Christened Dorothy Faye Dunaway, the daughter of Grace, a homemaker, and John Dunaway, an Army sergeant (making Dunaway an "army brat"). Dorothy Faye Dunaway studied at the theater department of Boston University and graduated from the University of Florida. She dropped the "Dorothy" when she began acting.
She appeared on Broadway in 1962 as the daughter of Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons.
Her first screen role was in 1967 in Hurry Sundown, but that same year, she got the leading female role in Bonnie and Clyde (opposite Warren Beatty) which garnered her an Oscar nomination.
It was in the 1970s that she began to stretch her acting muscles in such films as Three Days of the Condor, Little Big Man, Chinatown, Eyes of Laura Mars, and Network, for which she won her Oscar as the scheming, almost inhumanly cold-blooded TV executive Diana Christensen.
In the 1980s, although her performances did not waver, the parts grew less compelling. Dunaway would later blame Mommie Dearest (1981) for ruining her career as a leading lady. "I was too good at Crawford," she was often quoted as saying.
She played an alcoholic in Barfly (opposite Mickey Rourke). In a later movie, Don Juan DeMarco (1995), Dunaway co-starred with Johnny Depp and the late Marlon Brando.
Romantically linked to a series of men ranging from the comedian Lenny Bruce to actor Marcello Mastroianni, Dunaway has been married twice.
Her first husband, from 1974 until 1979, was Peter Wolf, the lead singer of the rock group the J. Geils Band. Her second, from 1984 until 1987, was Terry O'Neill, a celebrated British photographer; they had one child, Liam O'Neill (born 1980).
In 2003, however, O'Neill revealed that his son with Dunaway was adopted, not biological, though the actress had long maintained the opposite.
Dunaway is a convert to Roman Catholicism.
She served as a judge on the 2005 reality show The Starlet, which sought, American Idol-style, to find the next young actress with the potential to become a major star.
Dunaway has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.
In March of 2006, a voice message left on a reporter's answering machine by Dunaway regarding a recent biographical article surfaced on the Internet. Dunaway speaks about her desire to no longer talk about Mommie Dearest or "that Andrew Lloyd Webber stupidity", referring to her being fired from the L.A. production of his Sunset Boulevard musical (rumored to be because of her poor vocal performance). At the conclusion of the track, whoever uploaded the message also added her melodramatic version of the Donald Trump catch-phrase "You're fired!" from The Starlet : "Don't call us, we'll call you."
