DANA ANDREWSDana Andrews, who died on 17 December, 1992, was one of the leading Hollywood men of his time and later became an active campaigner against alcoholism.
His starring roles in hit films Laura (1944) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) were the highlights of a career in which he made over 70 films.
He was also elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1963 and was outspoken about what he saw as the degradation of the acting profession.
Carver Dana Andrews was born on 1 January, 1909, in Covington County, Mississippi. He was the third of nine children of Baptist Minister Charles Forrest Andrews and his wife Annis. He was raised in Huntsville, Texas, where the family moved when he was young and one of his younger brothers was the Golden Globe-winning actor Steve Forrest.
Mr Andrews studied business administration at Sam Houston State Teachers College in Texas, but left before graduating to work as an accountant for Gulf & Western. In 1931 he set off to LA in search of work as either a singer or actor.
Things did not go according to plan though. He had various jobs, including driving a school bus, digging ditches, picking oranges and pumping gas, without getting a break. It was only when his boss at the gas station showed enough faith in him to stump up the money for him to train as an opera singer (on the condition that he pay him back if successful) that his career took off.
He joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse, a famed theatre company and drama school, and became one of the company’s stars, appearing in dozens of plays. After nearly a decade of hard work, he was eventually offered a movie contract with Samuel Goldwyn’s studio.
He had small roles in various westerns, including The Westerner (1940), starring Gary Cooper. His roles became more prominent over the years, including parts in Belle Starr (1941) with Gene Tierney and Ball of Fire (1941) which also starred Gary Cooper.
His best role to date came in The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) alongside Henry Fonda and he topped the bill of war drama The Purple Heart (1944). He played opposite again Gene Tierney in the Oscar-winning film-noir Laura and was unlucky not to receive an Oscar himself for his portrayal of a WWII veteran in The Best Years of Our Lives.
It was quite sad for Mr Andrews that after struggling for so long to get into the film industry, his career started to decline after only five years. He fell into a vicious circle of poor films and alcoholism, his drinking becoming worse with each B-movie role and producers’ confidence in him dropping as a result.
He was one of the industry’s most forthright figures and had strong opinions about what he believed was the growing gratuity of nude scenes in movies and the actresses being forced to do them in order to get parts.
He was also the first actor to do a public service announcement about alcoholism for Alcoholics Anonymous in 1972, four years after overcoming his own addiction, and later became a member of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.
He retired from film work in the 1960s but continued to make regular television appearances. He also went into the real estate business which he claimed earned him more money than movies ever had.
Mr Andrews married Janet Murray on New Year’s Eve (the day before his birthday) in 1932, but she died three years later shortly after giving birth to a son, David. David was a musician and composer who died from a brain haemorrhage in 1964.
He remarried in 1939, to actress Mary Todd, and they had three children, Katharine, Stephen and Susan. The family lived in Toluca Lake for 20 years, then Mr Andrews and his wife moved to Studio City, Los Angeles. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease in later life and died of a heart failure in 1992.
Keep me informed of updates
