Dana Delany

Wasn't she in a relationship with Steve Martin?

I thought her and Steve Martin were just co-stars in 'Housesitter"

Loved her in China Beach. Can't stand her since she was in that BDSM film with Rose O'Donnell.

If you say so, OP

She is gorgeous.

I think she is at least bi, but very guarded about her relationships.

R5, SHE has some crazy ass "fans" on twitter. I don't blame her for being guarded.

Hooker.

She's been guarded long before twitter.

Didn't she frequent that lesbian bar Peanuts on Santa Monica Blvd? Or was that Kristy McNichol?

She loves Erykah Badu. Always tweets her.

dANA likes femme blonds

What makes you think she likes femme blondes?

She used to be Treat Williams' girlfriend. I'd say she's straight, just not very good at picking boyfriends.

One of Dana's earliest memorable roles was in Moonlighting as Addison's (Bruce Willis) old flame.

Even earlier, a Whisk ad.

Big Boozer.

R16 - If so, booze must have preservatives because Dana looks 15 years younger than her age.

Everyone she's ever worked with hates her.

That's not true. Nathan Fillion loves her. After working on Desperate Housewives together he made sure she got a guest arc on Castle.

I think she's a great actress.

I don't think anything will surpass her performance as McMurphy in China Beach, but she was very good in Body of Proof. The supporting cast was uneven.

She's been arrested for DUI, and in rehab two or three different times. Pretty much shot a promising career straight to hell.

She tried to pick up a friend of mine In santa monica a few years ago. My friend was married and not interested but he did say she looked really good for her age. He mentioned to her how he loved watching china beach when he was a kid and she suddenly looked all deflated. Maybe she didn't realize how much younger he was or maybe she just doesn't like being reminded of her age.

R21 - Kim Delaney had a DUI. I don't see any news of Dana having one.

R23:

Oh! That's very different!

Never mind.

dana is at least bi!!! trust

Are we talking about Bill Dana??

most feminine gay women especially in DD generation had BFS. I was engaged to a good-looking and great guy. I am gay and love feminine women

Knew her in the early 90's and she fucked nearly every guy she'd meet (except me). Developed quite a rep for that. I always thought she was cool; easy to work with. Dunno if she enjoys the great taste of pussy now but wouldn't put it past her. She was a dirty little girl.

R28, I believe DD is seriously insecure and especially when you are young, beautiful and les, you overcompensate. become the biggest dick hound etc.. so so so sad

For some reason I used to get her confused with Janine Turner.

R30 - Bite your tongue.

The guy is R15's clip is the wheelchair guy from Friday the 13th Part 2

Early appearance on Letterman

How Delany Strolled Onto 'China Beach' With A Plum Role In The Tv Vietnam Drama, This Actress Has Everything But A Hard-luck Story. By Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer Posted: June 21, 1989

NEW YORK — Perhaps the tabloids were so busy, what with all the tales of coma babies and alien co-workers, that they missed this exclusive. So, hey, get this: DANA DELANY'S MOM UPSET WITH STAR DAUGHTER'S HAIR!!!!

Unbelievable, right? More amazing than Elvis being sighted in a Michigan supermarket? (C'mon, if Elvis were alive, of course he'd go to the supermarket.)

But Delany, star of ABC's China Beach (Channel 6, 10 p.m. Wednesdays), may just have the best hair on television with her shiny hennaed bob - it does amazing things, bouncing back and forth, even when her character, superhuman supernurse Colleen McMurphy, just stands there and pouts, which is pretty often. And yet her mother's not happy?

Well, her mother isn't really that upset. But in terms of adversity, her mother's mild distaste is about as rough as Delany's life gets. If you're the kind of person who gets ill reading about other people's good fortune and trouble-free lives, Delany's story may put you in the hospital.

With China Beach, Delany has one of TV's more enviable roles. Although the drama about Vietnam nurses boasts a large cast, it is far less an ensemble effort than thirtysomething or L.A. Law. Her character, McMurphy, carries the show and serves as its moral center. As Delany puts it: "There aren't too many days when I don't work."

The show's executive producer and co-creator, John Sacret Young, once said: 'McMurphy is basically written like a hero in a western; what we're doing here is showing the war through one woman." Her character is so dominant that no other stars have emerged in the show's 1 1/2 seasons, not even Megan Gallagher, who proved so beguiling in The 'Slap' Maxwell Story (and who recently announced that she was leaving China Beach).

The way Delany tells it, her trip to the top of the television heap was remarkably easy, almost - dare she say it? - fun.

She comes from a Stamford, Conn., family that became wealthy making toilet valves. She went to George Bush's school, Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and adored it so much that she couldn't wait to go to her 15th reunion two weeks ago. Then she went on to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she was very happy.

After moving to Manhattan, she worked about two minutes as a cocktail waitress, and three hours selling tickets at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and assisting in an antiques shop, before landing a role in a daytime soap. (All right, it was a year, but for an actress in Manhattan that's like three hours and two minutes.) She played Amy Russell on Love of Life, "a pretty good part because I was the bad girl," Delany says, sitting in her publicist's office.

She played the role for a year, until the show was canceled. What was next? Why, Broadway, of course. After appearing in A Life, Delany quickly got another part on another soap, that of Haley Wilson on As the World Turns. "I was the world's oldest living virgin," she sighs.

BAD HABITS

Other actresses would kill for a soap, but Delany was bored. "Well, I loved soaps in college, but when I was on them I found I was learning some bad habits that I thought were very detrimental to my career. You take shortcuts. You don't make the choices to try interesting things - at least I didn't. You just try to see how little work you can get away with. It was very dangerous."

So while Haley went off on a never-ending honeymoon, Delany, now 33, went to acting school. "I know, I sort of did it backwards: Broadway, soap operas, then acting school," she says. The lessons paid off: Delany landed another theatrical role, this time as the star of Bloodmoon. The play moved to Los Angeles, and she went with it. Then the television offers started coming in. And not just any offers.

She played Bruce Willis' girlfriend on Moonlighting.

She played Tom Selleck's girlfriend on Magnum, P.I.

"I was everybody's girlfriend. I'm the type of girl you're supposed to marry," says Delany, who is single.

She wasn't complaining about playing opposite Selleck or Willis, who was a longtime friend, but "you do worry about being typecast. It can definitely be a death trap to be tagged so early as a certain type."

She starred briefly in the short-lived show Sweet Surrender, and then China Beach came her way.

This was her first reaction: "Oh, no, not another Vietnam show."

This was her second: "I don't want to do a series. You don't have a life. The show becomes your life."

And this was her third reaction, after reading the script: "This is really good. How did the male writers know so much about women? This woman talks like I do. And the script doesn't have the women characters acting like girls, talking about their hair. They're substantial."

AN EARLY READING

How she got the part is something Delany has told so many times and to such audible disbelief that she now does so on automatic pilot. "Well, the way the story went is that I showed up a day early for the audition," she says, shutting her eyes, reciting by rote. "It was a mistake. Honest. I have the date book to prove it. I was the first person who read for the part."

When she was offered the part, Delany resisted. She had already landed a role in the film Patty Hearst. Her movie career was going well: She was featured in Masquerade and Moon Over Parador. "My agent said, 'Look, the bottom line with anything is whether the writing is good. The writing on this show is very good.' "

The life of a television actress is not always glamorous. China Beach is shot an hour's drive northwest of Los Angeles in the Indian Dunes. "It's the desert, so in the summer it's over 100 degrees during the day," Delany says. 'And in the winter, as soon as the sun goes down, it gets into the 30s." And she often has to be on the beach, at night, in a bathing suit.

"I've been in the water when it's been in the 40s. Half of the time on the show you're sick," she says. "But I'm getting smarter about this. One of the actors insists on wearing scuba gear or fatigues at the beach. I'm trying to do the same."

Her days begin at 4:30 a.m. "when I do my yoga." She reports to makeup on the set 90 minutes later. Work can go as late as midnight, and rarely ends earlier than 6 p.m. "Just try having a social life," Delany says.

EATING LIGHT

Wearing fatigues means the actress doesn't have to worry about her weight, although she does. "I gained 10 pounds the first season; now I have Pritikin diet food served on the set," says Delany, who is wearing a second-skin black

dress that shows what terrific shape she's in.

She would just as soon skip the beach scenes, particularly the evening ones - the evenings her character McMurphy lives for. "What I really love are the medical scenes. I just love all that bloody stuff in the operating room," the actress says.

Most performers, once they land a plum television role, want to ride it out for five or six years. Not Delany. Though there was a chance that ABC would not renew the show for next season (it did, last month), Delany wasn't worried.

"I'd be happy with just another year, then I'd like to try something different," she says. "I have great faith that things will turn out."

The actor is the Whisk ad at r15 is Tom McBride. Tom was a gay actor who became the subject of the documentary "Life and Death on the A-List". The doc was shot over the last year of Tom's life as he went from incredibly handsome and muscular NY gay guy to a semi-paralyzed AIDS victim. It's fucking gripping and tragic.

He was friends with this bartender I worked with and would stop by my restaurant to meet his buddy, and as a pimply faced nineteen year-old, I had never seen a more compellingly gorgeous guy.

My mom's best friend served as a nurse in Vietnam and really appreciated how China Beach and Dana portrayed the nurses.

She's gay. Yes, she had many relationships with men but now she is mostly with women

R37, can you elaborate? I've felt her tweets are coming out, but maybe she is just a supporter.

How are her tweets coming out?

Dana is a good person

bump

Does anyone have any real gossip about her with women?

R42, sometimes I think her tweets are a way of her coming out. She is an anomaly to me.

How are her tweets coming out and what makes her an anomaly?

R44, you would have to read her tweets. I get that feeling, but maybe you wouldn't. Just seems like a lot of her tweets lately involve gays or gay issues. Maybe I am reading more into it than there is.

I've read her tweets. The gay oriented tweets are mor was out current issues like gay marriage. The tweets don't make her seem gay.

Sounds like a lot of dyke wish fulfillment to me....

She's gay. She will quietly come out in a few months

R48, how do you know this? Seems a lot of people posting a bunch of BS. If you like I can make stuff up too.

R49 True dat, celebs are just a very straight group of people. And she played Magnum's attorney near-wife, that's such a straight role.

R50, where do roles they take have to do with their personal life?

She had a role on the L Word. Quite a few lesbians and bisexuals were on there. Just sayin'. . . .

R52, you ain't saying much. Robin Williams dressed in drag for Tootsie. By your analysis he was a cross dresser in real life.

I definitely think this is just speculation. I don't even know what it's based on. Her tweets aren't suggestive.

IF she is gay or bi, she is a coward to remain closeted at her age!

The fact that she was on the L Word doesn't prove anything, other than the fact that she and the casting crew knew that many gay and bisexual women like her. This is called pandering to your audience

Holy crap - she's 59! She DOES look good for her age.

Weird to stumble on a thread for DD here on DL. Funny I've been wondering if she was a late in life lesbian. I too follow her tweets and some of them made me wonder. I suppose she could just be a strong ally. The first tweet that made me wonder was her congratulating "two very beautiful women Jodie Foster and Alexa (whatever her name is) on their wedding " or something close to that.

When Matt Bomer came out , DD tweeted "I hope this doesn;t ruin his career"

Her Desp Housewives character did the lez lez.

Dana is not straight, but a cowardly hypocrite

No, r60, her character was "straight" at the end. It was just the typical "girl-on-girl" bait kiss. Yawn.

Dana did tweet she "LOVED" kissing Julia Bentz , the chick from DH

Oh, if she tweeted it then it must be true. It's not that she's an actress that uses the social media to pander to different segment of her audience. No, they will never do that...

r64, yes, DD is totally straight. EWW gays are gross - sarc

no, r65, it's just that she's an actress and she's just doing her job, aka pandering to the audience. I'm sorry that I don't see actors as these great people to look up to just because of the job they do. They are just selling themselves a step above escort and prostitutes do

r66, most actors are pansexual?

R48 there's no such thing as "quiet coming out". Our society still makes it a big deal. The mere fact that we need to come out is a testament to that.

r68, true

Gay!!

She had a one line role in "The Fan"(1981).

The really important question: who's her plastic surgeon?

r72, Dana is a real beauty with healthy lifestyle and yoga, meditation and wine. DD is a very nice person. totally humble and not egotistical

She once dated Richard Bey.

I dated several guys!!

R74 She must be a dyke. No straight woman in her right mind would date that Jerry Springer clone........

R74 I've never seen her linked to Richard Bey.

I knew Dana many years ago. Definitely loves men, but lesbian friendly. And by that I mean she's quite clear in her attraction to men so isn't threatened by being around Lesbians or cares what anybody thinks. Really sincere and down to earth.

r78 Sure

R78 I don't know if Dana is gay or not. You said you knew her years ago so you really don't know her now. I don't know how close you were to her then, but sometimes friends will not share their inner feelings to anyone.

I think each of the last 3,000 times we had this thread the conclusion was, we weren't sure.

It was only 3,000? It seemed like a lot more.

R81 This is the only thread about Dana Delany that I am aware of.

This week.

R84 Ummm this thread was from last July! It was brought back from the dead today.

She has that slightly nasal preppy voice going a la Paltrow and Claire Danes...

R86 I'm not a fan of Dana's voice.

she's gay

R88 You're straight.

I hope she's gay. I'd love to seduce her, lol! ;)

Dana retweeted a cartoon of two women in bed today.

She used to date one of the writers of China Beach a dude.

Or was it the showrunner. Think it caused friction on set.

Straight

And you bumped this thread to say THAT?

Whatevah.