Dana

NOTE: This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title If an article link referred you here, you might want to go back and fix it to point directly to the intended page.

This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. If an article link referred you here, you might want to go back and fix it to point directly to the intended page. Also, if you wanted to search for the term "Dana", click here.

CastCharacters

Dana DelanyDana Elcar

Dana
PerformerRDM
{{{credit}}}
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
Official Site
IMDb profile

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 Starlight 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

External Sources

Dana
{{{credit}}}
Portrays:	John Steadman
Date of Birth:	October 10,1927
Date of Death:	June 6, 2005
Age at Death:	77
Nationality:	USA
Related Media
		@ BW Media
[{{{site}}} Official Site]
IMDb profile

Dana Elcar (born Ibson Dana Elcar; October 10, 1927 – June 6, 2005) was an American actor who portrayed John Steadman, a water-hoarding rancher, in the Galactica 1980 episode "Space Croppers". Over a career spanning five decades, he accumulated more than 150 television and film credits. He is best known for playing Pete Thornton, director of operations at the Phoenix Foundation, in the ABC adventure series MacGyver (1985–1992).

Career

Stage

The son of Danish immigrants, Elcar was born in Ferndale, Michigan. At the University of Michigan, where he played linebacker on the football team, he founded the Ann Arbor Theater. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1948 and in the early 1950s moved to New York City, driving a taxi while studying drama with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

His early New York stage career included the original American productions of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter and The Caretaker, Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. He also appeared in Richard III opposite George C. Scott and in several Phoenix Theatre Company productions, including Androcles and the Lion.

Elcar made his Broadway debut in 1955 in Roald Dahl's The Honeys, opposite Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. His subsequent Broadway credits included Good as Gold (1957), Semi-Detached (1960), and A Murderer Among Us (1964). In 1964 he served as understudy to Alec Guinness in Dylan and to Jason Robards in Eugene O'Neill's Hughie.

After moving to Los Angeles in 1968, Elcar co-founded the L.A. Actors' Theater in the mid-1970s. In 1985, with fellow actor William Lucking, he co-founded the Santa Paula Theater Center in Santa Paula, California, serving as its artistic director for six years. He also directed episodes of Baa Baa Black Sheep, The Rockford Files, and MacGyver.

Television

Elcar made his television debut in 1954 in the daytime drama "A Time to Live". From 1966 to 1967, he played Sheriff George Patterson on the ABC gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. His 1970s television work included recurring roles in Baretta (as Inspector Shiller) and Baa Baa Black Sheep (as Colonel Thomas A. Lard), as well as guest appearances on Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, Mannix, Kung Fu, and Falcon Crest.

In 1980, Elcar guest starred as John Steadman in the Galactica 1980 episode "Space Croppers", which aired on April 27, 1980.

From 1985 to 1992, Elcar co-starred in all seven seasons of MacGyver as Pete Thornton, Richard Dean Anderson's boss and closest friend. After four seasons, he told producers he was losing his sight to glaucoma; rather than recasting the role, they wrote the condition into Pete Thornton's storyline. Anderson later recalled of the experience:

At a time when I had very little business being called an actor, he made things so easy for me. It was a learning experience that was very warm and loving for all seven years.

After MacGyver ended in 1992, Elcar continued acting despite having lost his sight entirely, subsequently playing blind characters in episodes of Law & Order and ER. His final screen credit was a 2002 episode of ER.

Film

Elcar's film debut came in Sidney Lumet's Fail-Safe (1964). He went on to appear in more than 40 films, among them The Learning Tree (1969), The Sting (1973) as FBI Agent Polk, 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) as Soviet scientist Dimitri Moisevitch, and All of Me (1984).

Personal life

Elcar settled in Santa Paula, California in the mid-1980s. He died on June 6, 2005, at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California, of complications from pneumonia, aged 77. He was survived by his companion, Thelma M. Garcia, three daughters, and a son.

Notes

References

External Sources

Dana Anderson

Mr. Brooks
[show/hide spoilers] Spoilers hidden in infobox by default.
Age	{{{age}}}
Colony	Earth
Birthplace	{{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name	{{{birthname}}}
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign	{{{callsign}}}
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I
Last Appearance	[[{{{lastseen}}}]]
Death	{{{death}}}
Parents	{{{parents}}}
Step-Parents	{{{step_parents}}}
Siblings	{{{siblings}}}
Children	{{{children}}}
Marital Status	{{{marital status}}}
Family Tree	View
Role	Station Manager, UBC
Rank	{{{rank}}}
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
Portrayed by	Fred Holliday
Mr. Brooks is a Cylon
Mr. Brooks is a Final Five Cylon
Mr. Brooks is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Mr. Brooks is an Original Series Cylon

Mr. Brooks is a station manager for United Broadcasting Company Television studios. Mr. Brooks offers Jamie Hamilton a shot at a job, but only if she can secure an interview with Dr. Donald Mortinson ^{(1980: "Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I")}. She secures the interview and lands the job ^{(1980: "Galactica Discovers Earth, Part II")}.

Mr. Brooks begins to grow weary of Hamilton's tendency to stray from her assignments, assigning a cameraman, Hal Fredricks, to her in an attempt to keep her on track. She is sent to cover a baseball camp run by former baseball superstar Billy Eheres ^{(1980: "Spaceball")}.

Novelization depiction

In the novelization by Michael Resnick, this character is named Dana Anderson, who is the West Coast News Director of United Broadcasting Corporation and an award winning journalist who has interviewed various governors, presidents, and other people of importance. Anderson is described as a tall, graying man, who happens to be an atheist, and offers Jamie Hamilton a three-year contract if she successfully gets an interview with Dr. Alfred Mortinson.

Anderson later snags an interview with Mortinson after his first meeting with "terrorists" Troy and Dillon, and, after Hamilton's return from 1944 C.E., believes she is sympathetic to the so-called terrorists. After being contacted at the office by Dillon to warn her about Xaviar, she informs him that Anderson has put a trace on their call, much to Anderson's irritation. After this, Hamilton terminates her employment with Anderson.

Notes

• After "Spaceball," Brooks neither appears in the rest of the series episodes nor is he a character in any of the unproduced scripts from the series.

References

For direct navigation sans the tabbed navigational aid above, please select one of the following article links:

• Dana Delany
• Dana Elcar
• Dana Anderson