Leora Dana

Leora Dana (April 1, 1923 – December 13, 1983) was an American actress who worked across stage, film, and television. Born in New York City, her elder sister was Doris Dana. She pursued her education at Barnard College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and her Broadway career spanned from 1948 to 1974.

Dana launched her stage career in London in 1947 before making her Broadway debut the following year in The Madwoman of Chaillot. That performance earned her the 1949 Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Female. Her subsequent Broadway credits included The Happy Time, Point of No Return, and Beekman Place. In 1973, she received the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for The Last of Mrs. Lincoln.

Her film work began with the 1957 western 3:10 to Yuma, alongside Van Heflin and Glenn Ford. That same year she appeared in Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot, a Paramount Pictures orientation film for Colonial Williamsburg in which she played Anne Fry, wife of the patriot John Fry, portrayed by Jack Lord. The film holds the distinction of being the longest-running motion picture in history, having screened continuously at the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center for over five decades. In 1958, Dana appeared in two Frank Sinatra films, Kings Go Forth and Some Came Running. Her additional 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).

On television, Dana guest-starred in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and appeared in a 1961 episode of The Asphalt Jungle. She later appeared in the 1977 miniseries Seventh Avenue. From 1978 to 1979, she played Sylvie Kosloff, an alcoholic clothing designer and the biological mother of the character Iris Cory, portrayed by Beverlee McKinsey, on the NBC daytime soap opera Another World.

Dana died of cancer in New York City on December 13, 1983, at the age of 60.