Delano recurred as Officer Semanski on 12 episodes over the last four seasons (1991-95) of the
Alaska-set Northern Exposure and was memorable as Glass, a mean and manly teacher at Jacqueline Kennedy High School, on Ryan Murphy’s Popular for 36 episodes during that series’ two-season run (1999-2001).
She played lots of cops and authority figures.
Born in Los Angeles on Jan. 29, 1957, Delano was related to Myrtland Vivian LaVarre, a New York stage actor who was convinced by Cecil B. DeMille to change his name to John Merton and move to Hollywood.
One of Merton’s kids became tough-guy actor Lane Bradford, and he would often take Delano and her cousins to watch him work. “Although it was in her DNA, I believe those early studio visits cemented Diane’s love for a life within the industry,” her cousin Rick Sparks noted.
Delano started acting when she was 6 and graduated from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts/West, and in 1983 she appeared onscreen for the first time on NBC’s St. Elsewhere and in the film Heart Like a Wheel as the sister of Bonnie Bedelia’s Shirley Muldowney.
During her 40-year-plus career, Delano also worked in such films as Ratboy (1986), A Mighty Wind (2003), The Wicker Man (2006) – as the bitchy Sister Beech – Miracle Mile (1988) and The Ladykillers (2004).
She provided the voice for Big Barda in Batman: The Brave and the Bold and the super-heroine Pantha in Teen Titans and was on the soap operas Days of Our Lives and Fumbling Thru the Pieces.
