Dan Duryea was an American actor, known for roles in film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, stage

Stage

- acting :Stage , a space for the performance of theatrical productions* Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage"* The Stage, a weekly British theatre newspaper...

 and television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

.
Born and raised in White Plains, New York

White Plains, New York

White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...

, Duryea graduated from White Plains Senior High School

White Plains Senior High School

White Plains Senior High School is the main school in the White Plains Public Schools system of White Plains, NY. It was selected by the U.S. Department of Education as a School of Excellence in 1986-87 but is currently only one of nine public high schools in Westchester County with four-year...

 in 1924 and Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 in 1928. While at Cornell, Duryea was elected into the Sphinx Head Society. He made his name on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 in the play Dead End

Dead End

Dead End is a 1937 crime drama film. It is an adaptation of the Sidney Kingsley 1935 Broadway play of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea, and Sylvia Sidney...

, followed by The Little Foxes

The Little Foxes

The Little Foxes is a 1939 play by Lillian Hellman. Its title comes from Chapter 2, Verse 15 in the Song of Solomon in the King James version of the Bible, which reads, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." Set in a small town in Alabama in...

, in which he portrayed Leo Hubbard.
Duryea moved to Hollywood in 1940 to appear in the film version of The Little Foxes.