Dyan Cannon

Cannon was born Samille Diane Friesen in Tacoma, Washington on January 4, 1937, the daughter of housewife Claire (née Portnoy) and life insurance salesman Ben Friesen.[1] She was raised in the Jewish faith of her Ashkenazi mother, who was a Russian immigrant, though her father was Baptist.[2] She attended West Seattle High School[3] and spent two-and-a-half years at the University of Washington.[4] Her younger brother is jazz musician David Friesen.[5]

Cannon made her film debut in 1960 in The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond; she had appeared on television since the late 1950s, including a guest appearance on Bat Masterson as Mary Lowery in the 1959 episode "Lady Luck" and again in a 1961 episode as Diane Jansen in "The Price of Paradise". She appeared in 1959 on CBS's Wanted: Dead or Alive, in episode 52, "Vanishing Act", as Nicole McCready. About this time, she was on the CBS western Johnny Ringo, starring Don Durant, and on Jack Lord's western Stoney Burke on ABC. She also appeared on Hawaiian Eye, using her name Diane Cannon, in 1961, opposite Tracey Steele, Robert Conrad, and Connie Stevens.[6]

In 1963, Cannon joined the national touring production of the Broadway musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, in which she played Rosemary.

She portrayed Mona Elliott in the episode "The Man Behind the Man" of the 1964 CBS drama series The Reporter. She also made guest appearances on 77 Sunset Strip, The Untouchables, the perennial western series Gunsmoke, the 1960 episode "Sheriff of the Town" of the first-run syndicated western series Two Faces West with Walter Coy as Cauter and the 1962 Ripcord episode "The Helicopter Race" as Ripcord Inc.'s secretary and receptionist Marion Hines.

Cannon's first major film role came in 1969's Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, which earned her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. In 1971 she starred in five films: The Love Machine, Doctors' Wives, The Anderson Tapes with Sean Connery, The Burglars, and Such Good Friends, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. Cannon co-starred opposite Burt Reynolds in Shamus (1973), in the mystery The Last of Sheila, and gave a critically acclaimed performance in Child Under a Leaf in 1974. She starred in the TV movie Virginia Hill with Harvey Keitel. Following this she took a four-year absence from acting.[7]

She became the first Oscar-nominated actress to be nominated in the Best Short Film, Live Action Category for Number One (1976), a project which Cannon produced, directed, wrote and edited. It was a story about adolescent sexual curiosity.[8] In 1978, Cannon co-starred in Revenge of the Pink Panther. That same year, she appeared in Heaven Can Wait, for which she received another Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1976, she hosted Saturday Night Live during its first season and she guest starred in the fourth season of The Muppet Show in 1979.[9]

In the 1980s, Cannon, who is also a singer/songwriter, appeared in Honeysuckle Rose (1980) with Willie Nelson, Author! Author! with Al Pacino, Deathtrap (1982) with Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine, Caddyshack II (1988), as well as several made-for-TV movies.

For her contributions to the film industry, Cannon was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1983 with a motion pictures star located at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard.[10]

Cannon wrote, directed, and starred in the semi-autobiographical film The End of Innocence, and had roles in Jailbirds and Christmas in Connecticut.[11]

In the 1990s, she appeared on the popular television shows Diagnosis: Murder and The Practice, as well as being a semi-regular on Ally McBeal. She made appearances in the films That Darn Cat (1997), 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997), and Out to Sea (1997) with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. In 2005, she appeared in Boynton Beach Club, a movie about aging Floridians who have just lost their spouses.

On July 22, 1965, Cannon married actor Cary Grant, who was 33 years her senior. They had one daughter, Jennifer (born February 26, 1966), who also is an actress. They were divorced on March 21, 1968. She married real estate investor Stanley Fimberg in 1985. They divorced in 1991.

In 1972, Cannon revealed that she engaged in primal therapy.[12] She is a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers and has attended Lakers games for over three decades. She is a born-again Christian.[2][13]

• Dyan Cannon at IMDb
• Dyan Cannon at AllMovie
• Dyan Cannon on Twitter