Biography of Dyan Cannon

Dyan Cannon is an American actress. Born Samile Diane Freisen, she made her professional acting debut in 1959, in an episode of Playhouse 90 on TV. Shortly thereafter she met and married actor Cary Grant, which jumpstarted a very active 40-year-long Hollywood movie career.

Nominated three times for best supporting actress Academy Awards, and known for her frank and outspoken sexuality, some of Cannon's better-known films include The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (1969), The Anderson Tapes (1971), The Love Machine (1971), The Last of Sheila (1973), Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), Honeysuckle Rose (1980), The Sender (1997), and many others.

Probably her most controversial role came in a 1978 art film, Child Under a Leaf in which she did several full-frontal nude scenes, including one in which she is milked by her lover. A younger sister, Freya, aka Francine Cannon, failed as an actress but appeared during the 1970s as a Penthouse magazine centerfold nude.