Dinah Manoff – Bio and Everything You Need To Know About The Actress

Quick Facts

Dinah Manoff is an actress who has become famous for always making difficult roles seem very easy to play. Born into a family that was not alien to the arts, she has made a name for herself as a film and TV actress, while she is also a veteran on stage. Since she began her career in 1975 until she called it quits more than three decades later, Dinah remained consistent with over 50 movies to her resume as an actress, writer, and producer. Learn more about her bio and all there is to know about the actress below.

Dinah Manoff Biography

It was on January 25, 1956, that Dinah Beth Manoff was born to Arnold Manoff and Lee Grant in New York City, New York. Her mother Lee Grant, is an actress and movie director whose own mother was also an actress. Her father, on the other hand, Arnold Manoff was a screenwriter until he later got blacklisted.

Of Polish-Jewish and Russian-Jewish descent from her mother’s side of the family, Dinah was raised as an only child by her parents until the age of 4 when their union ended in divorce 9 years into the marriage.

Unfortunately, her father died only five years later in 1965 as a result of a heart attack he suffered. She has three half-siblings from the first marriage of her father including the classical music critic, Tom Manoff. Her mother got married for a second time in 1962 to Joseph Feury who is a TV producer.

Dinah Manoff was brought up mostly in New York City and Malibu, California. For her education, she went to Santa Monica High School and then later, she was off to the Actors Studio where she sought to improve her acting skills.

Even though having successful parents as actors would be termed a blessing for many people, hers almost became a curse because looking at how good her mother was, she defeated herself believing she could never get that good. That made things hard for her while she was at the studio and so getting roles became even harder.

Her first role as an actress was a voice acting role which came in 1976 in the film Everybody Rides the Carousel. In the same year, she was in The Stronger as well as in TV shows Welcome Back, Kotter, Visions, and Raid on Entebbe.

In the years that followed, she got some more film roles including in Grease (1978) Backfire (1988), Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990), The Amati Girls (2000), and Bart Got a Room (2008). Manoff has got many TV appearances including in Soap (1978), Empty Nest (1988 to 1995), and State of Grace (2002). When she got her role in Grease, which launched her career as a film actress, she had little confidence because she thought she was ugly and wasn’t good enough. Once she did a great job with that, her footing was already set.

For her role in I Ought to Be in Pictures which is also her Broadway debut, Dinah Manoff was awarded the Tony Award and also the Theatre World Award.

Personal Life

Dinah Manoff has walked down the aisle twice thus far. Her first marriage was in 1980 to the French designer Jean-Marc Joubert. The union only survived for the next five years before the plugs were pulled out in divorce in 1985. It would be more than 10 years later before she would get married again in 1997. This time around, she got married to Arthur Mortell who is a motivational speaker.

Her first marriage did not produce any kids but the second was blessed with three children a son, Dashiell who was born in 1997 and twin boys. Sadly, while on his way to Washington State University where he studied, Dashiell, 19, got involved in an auto crash that claimed his life in 2017.

Net Worth

Although she has not been active for a pretty long time, Dinah Manoff is still doing very well in terms of her finances. The former Grease star has a net worth that is estimated at $1.5 million. Manoff made her fortune from her acting career as well as her work as a TV director popular for works such as Brother’s Keeper (1999) and Empty Nest (1995).

Height and Body Weight

As regards her height and body weight, Manoff is not the tallest woman you will meet. She stands at a height of 5 feet 5 inches (163 cm) while her body weight is 121 lb (55 kg).

Also Read: Top 10 Richest People in the world with full biography and details.