Mar 13, 1956

New York City, New York, USA

Known mainly for her two-time Emmy Award winning performance as Colleen McMurphy on the ABC television show China Beach, Delany has been active in film, television, and stage since the late 1970s.
Her early career included a TV role on Love of Life (1979), performing on Broadway in A Life (1980), then back to TV on As the World Turns (1981). The west coast production of the controversial play Bloodmoon (1983-1984) took Dana to Hollywood. The next few years consisted of small parts in various fi... ... (read more...) lms and TV guest spots, including an appearance on Moonlighting (1985) and three notable episodes on Magnum P.I. (1986).

Leveraging this newfound fame, she appeared in feature films such as Light Sleeper (1992), Housesitter (1992), Tombstone (1993), and Fly Away Home (1996) and TV movies such as Promise to Keep (1991), and Wild Palms (1993).
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She took on controversial roles, such as Margaret Sanger in the TV movie Choices of the Heart (1995), Mistress Lisa in the 1994 feature film adaptation of the Anne Rice book Exit to Eden, and an Emmy nominated role as a gun-owning mother in an episode of the TV series Family Law (1999) (which was not rerun, due to sponsorship withdrawal).

She eventually focused on roles in TV series, such as the short-lived Pasadena (2001) and Presidio Med (2002); TV movies like True Women (1997), Resurrection (1999), A Time to Remember (2003) and Baby for Sale (2004); and feature films by indie film producers, such as The Outfitters (1999), Mother Ghost (2002), and Spin (2003).
Additionally, from 2004 to 2006, Delany has played many guest roles on TV shows such as Law & Order:SVU, Boston Legal, Kojak, Related, The L Word, and Battlestar Galactica. Dana also starred in a pilot for a series titled Kidnapped (2005), which was picked up by NBC TV for the 2006 fall season.