Dana Andrews

Dana Andrews was born in Collins, Mississippi in 1909, the son of a Baptist minister. He trained as an accountant but, having no interest in an “ordinary job” as he put it, in 1932 headed west for Hollywood. He studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1936, having initially tried his luck as a singer – he was a fair tenor, but not good enough to make a career out of it. He had little initial luck with the acting either, and had to make ends meet working as a petrol pump attendant. Sam Goldwyn would later tell the story of driving into the filling station one day where “this fellow gave me a smile like Clark Gable’s.”

Andrews was never a star in the manner of Gary Cooper or Cary Grant. He never dominated a film by the sheer force of his personality. Yet his air of self-effacement was a refreshing variation on many blandly good looking leads of the 1940s. He did not fit easily into the charm and glamour school. He could wear a tuxedo, and behave well with the ladies, but the eyes often conveyed suspicion and sadness. His faintly melancholic air was accentuated by the tight, long, thin-lipped mouth that seemed to resolve itself into a smile only with difficulty. A much underused actor, he has also been much undervalued by the critics. —Jack Watkins