Dana Delany

Dana Delany
PerformerRDM
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Portrays:	Sesha Abinell
Date of Birth:	March 13,1956
Date of Death:	Missing required parameter 1=month!
Age:	70
Nationality:	USA
Related Media
		@ BW Media
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Dana Welles Delany (born March 13, 1956) is an American film, stage, and television actress who played Sesha Abinell, a widowed civilian who leads an armed seizure of the Cloud Nine lounge, in the Battlestar Galactica episode "Sacrifice" (2006).

Born in New York City and raised in Stamford, Connecticut, she earned two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her starring role as Army nurse Colleen McMurphy on China Beach (ABC, 1988–1991), and is recognized as the voice of Lois Lane across multiple animated DC productions.

Career

Delany attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts for her senior year of secondary school, where she was a member of the institution's first co-educational class. She then majored in theater at Wesleyan University, working summer stock productions during vacations before graduating in 1978.

After graduating, Delany returned to New York City, where she took roles in the daytime soap operas Love of Life and As the World Turns and appeared in television commercials. On stage, she made her Broadway debut in Hugh Leonard's A Life and received notice for off-Broadway productions, including Nicholas Kazan's Blood Moon (1983), which led her to relocate to Los Angeles. In Hollywood, she accumulated guest-starring credits on Moonlighting, Magnum, P.I., and thirtysomething.

In 1988, Delany was cast as Army nurse Colleen McMurphy on ABC's Vietnam War drama China Beach, a role she played through the series' 1991 finale. The Television Academy nominated her for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in each of the show's four seasons, with wins in 1989 and 1992.

Following China Beach, Delany worked in feature films through the 1990s, with roles in Light Sleeper (1992), Tombstone (1993), Exit to Eden (1994), and Fly Away Home (1996), along with television films including The Margaret Sanger Story (1995) and True Women (1997).

In 2001, the Television Academy nominated Delany for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Mary Sullivan in CBS's Family Law—her fifth career Emmy nomination. She also took lead roles in the short-lived Fox drama Pasadena (2001) and the CBS medical series Presidio Med (2002–2003).

In February 2006, Delany appeared as Sesha Abinell in the Battlestar Galactica episode "Sacrifice", written by Anne Cofell Saunders and directed by Reynaldo Villalobos, which aired on the Sci Fi Channel on February 10, 2006. Abinell is a widow whose husband was killed in a Cylon attack; convinced that the fleet is harboring a Cylon agent, she and a small group seize the Cloud Nine lounge and take Apollo, Billy Keikeya, and Ellen Tigh hostage, demanding that Sharon "Boomer" Valerii be surrendered to them. Delany also appeared in a recurring role during the abbreviated run of the NBC thriller Kidnapped (2006–2007).

In 2007, Delany joined the cast of the ABC comedy-drama Desperate Housewives as Katherine Mayfair, remaining with the series until 2010 and returning for a 2012 guest appearance. She then led the ABC medical drama Body of Proof (2011–2013) as Dr. Megan Hunt, a former neurosurgeon who, after losing the use of her hands in an accident, transitions to forensic pathology, and played Crystal Harris across 20 episodes of the Amazon drama Hand of God (2014–2017).

In November 2022, Delany joined the Paramount+ crime drama Tulsa King, created by Taylor Sheridan, as Margaret Devereaux, an equestrian and horse farm owner who sits on the board of the Annie Oakley Society. She appeared in 29 episodes across the series' first three seasons (2022–2025). In 2024, she also appeared in the Netflix action comedy film The Union and in five episodes of the FX drama Mayans M.C.

She has hosted the Television Academy Honors on ten occasions since the event's founding.

Voice acting

In 1993, Delany voiced Andrea Beaumont, Bruce Wayne's childhood sweetheart, in the animated theatrical film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Beginning in 1996, she voiced Lois Lane across all three seasons of Superman: The Animated Series, and went on to reprise the role in Justice League (2001–2004), Justice League Unlimited (2004–2006), and The Batman (2004–2008), as well as in the direct-to-video animated features Superman: Brainiac Attacks (2006) and Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013).

Personal life

Since the mid-1990s, Delany has served on the board of the Scleroderma Research Foundation. Her involvement was partly prompted by her portrayal of a scleroderma patient in For Hope (1996), a television film directed by Bob Saget.

References