Dyan Cannon

Dyan Cannon, born Samille Diane Friesen on January 4, 1937, in Tacoma, Washington, is an American actress, filmmaker, and editor whose career has spanned television, film, and Broadway. She is the daughter of Claire Friesen, a housewife whose family emigrated from Ukraine, and Ben Friesen, a life insurance salesman of Dutch-Canadian Mennonite ancestry. Cannon was raised in the Jewish faith of her mother. Her younger brother is jazz musician David Friesen. The family relocated to Spokane, Washington when Cannon was ten, and later settled in Seattle, where she attended West Seattle High School and was crowned Miss West Seattle in 1954. She subsequently studied anthropology at the University of Washington for two and a half semesters before leaving school in 1956 to live with her aunt in Phoenix, Arizona, where she worked at Merrill Lynch. After relocating to the Los Angeles area, she enrolled at UCLA, and a part-time modeling job led to an introduction with producer Jerry Wald, who suggested she adopt the professional surname Cannon. She signed with MGM, did promotional work for the 1957 film Les Girls, and studied acting with Sanford Meisner.

Cannon made her television debut in the late 1950s, appearing on series including Wanted: Dead or Alive, Bat Masterson, Johnny Ringo, Stoney Burke, Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip, The Untouchables, and Tombstone Territory. Her film debut came in 1960 with The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond. She subsequently appeared on Broadway beginning in 1962, when she acted alongside Jane Fonda and Bradford Dillman in The Fun Couple. She also performed in the national touring company of the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, in which she played the role of Rosemary, and later appeared on Broadway in The Ninety Day Mistress. Her Broadway work continued through 1967. During the mid-1960s she continued working in television, with guest appearances on Gunsmoke, The Reporter, and the daytime soap opera Full Circle, and appeared in the 1965 feature The Murder Game before taking a four-year break from film work.

Cannon's breakthrough in film came in 1969 with the sex comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as a Golden Globe nomination. Her momentum continued into 1971, when she appeared in four films: The Love Machine, based on the novel by Jacqueline Susann; The Anderson Tapes with Sean Connery and Christopher Walken; The Burglars with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Omar Sharif; and Such Good Friends, directed by Otto Preminger, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. That same year she received top billing on Doctors' Wives despite making only a cameo appearance. In 1973, she starred opposite Burt Reynolds in Shamus and appeared in The Last of Sheila, playing an agent modeled on Sue Mengers. The National Association of Theatre Owners named her Actress of the Year in 1973 and Female Star of the Year in the same period. In 1974, she starred in Child Under a Leaf and in the television film Virginia Hill alongside Harvey Keitel.

During the mid-1970s, Cannon performed in her own musical stage act at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and Harrah's Lake Tahoe. She enrolled in the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women and went on to produce, direct, write, and edit the short film Number One in 1976, a story about adolescent sexual curiosity. The project earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film, making her the first Oscar-nominated actress to also receive a nomination in that category. She hosted Saturday Night Live during its first season and guest-starred in the fourth season of The Muppet Show. In 1978, she co-starred in Revenge of the Pink Panther and appeared in Heaven Can Wait, for which she received her second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. The Hollywood Women's Press Club named her Female Star of the Year in 1979.

Throughout the 1980s, Cannon appeared in Honeysuckle Rose with Willie Nelson, Coast to Coast with Robert Blake, Author! Author! with Al Pacino, and Sidney Lumet's Deathtrap with Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve, all released in 1980 and 1982. She also starred in the television films Having It All and Jenny's War and the miniseries Master of the Game. In 1988, she appeared in Caddyshack II. Cannon made her feature directorial debut in 1990 with The End of Innocence, a semiautobiographical drama that she also wrote and starred in. Later film credits include 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag and Out to Sea, both from 1997, and Boynton Beach Club in 2005. From 1997 to 2000, she played a recurring role on the legal drama series Ally McBeal. Her accolades include a Saturn Award, a Golden Globe Award, three Academy Award nominations, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Before her film career gained significant traction, Cannon was married to actor Cary Grant for three years; the couple divorced in 1968. Their daughter Jennifer was Grant's only child. Following Grant's death in 1986, Cannon initially declined publishing offers to write about the marriage. Her memoir, Dear Cary, was published in 2011 and became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2023, the book was adapted into a miniseries titled Archie, with Cannon serving as executive producer.