Dana Barron (born April 22, 1966) is an American actress who is best known for her role as the original Audrey Griswold in the 1983 film National Lampoon's Vacation, which she reprised in 2003's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure for NBC television.
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Early life
Barron's father, Robert Weeks Barron, was a director of commercials and a Congregationalist church pastor; Robert founded The Weist-Barron School of Television, the first commercial and soap opera acting for television school in the world. Barron is a fifth generation entertainer. Her great-grandparents were musicians, and her grandmother was a singer. Her grandfather was an opera singer, and her mother moved from Alabama to become an actress. Barron has a sister.
Barron graduated from New York University with a degree in marketing.
Career
Barron's sister, Allison, had been doing TV commercials at a young age, and Barron told her father that she wished to do the same. She began acting at age 10, doing TV commercials as well. By age 11, she was appearing with Christine Baranski in Hide and Seek on Broadway. By age 13, her first film was the horror film He Knows You're Alone, with Tom Hanks, which was also Hanks' first film.
