Dinah Marler is a fictional character from the CBS Daytime soap opera Guiding Light, last portrayed by Gina Tognoni from July 5, 2004 to September 18, 2009.

Tognoni has won two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for the role in 2006[2] and 2008,[3] and was also nominated in 2007.

[4] Vanessa gave birth to Dinah at the age of seventeen in 1970 and felt she was incapable of being a good mother to her newborn at the time.

Dinah would have to endure a turbulent childhood and when she was reunited with her biological parents in her teenage years, the hurt and resentment she felt towards Ross and Vanessa for giving her up as a baby made it hard to forgive them.

Vanessa especially received the brunt of Dinah's wrath when she learnt her mother had placed her for adoption without Ross even knowing about her existence.

On the romantic front, Dinah became involved with Cameron Stewart who would break her heart when he had an affair with Lacey Bauer (Johnny's younger sister) on the side.

Her relationship with her mother was further strained when Vanessa discovered her teenage daughter was socialising with alcoholics at wild parties thanks to her new boyfriend's influence.

In 1988, Dinah suspected George and his criminal partner, Nicky Sutton of smuggling drugs in cars through Frank's garage.

As Dinah was telling Viktor about her money problems, she mentioned that her grandfather has a huge trust fund, but she will not receive a penny of it until she is married.

When Matt left the briefcase at the specified location near the railroad tracks for Viktor, instead of going back home, he instinctively went to the abandoned underground factory and found Dinah there tied up and gagged.

While trying to patch things up with Dinah, his lawyer and confidante, former DA Leo Flynn, was "doctoring" his financial books to make it look like Roger had lost the money in a bad investment, it was actually stashed away in the Cayman Islands.

Roger's mental state dramatically declined and got worse after he accidentally drank an entire vial of the drugs he had been poisoning Dinah with.

Bridget Reardon (fearing that Hart, the father of her child, might go to jail) switched photos and when Roger showed it to the judge, it was really a picture of Peter.

After a failed escape attempt, Dinah authorized the psychiatrists to give Roger "shock treatment" to cure him of violent impulses.

At a second competency hearing, Hart and Dinah were discovered together and a "kind, benevolent" Roger, he had never undergone the shock therapy and was pretending, was finally released from the mental hospital.

Although Dinah and Hart thought Jean Luc's appearance in Springfield was innocent, he was actually paid by Roger to break up the couple.

Believing Jean Luc's words that Hart was trying to turn her into a domestic type, Dinah made a turnaround and refused to tell her friends to leave.

In the meantime, Dinah was becoming increasingly jealous of Hart's new friend--Cassie Layne, an ex-stripper who was trying to raise money to get her daughter out of foster care.

Making matters worse was the fact that Vanessa sympathized with Cassie and told Dinah that she needed to move on with her life.

Tragically, days after learning that Cassie herself was pregnant, Dinah miscarried: while sneaking around by the farm, she was accidentally hit by a door by Hart, who wanted to see who was trespassing.

Desperate to hold on to Hart, Dinah finally revealed the lengths she had gone to keep him – taking Vanessa's pills, which almost killed her, and starting the fire that scarred her.

Not long after, Jeffrey O'Neill, the Springfield D.A., tracked Dinah (now Gina Tognoni) down and warned her that he would prosecute her if she continued impersonating Cassie.

Edmund was able to drag Jeffrey to safety, while unbeknownst to them, Cassie entered the burning barn and spotted RJ trapped at the top level.

Although Blake remained convinced that Dinah should stay behind bars, Cassie decided it was not worth the emotional rigors and stated that Hart's shooting was an accident.

However, Dinah was still intent on breaking up the happy couple and decided to help fuel Edmund's growing jealousy by anonymously sending Cassie flowers.

Knowing that Cassie and Edmund were trying to get pregnant, it did not take long for Dinah to start pumping Corey, an OB-GYN who was a blind date, for information on modern fertility methods.

Eventually, Cassie figured out that Dinah knew what happened the night before her wedding and after a confrontation, the two got into a catfight that was broken up by Ross.

Days later, the Winslow family was dealt a devastating blow when Cassie finally learned that Edmund had been responsible for the barn fire.

Unnerved by his close call, Edmund threatened to stop giving Dinah food if she did not find a way to deter Jonathan.

However, when an upset Dinah professed her love for Mallet and vowed that she would not mess this up, Matt apologized for letting the past color his feelings.