Biography
Dana Delany is an American actress wellknown for her role on the ABC television drama China Beach earned her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1989 and 1992. She also garnered notice for her roles in the films Light Sleeper, Tombstone, Exit to Eden, The Margaret Sanger Story, Fly Away Home, True Women, and Wide Awake.
Age
She is 68 years old as of 13 March 2024. She was born in 1956 in New York, New York, United States. Her real name is Dana Welles Delany.
Family – Education
Delany was born as the daughter of interior designer Mary Burnett Welles and John Joseph Delany, CEO of Coyne & Delany Co., a leading flushometer and flush valve maker in the United States. She has a sister, Corey, and a brother named Sean. She was reared Roman Catholic. She has mentioned that she aspired to be an actress since she was a child. She was attracted by films as a child and attended several Broadway performances with her family. She spent her senior year at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where she was part of the first co-educational class. In 1974, Delany, then a senior, wrote an op-ed about her experience as a one-year student during the school’s first year of coeducation. She majored in theatre at Wesleyan University.
Husband
Delany has never married or had any children.
Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of $10 million.
Height
She stands at a height of 5 feet 6 inches (1.68m).
Desperate Housewives
Delany first denied the option to play one of the four main characters on Desperate Housewives, Bree Van De Kamp, since it was too similar to her part on Pasadena. The show became a popular prime-time soap opera with high ratings. But in 2007, producer Marc Cherry offered her another job, this time as a supporting housewife, and she joined the cast of the long-running sitcom for the 2007-08 season. On May 13, 2008, it was reported that Delany would return to Desperate Housewives for season five after being upgraded to sixth lead.
Delany played FBI agent Jordan Shaw in a two-part tale on the TV series Castle, starring Nathan Fillion, who had played her character’s second husband on Desperate Housewives. Delany also voiced Margaret Rosenblatt in the 2010 film Firebreather. Delany left Desperate Housewives to star in Body of Proof, a new ABC series set to premiere in late 2010. Delany portrayed a great neurosurgeon who becomes a medical examiner after losing dexterity in her hands due to a vehicle accident. Delany’s actual life experience was comparable to that of her character, Dr. Megan Hunt. Delany’s car was hit by a bus in Santa Monica two weeks before filming the premiere episode, resulting in two broken fingers and a damaged vehicle. Delany sees her role in Body of Proof as “complicated, smart, and definitely complex.”
In May 2011, Delany hosted the fourth annual Television Academy Honors. Delany was ranked ninth on People magazine’s annual list of the 100 Most Beautiful in 2011. Delany starred in the criminal drama Freelancers, directed by Jessy Terrero. The film also features Robert De Niro, Forest Whitaker, and 50 Cent. It was released on DVD on August 21, 2012, with a limited theatrical release in September. Delany appeared on Turner Classic Movies as a primetime guest host in December 2016. She appeared in dozens of wraparounds on the channel, replacing Robert Osborne. Delany was cast in CBS’ drama The Code in August 2018.
China Beach
In the American military drama television series China Beach, she played First Lieutenant Colleen McMurphy, USA, a Catholic girl from Lawrence, Kansas who served as an army medic in the 510th Evac Hospital in Vietnam in the late 1960s. The character, based on several real-life Vietnam War nurses, depicts her courage, kindness, and sacrifices during the war, as well as the severe emotional scarring suffered by noncombatant personnel during and after military service; several episodes feature the veterans in their own words, intercut with the storyline. Delany received two Emmy Awards for the role.
Lynda Van Devanter, a former US Army nurse, wrote the book Home Before Morning, which served as an inspiration for the show. The show’s character, Nurse Colleen McMurphy, is loosely based on Van Devanter’s experiences as a nurse in Vietnam. The novel follows Van Devanter from her desire to serve her nation to the adventure she expected her deployment to Vietnam to be, her culture shock upon returning to “the States,” and her struggles with PTSD. The show was canceled before it could adequately address McMurphy’s PTSD difficulties. Van Devanter died in 2002.
Tombstone
She appeared as Josephine Marcus in the 1993 American Western film Tombstone. In 1879, the Cowboys, an outlaw gang noted for their red sashes, disturb a Mexican town and murder police officers. Wyatt Earp, a former peace officer, reunites with his brothers Virgil and Morgan in Tucson, Arizona, and heads to Tombstone. They meet Doc Holliday, Josephine Marcus, and Mr. Fabian, who are all suffering from tuberculosis. Wyatt and his brothers profit from their investment in a gambling establishment and tavern. As tensions increase, Wyatt is pushed to assist rid the town of the Cowboys, but he is no longer a cop. Curly Bill, a Cowboy, shoots and kills the marshal before being hauled into custody. Virgil becomes marshal and institutes a weapons ban, resulting in a gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Wyatt, Doc, Sherman McMasters, Texas Jack Vermillion, and Turkey Creek Jack Johnson organize a posse to exact retribution. They are attacked in a riverside thicket, but Wyatt kills Curly Bill and most of his men. Doc’s condition worsens, and Henry Hooker accommodates the group.
Movies
♦ 2024 – The Union
♦ 2020 – Wild Mountain Thyme
♦ 2017 – Literally, Right Before Aaron
♦ 2013 – Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
♦ 2012 – Freelancers
♦ 2010 – Multiple Sarcasms
♦ 2010 – Camp Hope
♦ 2010 – Drunkboat
♦ 2008 – A Beautiful Life
♦ 2008 – Flying Lessons
♦ 2007 – Route 30
♦ 2006 – Superman: Brainiac Attacks
♦ 2005 – Getting to Know You
♦ 2003 – Spin
♦ 2002 – Mother Ghost
♦ 2000 – The Right Temptation
TV Shows
♦ 2023 – The Other Two
♦ 2023 – Mayans MC
♦ 2022–present – Tulsa King
♦ 2021 – The American Guest
♦ 2019 – The Code
♦ 2018 – Bull
♦ 2015 – The Comedians
♦ 2015 – No Second Chance
♦ 2014–17 – Hand of God
♦ 2011–13 – Body of Proof
♦ 2010 – Batman: The Brave and the Bold
♦ 2010 – Castle
♦ 2010 – Firebreathe
♦ 2007–10, 2012 – Desperate Housewives
♦ 2007 – The Batman
♦ 2006 – The L Word
♦ 2006 – Battlestar Galactica