Dinah Lenney


Biography

Actress Dinah Lenney is best known by television viewers as the dryly sarcastic and dependable Nurse Shirley on the long-running NBC medical drama "ER." Although she was only a secondary character on the show, Lenney nevertheless left an indelible impression on many as a small rock of sanity within the turmoil of the emergency room. Some of Lenney's other notable television work includes...

Biography

Actress Dinah Lenney is best known by television viewers as the dryly sarcastic and dependable Nurse Shirley on the long-running NBC medical drama "ER." Although she was only a secondary character on the show, Lenney nevertheless left an indelible impression on many as a small rock of sanity within the turmoil of the emergency room. Some of Lenney's other notable television work includes small parts on the newsroom sitcom "Murphy Brown," the short-lived comedy show "A Fine Romance," and the science fiction action drama "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." She is a veteran of stage dramas and musical theater, as well as the co-author of a book on acting, and has taught acting at various workshops and universities. In 1997, Lenney's father Nelson G. Gross--a former Republican politician from New Jersey, Nixon appointee for Secretary of State, and a convicted felon guilty of tax evasion and perjury-was murdered by three teenagers in a kidnapping/robbery gone wrong. The traumatic experience became the subject of her 2007 memoir, "Bigger Than Life: A Murder, a Memoir."

Life Events

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