[2] Returning to his earlier love of acting and the stage, Duryea made his name on Broadway in the play Dead End, followed by The Little Foxes, in which he portrayed Leo Hubbard.

In the 1950s, Duryea co-starred with James Stewart in three films, Winchester '73 (as the dastardly "Waco Johnny" Dean), Thunder Bay, and Night Passage.

He was featured in several other westerns, including Silver Lode, Ride Clear of Diablo, and The Marauders, and in more film-noir productions like 36 Hours, Chicago Calling, Storm Fear, and The Burglar.

Inasmuch, as I admired fine actors like Richard Widmark, Victor Mature, Robert Mitchum, and others who had made their early marks in the dark, sordid, and guilt-ridden world of film noir; here, indeed, was a market for my talents.

I thought the meaner I presented myself, the tougher I was with women, slapping them around in well produced films where evil and death seem to lurk in every nightmare alley and behind every venetian blind in every seedy apartment, I could find a market for my screen characters.... At first it was very hard as I am a very even-tempered guy, but I used my past life experiences to motivate me as I thought about some of the people I hated in my early as well as later life ... like the school bully who used to try and beat the hell out of me at least once a week ... a sadistic family doctor that believed feeling pain when he treated you was the birthright of every man inasmuch as women suffered giving birth ... little incidents with trade-people who enjoyed acting superior because they owned their business, overcharging you.

"[8]In his last years, Duryea reteamed with Stewart for the adventure film The Flight of the Phoenix, about men stranded in the Sahara desert by a downed airplane, appearing as a mild-mannered accountant, closer to his real-life persona.

(1964), the Italian Western The Hills Run Red, aka Un Fiume di dollari, (1966) and the spy thriller Five Golden Dragons (1967) in West Germany, while continuing to find roles on American television.

He later guest-starred as Roy Budinger, the self-educated mastermind of a criminal ring dealing in silver bullion, in the episode "Terror Town" on October 18, 1958, of NBC's western series Cimarron City.

On September 15, 1959, Duryea guest-starred as the outlaw Bud Carlin in the episode "Stage Stop", the premiere of NBC's Laramie western series.

Three weeks later, on November 16, 1960, Duryea played a mentally unstable pioneer obsessed by demons and superstitions in "The Bleymier Story" of NBC's Wagon Train.

Dan also guest starred in a 1962 episode of Tales of Wells Fargo TV western series as Marshal Blake opposite Dale Robertson.