- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWilliam Szathmary
- Nickname
- Billy
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Comedian, author and composer, educated at Emerson College. He served in the US Infantry during World War II. Later, he was part of the team Dana and Wood on television and in supper clubs. As a single, he appeared on television with Martha Raye and Imogene Coca and was a writer for Steve Allen, and he also appeared in night clubs and on records. Joining ASCAP in 1958, his popular-song compositions include "My Name Jose Jimenez", "All About Love" and "Big Bells and Bongo Drummers".- IMDb Mini Biography By: Hup234!
- SpousesEvelyn Shular(February 28, 1981 - June 15, 2017) (his death)Maura McGiveney(January 10, 1972 - May 1972) (divorced)
- He retired from his acting career and resided in Nashville, Tennessee until his death.
- Known for creating the Hispanic character "Jose Jiminez". Dana himself was from a Hungarian Jewish background.
- Made 17 guest appearances on Ed Sullivan's variety show, The Ed Sullivan Show (1948).
- He owned an advertising agency with Adams and D.W. Silverstein (it represented the International House of Pancakes); was the head of a management company that counted Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass among its clients.
- Was a brother of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity, based out of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.
- [on Don Adams] Don--the only thing he enjoyed was going to the track. He didn't enjoy ANYTHING else. Let's see. He liked working with me [on The Bill Dana Show (1963)] as Byron Glick the hotel detective, because he didn't have any responsibility other than to be there.
- [on Richard Nixon] I hated everything he stood for, but I got on his enemies list and it destroyed me. It was terrible. I was on his IRS enemies list. They crucified me. I was sick in bed and they were crawling all over my house with tape measures, looking to see how much of the house I had written off for an office. He is a devil to me. I just despise the thought of Richard Nixon and anyone who had anything to do with him.
- [on working with Milton Berle, as producer of The Milton Berle Show (1966)] He was hard to deal with. It was hard getting people to come back on the show. He never ever got any kind of discipline in terms of how to handle people. But I loved Uncle Milty because he was Uncle Milty--a bigger-than-life human being.
- [on Ginger Rogers] She was one of the cheapest people I ever met in my life. I had written her a performance hunk on [The New Steve Allen Show (1961)] and she was going to appear in Las Vegas and these other places and she asked me to help her. When it came time for payment she gave me Soap-On-A-Rope.
- Episode #16.1 (1962) - $7,500
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