Dana Andrews

He died of congestive heart failure and pneumonia in 1992, aged 83.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 3, 1991-1993, pages 22-23. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001.

Mentioned in the opening song to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) ("Science Fiction")

He was probably the first actor to do a public service announcement about alcoholism (in 1972 for the U. S. Department of Transportation), and did public speaking tours. Andrews was one of the first to speak out against the degradation of the acting profession, particularly actresses doing nude scenes just to get a role.

In mid-summer 1969 he was hired to be the lead in an NBC daytime soap opera to be called Bright Promise (1969). The plot was about how students at the fictional Bancroft College were being trained to be the "bright promise" leaders of the future. Writers/producers Doris Hursley and Frank Hursley developed the show, a co-production of Bing Crosby Productions and Paramount Television (under the name Fandor Productions), with assistance from Cox Broadcasting. The Hursleys, who had previously created the iconic soap opera General Hospital (1963), brought aboard producer/director Gloria Monty. Andrews was to play university president Thomas Boswell, the central character around whom other characters and story lines would be spun. The show premiered in 1969 and shared facilities at the NBC studios in Burbank, CA, with the popular soap Days of Our Lives (1965), and Andrews--who was a trained opera singer--actually got to use his singing skills on the show (something he was seldom allowed to do in his film career). In 1971, after the show had been on for about a year, Andrews was reading the "Los Angeles Times'" entertainment section, called "Calendar", and learned that he had been fired from the show by the network. His character was written out and he was replaced two weeks later by Anne Jeffreys. NBC also fired the show's producer, Dick Dunn, and brought in one of its own people, Jerry Layton, to replace him. The series itself was canceled the next year, replaced by Return to Peyton Place (1972)--like Andrews, the show's cast and crew found out they were out of work by reading about it in the L.A. Times' Calendar section. Ironically, in 1974 Return to Peyton Place (1972) was also canceled and its cast and crew found out about it the same way--by reading about it in the "Times". The series was replaced by a game show..

Andrews was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1963, serving until 1965.

He retired from films in the 1960s and made, he said, more money from real estate than he ever did in movies. Yet he and his second wife, actress Mary Todd, lived quietly in a modest home in Studio City, California. Andrews suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his later years and spent his final days in a nursing facility.

He and his younger brother Steve Forrest made guest appearances in consecutive episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959): Andrews in The Twilight Zone: No Time Like the Past (1963) and Forrest in The Twilight Zone: The Parallel (1963).

He was important to the "disaster" genre, specializing in "Airliners in Peril". In Zero Hour! (1957) his character was a pilot named named Ted Stryker, the same name used by Robert Hays in Airplane! (1980), which satirized Andrews' film. In The Crowded Sky (1960) he played a pilot who must land a disabled plane. Then in Airport 1975 (1974) he appeared in a small but important role.

After the expiration of his last studio contract in 1952, he formed his own production company, Lawrence Productions.

Sealed Cargo (1951) was the only film that he and his younger brother Steve Forrest made together.

A starring role in the hit Laura (1944), followed by one in The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946), made him a star, but no later film quite lived up to the quality of these. During his career, he had worked with with such directors as Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang, William Wyler, William A. Wellman, Jean Renoir, and Elia Kazan. Andrews slipped into a steady stream of unremarkable films in which he gave sturdy performances, until age and other interests resulted in fewer appearances. In addition, his increasing alcoholism caused him to lose the confidence of some producers. Andrews took steps to curb his addiction and in his later years was an outspoken member of the National Council on Alcoholism, who decried public refusal to face the problem.

Trained as an opera singer, but was rarely--e.g. in The North Star (1943)--allowed to use his fine singing voice in the movies. In the one musical he did make, State Fair (1945), his voice was dubbed because the studio was unaware he was a trained singer. He later explained that he didn't correct their mistake because he felt the singer dubbing him probably needed the money.

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

American leading man of the 1940s and 1950s, Dana Andrews was born Carver Dana Andrews on New Years Day 1909 on a farmstead outside Collins, Covington County, Mississippi. One of thirteen children, including fellow actor Steve Forrest, he was a son of Annis (Speed) and Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister.

It was two years before Goldwyn and 20th Century-Fox (to whom Goldwyn had sold half of Andrews' contract) put him in a film, but the roles, though secondary, were mostly in top-quality pictures such as The Westerner (1940) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1942).

His first wife, Janet Murray, died of pneumonia in 1935. Their older son, David, became a pianist, organist, composer, and radio announcer, before dying in 1964 due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Janet was from a rather wealthy family in small-town Iowa, and is buried there with their 2nd son, who died shortly after birth.

Sons: David Andrews (1934-64) and Stephen Andrews (b. 1944). Daughters: Katharine Andrews (b. 1942) and Susan Andrews (b. 1948).

In 1931, he hitchhiked to California, hoping to get work as an actor. He drove a school bus, dug ditches, picked oranges, worked as a stock boy, and pumped gas while trying without luck to break into the movies. His employer at a Van Nuys gas station believed in him and agreed to invest in him, asking to be repaid if and when Andrews made it as an actor. Andrews studied opera and also entered the Pasadena Community Playhouse, the famed theatre company and drama school.

He appeared in scores of plays there in the 1930s, becoming a favorite of the company. He played opposite future star Robert Preston in a play about composers Gilbert and Sullivan, and soon thereafter was offered a contract by Samuel Goldwyn.

Andrews studied business administration at Sam Houston State Teachers College in Texas, but took a bookkeeping job with Gulf Oil in 1929, aged 20, prior to graduating.