Dana Andrews

Trivia of Dana Andrews (1 January 1909 – 17 December 1992)

*After arriving in Los Angeles, he worked a variety of jobs before become an actor, including driving a school bus, gas station attendant, truck driver, ditch digger, picking fruit, and working in a department store's stock room. He applied at, and was turned down by, every film studio and production company. He also applied at the Pasadena Playhouse, known as prime training ground for budding actors and actresses, but he was turned down there, at first, too. After he took singing lessons, he decided to give the Pasadena Playhouse a second go, and much to his surprise, he was accepted. His first role at Pasadena was as a spear carrier in a William Shakespeare drama.

*Trained as an opera singer, but was rarely 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).

*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.

*Although his career was considered to be slowing down by the early 1960s, in 1965, he appeared in eight different productions, by far the most roles in any one year of his entire career. Of those eight roles, all were feature films, and he portrayed military officers in five of them.

*He couldn't pick one of his films as his favorite, he simply love business.He earn more money with his real estate business (apartment buildings and hotels) than when he was a movie star.

*Spent the last years of his life in a nursing facility in Los Alamitos, CA, due to Alzheimer's Disease. Long-time friend Burt Lancaster was visiting him when Lancaster had the paralyzing stroke from which he never recovered and that led to his death two years later.