Carver Dana Andrews (January 1, 1909 – December 17, 1992) was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir and later in Western films. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts into the 1980s. He is best known for his portrayal of obsessed police detective Mark McPherson in the noir mystery Laura (1944) and his critically acclaimed performance as World War II veteran Fred Derry returning home in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

Andrews was born on a farmstead near Collins, (county seat town of Covington County), in southern Mississippi, the third of 13 children of Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister, and his wife, Annis (née Speed). The family subsequently relocated west to Huntsville, Texas, the birthplace of his younger siblings, including fellow Hollywood actor Steve Forrest (born William Forrest Andrews, 1925-2013).

Andrews attended college at Sam Houston State University nearby in Huntsville and studied business administration in Houston. During 1931, he traveled to the West Coast to Los Angeles, California to pursue opportunities as a singer. He worked various jobs, such as at a gas refueling station in the nearby community of Van Nuys. To help the struggling Andrews study music at night, "The station owners stepped in ... with a deal: $50 a week for full-time study, in exchange for a five-year share of possible later earnings", which he started repaying after signing with Goldwyn. The founder of the Hollywood Community Theater, Neely Dickson, disputed the gas station story, saying it was invented by Samuel Goldwyn Studio publicists and that Andrews was discovered at her theater. The Los Angeles Times also attempted to debunk the story.

In 1938, Andrews was spotted in the play Oh Evening Star and Samuel Goldwyn (c.1879/1882-1974), signed the promising actor to a contract, but felt he needed time to develop experience. Andrews continued at the Pasadena Playhouse of Pasadena, California, working in over 20 productions and proposed to his second wife Mary Todd. After twelve months, Goldwyn sold part of Andrews' contract to 20th Century-Fox, where he was put to work on the first of two B pictures; his first role was in Lucky Cisco Kid (1940). He then appeared in Sailor's Lady (1940), developed by Goldwyn, but released by Twentieth Century-Fox.

Andrews was loaned to Edward Small to appear in the Western film / bio-pic Kit Carson (1940), before Goldwyn used him for the first time in a Goldwyn studio production of director William Wyler's The Westerner (1940), featuring Gary Cooper.

Andrews had supporting roles in subsequent Twentieth Century-Fox films Tobacco Road (1941), directed by John Ford; then also Belle Starr (1941), co-starring with Randolph Scott and Gene Tierney, billed third; and Swamp Water (1941), starring Walter Brennan and Walter Huston and directed by Jean Renoir.

His next film for Goldwyn was the Howard Hawks directed comedy Ball of Fire (1941), again teaming with Gary Cooper, with Andrews playing the villain, a gangster.

Back at Fox, Andrews was given his first lead, in the B-picture war movie Berlin Correspondent (1942). He was second lead to Tyrone Power in Crash Dive (1943) and then appeared as a lynching target in the 1943 film adaptation of The Ox-Bow Incident with Henry Fonda, giving a performance that Bosley Crowther of the New York Times called "heart-wringing," writing that Andrews "does much to make the picture a profoundly distressing tragedy."