Dana Stanley: Inside Richard Kind’s Ex-Wife’s Project ALS Career, 19-Year Marriage, Three Children and Private Life After Divorce

Dana Stanley is best known publicly as the former wife of Richard Kind, the American actor famous for Spin City, Mad About You, Curb Your Enthusiasm and the voice of Bing Bong in Inside Out. But Dana built a meaningful identity outside Hollywood through her work with Project ALS. She and Kind married in New York City in 1999, had three children together, and their marriage ended in 2018 after nearly two decades.

Unlike many people connected to famous actors, Dana has kept much of her personal story away from interviews and entertainment coverage. Even during her marriage, her public appearances were often connected to charitable work rather than celebrity promotion.

That makes her story quieter than Richard Kind’s—but not less interesting.

Quick Bio of Dana Stanley

IMDb identifies Dana as a longtime Project ALS executive and confirms her November 14, 1999 wedding to Richard, their three children and the 2018 end of their marriage.

Who Is Dana Stanley?

Dana Stanley became familiar to entertainment followers through her marriage to Richard Kind.

Richard is one of those actors whose face many viewers recognize instantly, even when they cannot immediately remember his name.

He played Dr. Mark Devanow in Mad About You and Paul Lassiter in Spin City. His long career also includes Broadway, films by the Coen brothers, television comedies and numerous animated voice performances.

Dana took a very different professional path.

Instead of acting, she became associated with nonprofit fundraising and the effort to fight amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Dana Stanley Worked With Project ALS

One of the strongest documented facts about Dana’s professional life is her involvement with Project ALS.

IMDb describes her as an executive director of the organization, which raises money to support research aimed at understanding and treating ALS.

This helps explain why photographs of Dana and Richard frequently come from Project ALS benefits rather than ordinary Hollywood premieres.

In 2002, for example, they attended Project ALS’s fifth annual “Tomorrow Is Tonight” gala at New York’s Roseland Ballroom.

Dana’s public work therefore had a serious purpose behind it.

What Is ALS?

ALS is a progressive neurological disease affecting nerve cells that control voluntary muscles.

As those nerve cells stop functioning, people gradually lose their ability to move muscles normally.

Organizations such as Project ALS support scientists trying to understand the disease and develop effective treatments.

For someone involved in fundraising, the work can include organizing events, connecting donors with researchers and helping bring attention to a disease that needs sustained scientific investment.

Dana’s connection with this cause is one of the clearest reasons she should not be described simply as “Richard Kind’s wife.”

Dana Chose Charity Over Hollywood Fame

Imagine being married to an actor whose friends include George Clooney and whose career stretches across television, Broadway, Pixar and major films.

It would have been easy for Dana to turn that connection into a celebrity identity.

She did not.

Her public appearances were limited.

She did not build an acting career from Richard’s connections.

She did not become a reality television personality.

Instead, her documented professional work remained centered on Project ALS.

That choice tells us something about the kind of public life she preferred.

How Did Dana Stanley Meet Richard Kind?

This is one part of the story where reliable details are surprisingly limited.

Numerous modern biography websites tell elaborate versions of how Dana and Richard supposedly met, but stronger sources such as IMDb and major profiles of Richard generally do not provide a detailed first-meeting story.

That means it would be easy to repeat an attractive story that cannot really be verified.

What is well established is that the relationship became serious enough for the couple to marry in 1999.

And their wedding had a particularly famous best man.

Dana Stanley Married Richard Kind in 1999

Dana and Richard married on November 14, 1999.

IMDb says the wedding took place in New York City’s Central Park.

The wedding came at an important moment in Richard’s career.

He was already widely recognized from Mad About You and was appearing as Paul Lassiter on Spin City.

Yet the most memorable celebrity detail about their wedding may not involve Richard at all.

It involves one of his closest friends.

George Clooney Was Richard Kind’s Best Man

Yes, George Clooney was best man at Richard and Dana’s wedding.

IMDb records the detail, and Richard’s broader biography also confirms Clooney’s role.

Why George?

Because he and Richard had been close friends for years.

Before Clooney became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, he even stayed at Richard’s Los Angeles apartment.

Their friendship survived fame and busy careers.

So when Richard married Dana, having George beside him was not simply about inviting a movie star.

He was inviting a longtime friend.

Richard Kind Was Becoming a Familiar Television Face

By the time Dana married him, Richard had already spent years building a successful acting career.

He had appeared on Mad About You and Spin City, two popular television comedies.

Unlike actors whose careers depend on one leading role, Richard became known as a remarkably reliable character actor.

He could be funny.

Annoying.

Warm.

Nervous.

Serious.

Or completely ridiculous.

That flexibility kept him working for decades.

Dana’s marriage therefore unfolded alongside a career that was constantly moving between television, movies and theater.

Dana and Richard Became Parents

The couple eventually had three children.

Their son is Max Kind, while their daughters are Samantha and Skyler Kind. IMDb and Richard’s established biography both identify the three children.

This became one of the most important parts of Dana’s life.

Yet the family took an unusually private approach.

Richard might discuss acting endlessly.

He was much more protective when questions moved toward his children or marital problems.

That boundary became especially obvious when the relationship began struggling.

Their Children Were Kept Away From Celebrity Attention

Richard’s children did not grow up as heavily marketed “celebrity kids.”

There were no family reality shows.

No constant magazine exclusives.

No attempt to make their childhood part of Richard’s professional brand.

Even today, reliable public information about Max, Samantha and Skyler is fairly limited.

That privacy appears deliberate.

For Dana, who was already far less public than Richard, keeping family life separate from Hollywood attention seems to have been particularly important.

Dana Balanced Family With Nonprofit Work

Raising three children while maintaining professional responsibilities would already be demanding.

Add a spouse with an unpredictable acting schedule and things become even busier.

Actors can work nights.

They travel.

They rehearse.

They spend months on productions.

Broadway adds another demanding schedule.

Dana’s nonprofit work, meanwhile, came with responsibilities of its own.

The family therefore had two very different professional worlds operating at the same time.

Richard performed.

Dana helped support charitable research.

Project ALS Events Brought Their Worlds Together

Occasionally, those worlds overlapped.

Richard accompanied Dana to Project ALS events, allowing his celebrity profile to bring extra attention to the organization.

Photographs from these events show the couple together rather than Dana standing anonymously behind her husband.

This is an important distinction.

Dana’s connection to Project ALS was not merely because Richard attended a charity gala.

Sources identify her with the organization.

Richard was the celebrity spouse who could help amplify the cause.

Their Family Lived in New York

Richard has long had strong connections to New York City.

His current biography identifies his home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

New York made sense for the family.

Richard could work in television and film while remaining connected to Broadway.

Dana could continue her nonprofit work.

And their children could have a family life somewhat removed from the center of Los Angeles celebrity culture.

Still, being married to a working actor meant Hollywood was never completely far away.

Richard’s Career Became Even Bigger During Their Marriage

The 19 years of Dana and Richard’s marriage covered an enormous amount of his professional life.

He continued appearing in television.

He performed on Broadway.

He acted in A Serious Man.

He appeared in Argo.

He voiced characters in major animated movies.

Perhaps his most beloved voice performance arrived in 2015 when he played Bing Bong in Pixar’s Inside Out.

By then, Dana and Richard had already spent more than 15 years married.

Richard Was Also a Major Theater Performer

Some viewers know Richard only from television.

But Broadway has been a major part of his career.

His stage work has included The Producers, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Candide and The Big Knife.

His performance in The Big Knife earned him a Tony Award nomination in 2013.

That means Dana’s family life involved not just film shoots and television schedules but theater rehearsals and evening performances.

It was a busy marriage.

Reports of Marital Trouble Appeared Before the Final Split

By the middle of the 2010s, reports began suggesting Dana and Richard were having marital difficulties.

Some entertainment outlets reported a separation around 2014.

The details, however, were never fully explained by either person.

That matters.

A private couple experiencing problems does not automatically owe the public a detailed explanation.

Richard was particularly unwilling to turn the situation into entertainment.

Richard Wanted to Protect the Children

When Richard was questioned about his marriage during this period, he reportedly refused to discuss the situation in detail because he did not want his children learning private family matters through public coverage.

That response fits the way the couple had handled their family from the beginning.

The children came before gossip.

Even if the marriage was struggling, there was no reason to turn Max, Samantha and Skyler into characters in a celebrity divorce story.

This makes claims about dramatic causes of the breakup especially unreliable.

Neither Dana nor Richard publicly supplied those details.

The Marriage Ended in 2018

The strongest current biographical records say Richard and Dana’s marriage ended in 2018.

Wikipedia lists them as married from 1999 to 2018, while IMDb gives the same period.

That works out to approximately 19 years of marriage.

Some websites give 2014 as the divorce year.

That appears to come from earlier reports of separation rather than the later-established end of the marriage.

For accuracy, 2018 is the safer year to use.

Why Did Dana Stanley and Richard Kind Divorce?

The exact reason has not been reliably made public.

That is the simple answer.

Many celebrity websites try to fill the gap.

Some use words such as incompatibility.

Others speculate about careers or family pressure.

But without a clear statement from Dana or Richard, those explanations remain speculation.

A responsible biography should not invent a scandal just because a marriage ended.

We know they separated.

We know their marriage ultimately ended.

We do not know every private reason why.

Dana Stayed Private After the Marriage

After her relationship with Richard ended, Dana did not suddenly launch a public reinvention.

There was no tell-all interview.

No memoir attacking her former husband.

No reality show about divorce.

She remained largely private.

That is consistent with the person visible throughout the public record.

Dana’s strongest public association outside her marriage had always been nonprofit work, not celebrity.

So disappearing from entertainment coverage after divorce was not especially surprising.

Is Dana Stanley Still With Project ALS?

Older authoritative biographical material clearly identifies Dana as an executive director of Project ALS.

More recent online biographies continue to connect her with the organization, but detailed current employment information is less easy to verify independently.

For that reason, it is safest to describe Project ALS as a major and well-documented part of her professional career rather than assume a specific current title in 2026.

Job titles can change.

Her contribution to the organization remains part of her public history.

Dana Stanley Is Not an Actress

This is another common point of confusion.

Because Dana appeared at events with Richard, some low-quality biographies loosely classify her as an entertainment personality.

There is no strong evidence that acting was her main career.

Her documented professional identity is tied much more closely to nonprofit work and Project ALS.

Richard was the actor in the marriage.

Dana followed a different path.

How Old Is Dana Stanley?

Dana’s exact date of birth is not reliably established in major public sources.

This is where online biographies become risky.

Several websites provide an age or birthday without explaining where the information originated.

There are also many unrelated people named Dana Stanley.

One search result, for example, leads to an obituary for a completely different Dana Stanley who died in Georgia in 2015.

That person was not Richard Kind’s former wife.

Without strong documentation, assigning Richard’s ex-wife an exact age would risk confusing two different people.

Where Was Dana Stanley Born?

The same caution applies to her birthplace.

Some recent secondary profiles connect her to Florida, while stronger actor biographies do not provide enough evidence to establish her birthplace confidently.

There is no reason to turn an uncertain detail into a fact simply because readers search for it.

What we can say confidently is much more useful:

Dana built a professional life in New York, married Richard Kind there and became deeply associated with Project ALS.

What Is Dana Stanley’s Net Worth?

Dana Stanley’s personal net worth is not publicly verified.

Some celebrity websites publish estimates.

They rarely provide financial records supporting those numbers.

Richard earned substantial income during a long acting career, and the couple owned valuable New York real estate during their marriage. But shared marital assets are not the same as Dana’s individual current fortune.

So the safest answer is simple:

Her personal net worth remains private.

Did Dana Stanley Remarry?

There is no strong public evidence establishing a later marriage.

Dana has maintained a low profile since separating from Richard.

That means claims about her current romantic life should be treated carefully.

Absence of public information does not prove she is single.

It simply means her relationship status is private.

For someone who avoided celebrity attention even while married to a famous actor, that privacy makes perfect sense.

What Happened to Their Children?

Max, Samantha and Skyler have generally remained outside mainstream celebrity coverage.

That appears to reflect the privacy Dana and Richard tried to give them.

They are sometimes mentioned in biographies of their father, but detailed information about their education, relationships and careers is limited.

That is probably exactly as their parents intended.

Being the child of a famous actor does not automatically make someone a public figure.

Dana’s Connection to George Clooney Is Mostly Through Richard

People sometimes search for Dana Stanley and George Clooney together because of the wedding connection.

There is no evidence that Dana built a professional career through George.

His role was personal.

George was Richard’s close friend.

He served as best man when Richard married Dana.

That famous detail says more about Richard and George’s friendship than it does about Dana seeking celebrity connections.

Richard Kind Continued Working After Their Divorce

Richard’s career barely slowed after the marriage ended.

He continued appearing in film, television and theater, including acclaimed and high-profile projects.

A 2024 New York Times profile showed that even after decades of recognizable work, Richard still viewed himself as a working character actor rather than a traditional Hollywood star. His established biography also notes later projects such as Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid.

Dana, meanwhile, remained outside the entertainment spotlight.

Their post-marriage lives continued along the same basic paths they had always followed.

Why Do People Search for Dana Stanley?

Richard Kind has become one of America’s most familiar character actors.

People see him in Mad About You.

Then Spin City.

Then Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Then a Pixar movie.

Then a Broadway production.

Eventually, viewers become curious about the person behind the performances.

Was Richard married?

Does he have children?

Who was his wife?

Those questions lead to Dana Stanley.

But once people find her, there is another story waiting.

She was connected to a serious nonprofit mission of her own.

Dana Stanley’s Story Is Really About Choosing Privacy

There is something unusual about Dana’s public life.

She had easy access to celebrity culture.

Her husband was a famous actor.

George Clooney was the best man at their wedding.

She attended major events.

Yet she did not turn herself into a celebrity.

Instead, she remained associated with charitable work and family.

Even her divorce happened with relatively little public drama.

That consistency may tell us more about Dana than unsupported online biographies ever could.

Final Thoughts

Dana Stanley is best known as Richard Kind’s former wife, but that description captures only one part of her life.

Her strongest documented professional connection is with Project ALS, where IMDb identifies her as an executive director involved in efforts to raise money for ALS research.

Dana married Richard in New York City on November 14, 1999. His close friend George Clooney served as best man.

The couple became parents to three children: Max, Samantha and Skyler.

Their marriage lasted until 2018, roughly 19 years after the wedding.

What caused the breakup?

The public does not really know.

And Dana has never appeared interested in changing that.

She kept her children out of the celebrity machine, avoided turning her marriage into a career and remained largely private after divorce.

That may explain why reliable details about her are limited.

But the facts we do have reveal a woman whose public identity included something far more meaningful than being an actor’s spouse: helping support the search for answers to a devastating disease.

FAQs About Dana Stanley

Who is Dana Stanley?

Dana Stanley is the former wife of actor Richard Kind and is known professionally for her association with Project ALS.

What does Dana Stanley do?

IMDb identifies Dana as an executive director of Project ALS, an organization supporting research into ALS. Her exact current title in 2026 is less clearly documented publicly.

When did Dana Stanley marry Richard Kind?

Dana and Richard married on November 14, 1999, in New York City.

Was George Clooney at Dana Stanley’s wedding?

Yes. George Clooney was Richard Kind’s best man at the wedding.

How long were Dana Stanley and Richard Kind married?

They were married from 1999 until 2018, approximately 19 years.

How many children do Dana Stanley and Richard Kind have?

They have three children: Max, Samantha and Skyler Kind.

Why did Dana Stanley and Richard Kind divorce?

Neither has publicly provided a detailed, authoritative explanation of the breakup. Claims assigning a specific cause should therefore be treated as speculation.

Is Dana Stanley an actress?

There is no strong evidence that acting was her principal career. She is much better documented for her nonprofit work with Project ALS.

How old is Dana Stanley?

Her exact birth date and age are not reliably documented by major sources. Because several unrelated people share her name, unsupported dates should be avoided.

What is Dana Stanley’s net worth?

Her individual net worth has not been reliably disclosed. Online estimates are speculative.

Did Dana Stanley remarry?

There is no well-supported public record confirming a later marriage. Her current personal life is private.

Where is Dana Stanley now?

Dana has maintained a low public profile following her marriage to Richard Kind. Reliable current information about her residence and everyday life is limited.

Are Richard Kind and Dana Stanley still married?

No. Established biographical sources list their marriage as lasting from 1999 until 2018.

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