Born December 14, 1915 in New York, New York, Daniel James Dailey, Jr.’s father ran a hotel for show people on Long Island. The star struck kid made his first appearance in show business as a performer in a minstrel show in 1921 when he was just five years old. He then moved on to vaudeville and later worked as a golf caddy and shoe salesman before getting his first real break in show business playing in a show on a South American cruise ship in 1934.
Dailey made his Broadway debut in Rodgers & Hart’s Babes in Arms in 1937, the year he married childhood sweetheart Esther Rodier, his first of four wives. He followed that with roles in Stars in Your Eyes and I Married an Angel before signing a contract with MGM.
Despite his singing and dancing background, Dailey’s first role for MGM was an uncredited one in the 1940 drama, Susan and God, followed by his first credited role as a Nazi storm trooper in the same year’s major success, The Mortal Storm. By 1941, the year of his first divorce, he got his wish and was cast in a series of musicals including Ziegfeld Girl, Lady Be Good, and Panama Hattie. He was cast opposite Judy Garland in 1942’s Me and My Gal but joined the Army at the start of World War II instead and was replaced by Gene Kelly.
Married to second wife Elizabeth Hofert, a Los Angeles socialite, from 1942 to 1951, with whom he had his only child, Dailey was off the screen between 1942 and 1946 except for an uncredited role as part of the chorus in 1943’s This Is the Army. His return to the screen in the 1947 musical, Mother wore Tights opposite Betty Grable, was a huge success. The following year’s When My Baby Smiles at Me earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
Dailey’s most successful early 1950s hits were the service comedies, When Willie Comes Marching Home and the remake of What Price Glory?, both directed by John Ford. The musicals Meet Me at the Fair and The Girl Next Door did respectable business as did the comedy, The Kid from Left Field, but his next major hit would become one of the year’s biggest hits. That was 1954’s There’s No Business Like Show Business in which Dailey played the father of Donald O’Connor whose ex-wife, former actress Gwen Carter, would become Dailey’s third wife in 1955.
Dailey had another major musical success with 1955’s It’s Always Fair Weather. His next two musicals, Met Me in Las Vagas and The Best Things in Life Are Free were moderately successful as were the drama, The Wings of Eagles, the comedy Oh, Men! Oh, Women!, and the drama The Wayward Bus. 1960’s Pepe would be the last film in which he has a major starring role. He and Carter would divorce in 1962.
After his supporting role in 1962’s Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man, Dailey turned mainly to television, earning a Golden Globe for his 1969-1970 series, The Governor and J.J. In 1968, he married his fourth wife, dancer Carol Warner. They would divorce in 1972. In 1975, his world was rocked by the suicide of his 29-year-old son, Dan Dailey III outside of a Santa Monica hospital.
Dailey’s last film was 1977’s widely lambasted The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover.
Dan Dailey died October 16, 1982 following hip surgery. He was 62.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME (1948), directed by Walter Lang
Dailey’s return to the screen opposite Betty Grable in 1947’s was such a success, that he was quickly cast in three more musicals, this being the fourth, the third in which he played a vaudevillian, and the second in which he was cast opposite Grable. His Best Actor Oscar nomination, though not unwarranted, was a surprise given that he was nominated over the likes of Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and John Wayne in Red River. Critics opined that he was nominated for his drunk scene rather than for the sum of his total performance. See it and judge for yourself.
THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS (1954), directed by Walter Lang
Once again playing a vaudevillian, Dailey was cast opposite Ethel Merman with Donald O’Connor, Johnnie Ray, and Mitzi Gaynor as their children and Marilyn Monroe as an up-and-coming threat to the aging Merman. They’re all in fine form with Merman belting out the title song four years after Betty Hutton sang it in the film version of Merman’s Broadway smash, Annie Get Your Gun. Among other Irving Berlin songs, the cast sings Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Dailey sings A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody, Ray playing the son who becomes a priest sings If You Believe, and Monroe’s adds her own brand of sizzle to Heat Wave.
IT’S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER (1955), directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen
Gene Kelly made his film debut opposite Judy Garland in 1942’s For Me and My Gal afer Dailey dropped out to enlist in the Arm in the early days of World War II. Now ten years after the war ended, Kelly (who co-directed) and Dailey, along with choreographer Michael Kidd straight from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, play soldiers who reunite to find they have little in common. With a delightful score by André, lyrics and screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, this top-flight musical supplies Cyd Charisse and Dolores Gray with strong female roles, the latter as an early TV star.
PEPE (1960), directed by George Sidney
Nominated for seven Oscars, none of which it deserved, this sexist and racist film has never been released on home video in the U.S., nor has it been shown on U.S. television in decades. Beloved Mexican star Cantinflas plays a dimwitted Mexican whose horse Hollywood director Dailey wants. Shirley Jones is the aspiring actress Cantinflas loves but Dailey detests despite having given her a breakout role in his latest film. 35 guest stars including Bing Crosby, Maurice Chevalier, Greer Garson, Edward G. Robinson, Janet Leigh, and Kim Novak are featured, but the wrong guy (Dailey) gets the girl while Cantinflas gets the horse.
THE PRIVATE FILES OF J. EDGAR HOOVER (1977), directed by Larry Cohen
Dailey had his biggest role in years in his last film as Hoover’s pal and alleged lover Clyde Tolson opposite Broderick Crawford as Hoover. Filmed five years after Hoover’s death, the film focuses on FBI head Hoover’s secret sex files as well as his own veiled sex life. Lambasted by the critics and reviled by politicians of both the left and right, the film pleased no one. James Wainwright played the younger Hoover with June Havoc as his mother, Howard Da Silva as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Michael Parks as Robert Kennedy, Andrew Duggan as Lyndon Johnson, and Raymond St. Jacques as Martin Luther King among many others.
DAN DAILEYAND OSCAR
When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948) – nominated – Best Actor
