Dana Andrews

Carver Dana Andrews (January 1, 1909 – December 17, 1992) was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir and later in Western films. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts into the 1980s. He is best known for his portrayal of obsessed police detective Mark McPherson in the noir mystery Laura and his critically acclaimed performance as World War II veteran Fred Derry returning home in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

Early life Andrews was born on a farmstead near Collins (county seat town of Covington County), in southern Mississippi, the third of 13 children of Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister, and his wife, Annis (née Speed). The family subsequently relocated west to Huntsville, Texas, the birthplace of his younger siblings, including fellow Hollywood actor Steve Forrest (born William Forrest Andrews, 1925–2013).

Andrews attended college at Sam Houston State University nearby in Huntsville and studied business administration in Houston. During 1931, he traveled to the West Coast to Los Angeles, California, to pursue opportunities as a singer. He worked various jobs, such as at a gas refueling station in the nearby community of Van Nuys. To help the struggling Andrews study music at night, "The station owners stepped in ... with a deal: $50 a week for full-time study, in exchange for a five-year share of possible later earnings", which he started repaying after signing with Goldwyn. The founder of the Hollywood Community Theater, Neely Dickson, disputed the gas station story, saying it was invented by Samuel Goldwyn Studio publicists and that Andrews was discovered at her theater. The Los Angeles Times also attempted to debunk the story.

Career Sam Goldwyn and 20th Century Fox

In 1938, Andrews was spotted in the play Oh Evening Star and Samuel Goldwyn (c.1879/1882-1974), signed the promising actor to a contract, but felt he needed time to develop experience. Andrews continued at the Pasadena Playhouse of Pasadena, California, working in over 20 productions and proposed to his second wife Mary Todd. After twelve months, Goldwyn sold part of Andrews' contract to 20th Century-Fox, where he was put to work on the first of two B pictures; his first role was in Lucky Cisco Kid (1940).

Andrews was loaned to Edward Small to appear in the Western film / bio-pic Kit Carson (1940), before Goldwyn used him for the first time in a Goldwyn studio production of director William Wyler's The Westerner (1940), featuring Gary Cooper.

Andrews then went back to Goldwyn for The North Star (1943), directed by Lewis Milestone. He worked on a government propaganda film, December 7: The Movie (1943), then was used by Goldwyn again in Up in Arms (1944), supporting Danny Kaye.

Andrews was reunited with Milestone at Fox for The Purple Heart (1944), then was in Wing and a Prayer (1944) for Henry Hathaway.

Critical success and noir

One of his roles was as a detective infatuated with a presumed murder victim, played by Gene Tierney, in Laura (1944), produced at Fox and directed by Otto Preminger. He co-starred with Jeanne Crain in the movie musical State Fair (1945), a huge hit, and was reunited with Preminger for the film noir Fallen Angel (1945). Andrews made another war movie with Milestone, A Walk in the Sun (1945), then was loaned to Walter Wanger for a western, Canyon Passage (1946), directed by Jacques Tourneur and co-featuring Susan Hayward.

Andrews' second film with William Wyler, also for Goldwyn, became his best known: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). It was both a popular and critical success. Upon release, the topical film about American society's problems in re-integrating military veterans after World War II outgrossed the longstanding box office success of Gone with the Wind (1939) in the U.S. and Britain. In 2007, the film ranked number 37th on AFI's Top 100 Years...100 Movies.

Andrews appeared in Boomerang! (1947), directed by Elia Kazan; Night Song (1947), at RKO; and Daisy Kenyon (1947) for Preminger. In 1947, he was voted the 23rd most popular actor in the U.S.

Andrews starred in the anti-communist The Iron Curtain (1948), reuniting him with Gene Tierney, then Deep Waters (1948). He made a comedy for Lewis Milestone at Enterprise Pictures, No Minor Vices (1948), then traveled to England for Britannia Mews (1949). Andrews was in Sword in the Desert (1949), then Goldwyn cast him in My Foolish Heart (1949) with Susan Hayward. He played a fast-fisted police officer in the film noir Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), also with Tierney and Preminger. Around this time, alcoholism began to damage Andrews's career, and on two occasions it nearly cost him his life behind the wheel.

Edge of Doom (1950), another film noir for Goldwyn, was a flop. Andrews was then loaned to RKO to make Sealed Cargo (1951), in which his brother Steve Forrest has an uncredited role. (In a "Word of Mouth" commentary for Turner Classic Movies, Forrest stated, "I'd have given my eye teeth to have worked with him.") Back at Fox, Andrews was in The Frogmen (1951), then Goldwyn cast him in I Want You (1951), an overwrought attempt to repeat the success of The Best Years of Our Lives, during the Cold War era Korean War.

From 1952 to 1954, Andrews was featured in the radio series I Was a Communist for the FBI, about the experiences of Matt Cvetic, an FBI informant who infiltrated the Communist Party of the United States of America.

Career decline Andrews' film career waned in the 1950s. Assignment: Paris (1952) was not widely seen. He made Elephant Walk (1954) in Ceylon, a film better known for Vivien Leigh's nervous breakdown and replacement by Elizabeth Taylor. Duel in the Jungle (1954) was an adventure tale, Three Hours to Kill (1954) and Smoke Signal (1955) were Westerns, Strange Lady in Town (1955) was a Greer Garson vehicle, and Comanche (1956) another Western.

By the mid-1950s, Andrews was acting almost exclusively in B-movies. However, his acting in two late-cycle film noirs for Fritz Lang during 1956, While The City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, are well regarded, as are a horror film, Curse of the Demon (1957), and a noir, The Fearmakers (1958), made with Jacques Tourneur. Around this time, he also appeared in Spring Reunion (1957), Zero Hour! (1957) and Enchanted Island (1958).

In 1952, Andrews toured with his wife, Mary Todd, in The Glass Menagerie, and in 1958, he replaced Henry Fonda (his former co-star in The Oxbow Incident and Daisy Kenyon) on Broadway in Two for the Seesaw.

1970s and 1980s Andrews spent the 1970s in supporting roles of Hollywood films such as The Failing of Raymond (1971), Innocent Bystanders (1972), Airport 1975 (1974), A Shadow in the Streets (1975), The First 36 Hours of Dr. Durant (1975), Take a Hard Ride (1975), The Last Tycoon (1976), The Last Hurrah (1977), and Good Guys Wear Black (1978)

He also appeared regularly on TV in such shows as Ironside, Get Christie Love!, Ellery Queen, The American Girls, The Hardy Boys, and The Love Boat.

It was at this time, the 1970s, that Andrews became involved in the real estate business, telling one newspaper reporter, for example, that he owned "a hotel that brings in $200,000 a year." Their son was later a radio announcer and musical director who died early from an intracerebral hemorrhage in February 1964 at the age of 30. Four years after the death of his first wife, Janet Murray, on November 17, 1939, Andrews married stage actress Mary Todd (1916–2003). She appeared in 1976 on The Bob Braun Show, a local television talk show on WCPO-TV (channel 9) in Cincinnati, Ohio. Several years later, during 1972, he appeared in a television public service advertisement concerning the subject of alcohol abuse. His wife, Mary Todd Andrews, died a decade later in January 2003 at the age of 86, noted in the entertainment magazine Variety the following month.

He is mentioned in the song "Science Fiction/Double Feature", from The Rocky Horror Show.

Filmography

Lucky Cisco Kid (1940, movie debut) as Sergeant Dunn Sailor's Lady (1940) as Scrappy Wilson Kit Carson (1940) as Captain John C. Fremont The Westerner (1940) as Sergeant Dunn Tobacco Road (1941) as Captain Tim Belle Starr (1941) as Maj. Thomas Crail Swamp Water (1941) as Ben Ball of Fire (1941) as Joe Lilac Berlin Correspondent (1942) as Bill Roberts Crash Dive (1943) as Lt. Cmdr. Dewey Connors The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) as Donald Martin The North Star (1943) as Kolya Simonov December 7th (1943) as Ghost of US Sailor Killed at Pearl Harbor Up in Arms (1944) as Joe The Purple Heart (1944) as Capt. Harvey Ross Wing and a Prayer (1944) as Lt. Cmdr. Edward Moulton Laura (1944) as Det. Lt. Mark McPherson State Fair (1945) as Pat Gilbert Fallen Angel (1945) as Eric Stanton A Walk in the Sun (1945) as Sgt. Bill Tyne Canyon Passage (1946) as Logan Stuart The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) as Fred Derry Boomerang (1947) as State's Atty. Henry L. Harvey Night Song (1947) as Dan Daisy Kenyon (1947) as Dan O'Mara The Iron Curtain (1948) as Igor Gouzenko Deep Waters (1948) as Hod Stillwell No Minor Vices (1948) as Perry Ashwell The Forbidden Street (1949) as Henry Lambert / Gilbert Lauderdale Sword in the Desert (1949) as Mike Dillon My Foolish Heart (1949) as Walt Dreiser Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) as Det. Mark Dixon Edge of Doom (1950) as Father Thomas Roth Sealed Cargo (1951) as Pat Bannon The Frogmen (1951) as Jake Flannigan I Want You (1951) as Martin Greer Assignment – Paris! (1952) as Jimmy Race Elephant Walk (1954) as Dick Carver Duel in the Jungle (1954) as Scott Walters Three Hours to Kill (1954) as Jim Guthrie Smoke Signal (1955) as Brett Halliday Strange Lady in Town (1955) as Dr. Rourke O'Brien Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Goes a Fishin (1956 short) as himself Comanche (1956) as Jim Read While the City Sleeps (1956) as Edward Mobley Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) as Tom Garrett Spring Reunion (1957) as Fred Davis Curse of the Demon (1957) as John Holden Zero Hour! (1957) as Lt. Ted Stryker The Fearmakers (1958) as Alan Eaton Enchanted Island (1958) as Abner "Ab" Bedford The Crowded Sky (1960) as Dick Barnett. Madison Avenue (1961) as Clint Lorimer The Satan Bug (1965) as Gen. Williams In Harm's Way (1965) as Admiral Broderick Crack in the World (1965) as Dr. Stephen Sorenson Brainstorm (1965) as Cort Benson Town Tamer (1965) as Tom Rosser Berlin, Appointment for the Spies (1965) as Col. Lancaster The Loved One (1965) as Gen. Buck Brinkman Battle of the Bulge (1965) as Col. Pritchard Johnny Reno (1966) as Johnny Reno The Frozen Dead (1966) as Dr. Norberg Hot Rods to Hell (1967) as Tom Phillips Supercolpo da 7 miliardi (The Ten Million Dollar Grab) (1967) as George Kimmins The Cobra (1967) as Capt. Kelly No Diamonds for Ursula (1967) as Il gioielliere The Devil's Brigade (1968) as Brig. Gen. Walter Naylor The Failing of Raymond (1971, TV Movie) as Allan McDonald Innocent Bystanders (1972) as Blake Airport 1975 (1974) as Scott Freeman A Shadow in the Streets (1975, TV Movie) as Len Raeburn The First 36 Hours of Dr. Durant (1975 TV movie) as Dr. Hutchins Take a Hard Ride (1975) as Morgan The Last Tycoon (1976) as Red Ridingwood The Last Hurrah (1977 TV movie) as Roger Shanley Good Guys Wear Black (1978) as Edgar Harolds Born Again (1978) as Tom Phillips A Tree, a Rock, a Cloud (1978 short) The Pilot (1980) as Randolph Evers Ike: The War Years (1980 TV movie) as General George C. Marshall Prince Jack (1985) as The Cardinal (final film role)

Partial television credits

Radio credits Year Program Episode 1948 Lux Radio Theatre "The Luck of the Irish" 1952–1954 I Was a Communist for the FBI Various episodes 1952 Hallmark Playhouse "The Secret Road" 1953 Theater of Stars "The Token"