Background

Linda Dano was born as Linda Rae Wildermuth on May 12, 1943, in Los Angeles, California, United States, into the family of Herk and Evelyn (Delgado) Wildermuth.

Education

Linda studied at California State University at Long Beach, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965.

Career

Before her soap opera career, Dano was a longtime actress with 20th Century Fox, appearing alongside actors like Tom Selleck in several television police and detective dramas.

From 1978 to 2004, Dano starred in a variety of daytime soap operas. In 1978 Dano joined the ABC soap opera One Life to Live appearing in the role of Gretel Cummings until 1980. The next year she played Cynthia Haines on As the World Turns.

In 1982 Dano joined the staff of Another World series, portraying romance novelist Felicia Gallant for the next 17 years. Later on, her character Rae Cummings on One Life to Live proved so popular that she “crossed over” to other shows, including All My Children and General Hospital. Dano also guest-starred on television series like Homicide: Life on the Street, Desperate Housewives, and What I Like About You, as well as the 2007 film Reservation Road.

Dano co-hosted the Lifetime talk show "Attitudes" and was a guest and guest-host on "The View" from 1987 until 1992. Dano hosted an Another World reunion special on SOAPnet in 2003.

Linda Dano was also interested in fashion and interior design. She has a long-running clothing company and home furnishing. She wrote a style and fashion column for Soap Opera Digest on and off for years and created the Linda Dano Home Collection, a line of English country-style furniture and accessories that’s sold on QVC.

As an author Dano co-authored the Harlequin romance novel Dreamweaver in 1984. In the volume Looking Great, written with Anne Kyle and published in 1997, Dano imparts her experience in modeling and acting. Her other book Living Great, also written with Kyle and published in 1998, contains advice on home decorating and home fashion.

Achievements

• Throughout her career Linda Dano was a recipient of several awards. For her exceptional performance on Another world she won Daytime Emmy Award for Lead Actress in 1993. She also received three additional Emmy nominations for Leading Actress in 1994 and 1996, and for Supporting Actress in 1992.
  
  In 1999 she won the Accessories Council of Excellence (ACE) Award for outstanding contributions to consumer awareness. In 2003 Dano was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Supporting Actress for the role on One Life to Live. The same year she was later nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Special Class for hosting an Another World reunion special on SOAPnet.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Looking Great

    (An award-winning TV actress and fashion consultant shares...)

    1997
  • Living Great

    (The Emmy Award-winning actress seen on NBC's Another Worl...)

    1998
  • Listen to Your Mother 1993
  • A Charmed Engagement 1994

• movie

  • Alzheimer's Disease: What Everyone Should Know

Views

Quotations: “If your home is as important to you as mine is to me, I’ll take the mystery out of making it the most beautiful place it can be ... no more feeling that you have to spend a fortune or hire a decorator, I promise!”

Membership

Linda Dano’s father died of Alzheimer’s and she would battle depression later after the double loss of her husband as well as her mother, which led Linda to join campaigns against the disease. For several years Dano has worked with organizations to tackle medical conditions such as depression and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dano joined the National Family Caregivers Association in launching a new consumer campaign designed to provide information, resources, and support to caregivers and their families. Dano is active in such groups as HeartShare, the National Osteoporosis Foundation, the National Alzheimer’s Association, and Support Partners, among others. Dano is also a patron of the Catholic Guardian Society of New York.

Interests

• In her spare time Linda collects seventeenth and eighteenth-century furnishings.

Connections

Linda Dano has been in three marriages. She was first married to Larry Peck from 1963 to 1967. She later got married to Salvatore Giordano from 1968 to 1974. Her third husband appeared to be an advertising executive Frank Attardi, who co-hosted with her the VIP series on PBS. Attardi died in 2004.

Father:

Herk Wildermuth

Mother:

Evelyn (Delgado) Wildermuth

late spouse:

Frank Attardi

Frank Attardi was an actor, known for Another World (1964) and Intimate Portrait (1990).

ex-spouse:

Larry Peck

ex-spouse:

Salvatore Giordano

Friend:

Vivien Stern