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 (1944) 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).[1] 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).[2]
Andrews attended college at Sam Houston State University nearby in Huntsville[3] 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.[4] 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.[5]The Los Angeles Times also attempted to debunk the story.[6]
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.[7] 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).[7] He then appeared in Sailor's Lady (1940), developed by Goldwyn, but released by Twentieth Century-Fox.[8]
His next film for Goldwyn was the Howard Hawks directed comedy Ball of Fire (1941), again teaming with Gary Cooper, with Andrews playing the villain, a gangster.
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.[11] 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.[12]
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.[13]
Andrews continued to make films like The Crowded Sky (1960) and Madison Avenue (1961). He then went to Broadway for The Captains and the Kings, which had a short run in 1962.
By the end of the decade, Andrews returned to television to play the leading role of college president Tom Boswell on the NBC daytime soap opera Bright Promise from its premiere on September 29, 1969, until March 1971.[14]
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."[9]
Andrews married Janet Murray on December 31, 1933.[15] Murray unfortunately died almost two years later in October 1935 as a result of pneumonia.[15] Their son, David, was later a radio announcer and musical director who himself died early from a cerebral hemorrhage in February 1964 at the age of 30.[16] Four years after the death of his first wife Janet Murray, on November 17, 1939, Andrews married stage actress Mary Todd (born June 8,1916 in Santa Monica, California-January 17, 2003, in California), who later guest-starred in 1976 on The Bob Braun Show, a talk show on local television station WCPO-TV (channel 9), in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1967-1984.[17][1] The couple had three children: Katharine, Stephen, and Susan, in addition to earlier son David from his first marriage.[1]
Andrews struggled with alcoholism but eventually won the battle and worked actively later with the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, using his experience as a teaching tool.[9] Several years later, during 1972, he appeared in a television public service advertisement concerning the subject of alcohol abuse.[1] During the last years of his life, Andrews also suffered from senility / dementia factors of Alzheimer's disease, which was increasingly occuring in the elder American population with scientific research then in its infancy. He spent his final years living at the John Douglas French Center for Alzheimer's Disease in Los Alamitos, (Orange County), California.[1]
On December 17, 1992, Andrews died of congestive heart failure and pneumonia, at the age of 83 years old.[18] His wife Mary Todd Andrews died a decade later in January 2003 at the age of 86 years old, noted in the entertainment magazine / newspaper Variety, the following month.[19]
^Coons, Robbin (August 8, 1941). "Dana Andrews Has Makings Of Stardom". Big Spring Daily Herald. p. 2. Archived from the original on August 17, 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
^Wallace, Irving (October 1940). "Nurseries for Newcomers". Modern Screen. 21 (5): 26–27, 83 – via The Internet Archive, archive.org.
^Kirby, Walter (March 15, 1953). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". Decatur Daily Review. p. 46. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
External links
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