alternate universe variation of Lois Lane. She reprised her role in the 2013 animated movie, .

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, which Newsweek termed a "Sopranos knock-off". She appeared in the short-lived Pasadena, a Fox production which was 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. 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, 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, and Baby for Sale. She appeared in feature films by indie film producers, such as The Outfitters, Mother Ghost, and Spin.
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 ; her performance earned positive reviews generally. She played Beatrice in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing ; 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 , Boston Legal, Kojak, Related, The L Word, and Battlestar Galactica. She also starred in the short-lived TV series Kidnapped. One critic wrote "Delany is alternately furious and despondent as Ellie, and she and 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 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 played 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.
In December 2016, Delany was the primetime guest host on Turner Classic Movies. She appeared in dozens of wraparounds on the channel, filling in for Robert Osborne.
Delany was cast for CBS's Drama The Code in August 2018.

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 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 that 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. She is a Democrat who campaigned for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Delany has never been married nor had any children. She 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 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 bruise that affected the muscle in her right eye, causing it to droop slightly. In 2010, she vowed she would never have plastic surgery. She told Prevention in 2010 that she prefers eating healthily, including vegetables, tofu, fish, gluten-free pasta, and bread.
In April 2011, Delany came 9th in People magazine's annual 100 Most Beautiful list.
In 2019, Delany commented on her approach to acting:

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1981The FanSaleswoman in record store
1984Almost YouSusan McCall
1986Where the River Runs BlackSister Ana
1988MasqueradeAnne Briscoe
1988Patty HearstGelina
1988Moon over ParadorJenny
1992Light SleeperMarianne
1992HousesitterBecky Metcalf
1993TombstoneJosephine Marcus1993
1993'Andrea BeaumontVoice
1994Exit to EdenLisa Emerson
1995Live Nude GirlsJill
1996Fly Away HomeSusan Barnes
1998The CurveDr. Ashley
1998Wide AwakeMrs. Beal
1999OutfittersCat Bonfaim
2000The Right TemptationAnthea Farrow-Smith
2002Mother GhostKaren Bennett
2003SpinMargaret Swift-Bejarano
2005Getting to Know YouMarlaShort
2006'Lois LaneVoice, Video
2007Route 30Amish Martha
2008A Beautiful LifeAnne
2008Flying LessonsJeanne
2010Multiple SarcasmsAnnie
2010Camp HopePatricia
2010DrunkboatEileen
2012FreelancersLydia Vecchio
2013Lois LaneVoice, video
2017Literally, Right Before AaronWendy

YearTitleRoleNotes
1974South PacificNellie ForbushMusical at Phillips Academy
1980A LifeBroadway play
1983Wisk detergentLady in an elevatorTV commercial
1983Blood MoonInnocent pre-med studentOff-broadway production by Nicholas Kazan
1995TranslationsMaireBroadway play
1998Louise Brooks: Looking for LuluDocumentary
2000Dinner With FriendsBethStage; Pulitzer-prize script
2003Much Ado About NothingBeatriceStage, San Diego
2006Vietnam Nurses with Dana DelanyHostDocumentary
2007Life on the Refrigerator DoorNarratorAudio book by Alice Kuipers
2009PoliWoodHerselfDocumentary
2009Annul VictoryHerselfDocumentary
2013The Parisian WomanChloePlay
2017The Night of the IguanaMaxine FaulkPlay
2018Collective Rage: A Play in 5 BettiesBetty No. 1Off-Broadway production written by Jen Silverman

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryFilm or seriesResult
1989Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Lead Actress in a Drama SeriesChina Beach
1989Viewers for Quality Television AwardBest Actress in a Quality Drama SeriesChina Beach
1990Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Lead Actress in a Drama SeriesChina Beach
1990Golden Globe AwardBest Actress in a Television Series – DramaChina Beach
1990Viewers for Quality Television AwardBest Actress in a Quality Drama SeriesChina Beach
1991Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Lead Actress in a Drama SeriesChina Beach
1991Golden Globe AwardBest Actress in a Television Series – DramaChina Beach
1991Viewers for Quality Television AwardBest Actress in a Quality Drama SeriesChina Beach
1992Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Lead Actress in a Drama SeriesChina Beach
1998Lone Star Film & TelevisionBest TV ActressTrue Women
2001Primetime Emmy AwardOutstanding Guest Actress in a Drama SeriesFamily Law
2007TV Land AwardLady You Love to Watch Fight for Her Life in a Movie of the WeekMovie of the Week
2008Screen Actors Guild AwardOutstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy SeriesDesperate Housewives
2009PRISM AwardBest Performance in a Comedy SeriesDesperate Housewives
2009Screen Actors Guild AwardOutstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy SeriesDesperate Housewives
2014Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle AwardOutstanding Lead PerformanceThe Parisian Woman

General source for awards:
Additional sources—Family Law: Prism: Screen Actors Guild: Lone Star Film & Television: TV Land: