Leora Dana (April 1, 1923 â December 13, 1983) was an American film, stage and television actress from New York City. Dana appeared in numerous productions across film television and theatre including The Madwoman of Chaillot, and The Asphalt Jungle (TV series). She won several awards across her career including the Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising female. Dana died in 1983.
Dana was born on April 1, 1923, in New York City; her elder sister was Doris Dana. When Dana was 5 years old, her father abandoned the family. Her mother, who was a nurse, discouraged her plans to be an actress. Dana graduated from Barnard College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In the summer of 1945, while she was a student at Barnard, she was a theatrical apprentice at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine. She was the female lead opposite Neil Hamilton in the playhouse's production of Dear Brutus.
In 1947, Dana made her stage debut in London. In 1948, she debuted on Broadway in The Madwoman of Chaillot. Her other Broadway credits included The Happy Time (1950), Point of No Return (1951), Sabrina Fair (1953), The Best Man (1960), Beekman Place (1964), The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1972), The Women (1973), and Mourning Pictures (1974).
After appearing in the 1957 western ' with Van Heflin and Glenn Ford, Dana had supporting roles in two 1958 Frank Sinatra films; Kings Go Forth and Some Came Running. Her other film credits included Pollyanna (1960), A Gathering of Eagles (1963), The Group (1966), The Boston Strangler (1968), Change of Habit (1969), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Wild Rovers (1971), Shoot the Moon (1982), Baby It's You (1983), and Amityville 3-D (1983). Dana also played Anne Fry, the wife of the patriot John Fry, played by Jack Lord in the 1957 Paramount Pictures orientation film for Colonial Williamsburg, '. The film has the distinction of being the longest-running motion picture in history, having been shown continually in the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center for over five decades.
Dana guest-starred in three episodes of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1960, she appeared in the Hitchcock-directed Startime episode "Incident at a Corner," which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In 1961, Dana appeared in an episode ("The Scott Machine") of the television series The Asphalt Jungle, and later appeared in the 1977 miniseries Seventh Avenue. In 1978âÂÂ1979, Dana played the role of alcoholic clothing designer Sylvie Kosloff, the biological mother of villainess Iris Cory (Beverlee McKinsey) on the NBC daytime soap opera Another World.
In 1949, Dana won the Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Female, for The Madwoman of Chaillot on Broadway. She won the 1973 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play, for The Last of Mrs. Lincoln.
Dana was married to actor Kurt Kasznar. They were divorced in 1958. She died of cancer, aged 60, December 13, 1983 in New York City.