Written and Posted by Sarah
My sister and I have grown up watching classic-era movies. Dan Duryea has come across our screen fairly often, particularly as Arnold Waring in the Deanna Durbin musical, Lady on a Train. We've always liked him, but I was really sold after seeing him in The Cliff Grundy Story, an episode from the TV show Wagon Train. He was a nice guy with some great one-liners in that show --- and I LOVED him.

About a year passed after seeing Dan in Wagon Train before we watched Winchester '73 for the first time. Mr. Duryea stepped onto the screen as the notorious "Waco Johnny Dean", and I didn't really notice anyone else in the story after that. That started us on a search for another western where he was billed, so we got Ride Clear of Diablo from the library. Audie Murphy is fabulous, but when those black cowboy boots came stomping into the saloon (accompanied by a fabulous musical score) and that Dan Duryea grin flashed --- well, I was caught "hook, line and sinker". That laugh. Who could beat it?

I decided to look online and find out about this fabulous Silver Screen personality, but I was sorely disappointed. No one seems to remember him anymore. If they do, then it's only for Scarlet Street and The Little Foxes and nothing beyond that. No one had hi-res pictures or trivia or even candid shots available, so I have had to spend a lot of time "digging" in out of the way places for enough fun stuff to make a Duryea section in my scrapbook.

Dan Duryea Central originally started as a blog on Google Blogspot. Now that I've been posting for such a long time, I've decided to move it to "real" website pages. This has taken quite a lot of work, as I had no idea how many pictures and articles were posted. I've got hundreds of photos and articles to continue posting, so keep checking back!

This portion of our website is for anyone else out there who appreciates the talent of this amazing actor. You can use the search tabs at the top of this page and in the column on the right to browse through everything. If you don't see what you are looking for, just e-mail me at DanDuryeaCentral@columbus.rr.com.