Dev was born Dharam Dev Anand on 26 September 1923 in the Shakargarh tehsil of the Gurdaspur district in Punjab (British India). His father Pishori Lal Anand was a well-to-do advocate in Gurdaspur District Court. Dev was the third of four sons born to Anand. One of Dev's younger sisters is Sheel Kanta Kapur, who is the mother of film Director Shekhar Kapur. His older brothers were Manmohan Anand (Advocate, Gurdaspur Dist. Court) and Chetan Anand and the younger one was Vijay Anand. He did his schooling till matriculation from Sacred Heart School, Dalhousie, (then in Punjab) and went to college in Dharamsala before going to Lahore to study. Later Dev completed a BA degree in English Literature from the Government College, Lahore in British India.

In the late 1940s, Anand was offered a few roles starring as the male lead opposite singer-actress Suraiya in woman-oriented films. He considered himself to be very lucky to get a chance to star opposite such an established Actress and accepted the offers. While shooting these films, they became romantically involved. The two of them were paired in seven films together: Vidya (1948), Jeet (1949), Shair (1949), Afsar (1950), Nili (1950), Do Sitare (1951) and Sanam (1951), all of which were successful at the box office. In these films, Suraiya was always first-biller in the credits, indicating that she was a bigger star than Anand. She fell in love with him during the shooting of the song Kinare Kinare Chale Jayen Ge from the film Vidya— while shooting the scene, the boat they were in capsized, and Anand saved Suraiya from drowning. Initially, Suraiya's family used to welcome Dev Anand at home, but when her maternal grandmother found out that the two were in love, and even planned an actual marriage on the set of Jeet, she started monitoring them. The two shared love letters and messages through their co-actors, like Durga Khote and Kamini Kaushal, who went out of their way to Engineer secret rendezvous. During the shooting of the film Afsar (1950), Anand finally proposed to Suraiya and gave her a Diamond ring worth Rs 3,000. Her maternal grandmother opposed the relationship as they were Muslim and Anand was Hindu, and so, Suraiya remained unmarried. They stopped acting together after her grandmother opposed their partnership, and Do Sitare was the last film in which they appeared together. Although the films he starred in with Suraiya had been successful, the producers and Directors of those films attributed their success to the acting prowess and screen presence of Suraiya. Anand began looking for an opportunity to play the main male lead in a film where his acting skills could be demonstrated, so as to dispel scepticism about his acting abilities.

Anand was offered his first big break by Ashok Kumar. He spotted Anand hanging around in the studios and picked him as the hero for the Bombay Talkies production Ziddi (1948), co-starring Kamini Kaushal, which became an instant success. After Ziddi's success, Anand decided that he would start producing films. It was in the film Ziddi, where the first ever Kishore-Lata duet, "Yeh Kaun Aaya Karke Yeh Sola Singhar", was recorded. This duet was an instant hit, and from here on both playback singers' associations with Dev Anand began. This continued for the next four decades. His association with Kishore Kumar started when the former sang the first solo of his playback singing career – "Marne Ki Duayen" – picturised on Dev Anand in the movie Ziddi. Dev had forged a very strong bond of friendship with Kishore Kumar during the making of the film. In 1949, he launched his own company Navketan Films (named after his elder brother Chetan's son Ketan and which means "New Banner"), which, as of 2011, has produced 35 films.

Part of the Anand family, he co-founded Navketan Films in 1949 with his elder brother Chetan Anand.

Dev chose Guru Dutt as Director for the crime thriller, Baazi (1951). The film, starring Dev Anand, Geeta Bali and Kalpana Kartik was a trendsetter, regarded as the forerunner of the spate of urban crime films that followed in Bollywood in the 1950s. The film Baazi saw the debut of Kalpana Kartik (aka Mona Singha) as the lead female Actress and Guru Dutt as a Director. The collaboration was a success at the box office and the duo of Dev Anand and Kalpana Kartik were offered many films to star in together. They signed all the film offers and subsequently the movies Aandhiyan (1952), Taxi Driver (1954), House No. 44 (1955) and Nau Do Gyarah (1957) went on to become big hits too. During the making of the film Taxi Driver, the couple fell in love and Dev proposed marriage to his heroine Kalpana. In 1954, Taxi Driver was declared a hit and the two decided to marry in a quiet ceremony. The couple had a son, Suneil Anand in 1956 and later a daughter, Devina, was born. After her marriage, Kalpana decided not to pursue her acting career further. Nau Do Gyarah was the couple's last movie together.

Dev Anand and Suraiya met Peck for the first time at Mumbai's Willingdon Club, after the Filmfare Awards in 1954, on Peck's stopover from a schedule at Sri Lanka after shooting for The Purple Plain. He knew of the "Indian Star" as an actor, more so probably because his romance with Suraiya was grabbing the headlines, and they had a chat. The second time they met was in Rome when Dev Anand was on his way back from the Venice Film Festival, he visited him on the set of Roman Holiday. "I was returning from the Venice film fest. I stopped my car and joined the crowd watching the shoot, hoping that his eyes would fall on me. As expected, he nodded and I walked up to him. He remembered me and we exchanged pleasantries." The third meeting was at London on the set of Moby Dick. However, Suraiya asked for an exclusive meeting with her idol at her house. Though Anand says jealousy was natural for anyone in love, he didn't mind that he was not invited. "I didn't quite feel anything. It wasn't as if they were going to fall in love or make love. Even if they would have, it wouldn't have mattered. I was mature enough. Moreover, he wasn't my rival. I too was a big star by then," says Anand.

The only two hero films he acted in were Insaniyat in 1955 with Dilip Kumar and Return of Jewel Thief with Dharmendra in 1996. He also starred in English films such as The Evil Within (1970), where he was paired opposite Vietnamese Actress Kieu Chinh and Zeenat Aman and Guide (English Version). The English language film The Evil Within was a 20th-Century Fox production which couldn't get the nod from the concerned authorities due to its parallel track dealing with opium selling and thus the Indian viewers were deprived of this American venture. Of the 114 Hindi films he appeared in in 6 decades, Kahin Aur Chal (1968) had a delayed release in the early 1970s and the multi-starrer film Ek Do Teen Chaar (1980) remained unreleased and Shrimanji (1968) had him in a guest appearance. 84 of these were box office hits and 27 were commercial failures. By 2011, he had the second most solo lead roles in Hindi films— 92, with Rajesh Khanna having the record for the most films as solo lead hero in Hindi films - 106.

His first colour film, Guide with Waheeda Rehman was based on the novel of the same name by R. K. Narayan. Dev Anand himself was the impetus for making the film version of the book. He met and persuaded Narayan to give his assent to the project. Dev Anand tapped his friends in Hollywood to launch an Indo-US co-production that was shot in Hindi and English simultaneously and was released in 1965. Guide, directed by younger brother Vijay Anand, was an acclaimed movie. Dev played Raju, a voluble guide, who supports Rosy (Waheeda) in her bid for freedom. He is not above thoughtlessly exploiting her for personal gains. Combining style with substance, he gave an affecting performance as a man grappling with his emotions in his passage through love, shame and salvation.

In 1969, he was a member of the jury at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival.

In the 1970s, Raj Kapoor started playing roles of fathers in films such as Kal Aaj Aur Kal in 1971 and Dharam Karam in 1974 and had put on a lot of weight and films with Dilip Kumar as lead hero like Dastaan and Bairaag were failures at the box office. Some of the hurriedly made films with Dev Anand as the leading man—three each opposite Hema Malini - Shareef Badmaash, Jaaneman, Joshila and two with Zeenat Aman - Ishq Ishq Ishq, Prem Shastra and Saheb Bahadur with Priya Rajvansh — became flops and posed a threat to his career as leading man. He bounced back with the double role film Banarasi Babu in 1973. He delivered commercial hits again with young heroines like with Sharmila Tagore in Yeh Gulistan Hamara, with Yogeeta Bali and Raakhee in Banarasi Babu (1973), with Hema Malini in Chhupa Rustam (1973) and Amir Garib (1974), with Zeenat Aman in Heera Panna (1973), Warrant (1975) Kalabaaz and Darling Darling (1977) and with Parveen Babi in Bullet (1976).The presence of his discoveries in the 1970s—Zeenat, and later Tina Munim, in films and his good on-screen chemistry with beautiful young stars such as Raakhee, Parveen Babi, Hema Malini and Zeenat Aman in various films boosted Dev's image as the evergreen star even though he was well into his fifties.He attempted different genres of films so acquired versatile hero image. He was already 55 when he was paired with Tina Munim in 1978 in Des Pardes, which became among the top five grossing films of the year.

Dev Anand is credited with giving actors such as Zarina Wahab in Ishq Ishq Ishq, Jackie Shroff in Swami Dada, Tabu in Hum Naujawan and Richa Sharma (Sanjay Dutt's first wife) a break in the film industry, discovering Zeenat Amaan, Tina Munim and encouraging music Composer Rajesh Roshan. Amit Khanna started his career with Navketan as executive Producer in 1971 and had been secretary to Dev Anand in the 1970s. He adds, "The uniqueness of Navketan today is that it's the only film company in the world still run by the one who started it." Shatrughan Sinha disclosed in an interview that it was Dev Anand who gave him a break in films by giving him a role in Prem Pujari and since Dev had given Sinha a very small role in that film, he compensated for it by giving Sinha another role in his next film Gambler. Sinha quoted: "Later on we worked together in Sharif Badmash and it was really a privilege to work with him". It was under Dev Anand's Navketan Banner where Guru Dutt, Raj Khosla, Waheeda Rehman, S.D. Burman, Jaidev, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Yash Johar, Shekhar Kapur and Kabir Bedi were given breaks into Hindi films and Dev launched actors Zaheera, Zaheeda Hussain, Zarina Wahab, Natasha Sinha, Ekta Sohini and Sabrina.

Dev Anand often spoke about Suraiya and his love affair with her, in various interviews he gave to film magazines, such as Star Dust (June 1972 issue), Star & Style (Feb 1987 issue) and TV to Karan Thapar for BBC (2002), while both were alive, and after Suraiya's death in interviews given on TV to Simi Garewal (Rendezvouz with Simi Garewal) and others on TV and for news magazines.

Dev Anand has also been politically active. He led a group of film personalities who stood up against the Internal Emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. He actively campaigned against her with his supporters in Indian parliamentary elections in 1977. He also formed a party called the "National Party of India", which he later disbanded.

The 1978 hit Des Pardes, directed by Dev Anand was the debut movie of Actress Tina Munim and this film’s success gave him the tag of the Evergreen Hero. He was 55 but he shared very good chemistry with the 20-year-old Tina Munim. Dev Anand was offered the lead role in Man Pasand by Director Basu Chatterjee. Dev Anand’s successful run at the box office continued in the 1980s with Man Pasand, Lootmaar (both opposite Tina Munim) and Swami Dada (1982), all being critically acclaimed and box office hits.

Though Dev Anand's demand as the lead hero had not decreased even in the 1980s, he decided that it was the right time to introduce his son Suneil Anand in films as the hero. He launched his son in the Kramer vs. Kramer-inspired Anand Aur Anand (1984), which was produced and directed by Dev Anand himself and had music by R.D. Burman. He expected the film to do well, but the film was a box office disaster and Suneil Anand decided not to act in films anymore.

But films with Dev Anand as the lead hero in Hum Naujawan (1985) and Lashkar (1989) continued to be box office successes and were appreciated by critics. Awwal Number (1990), where Dev Anand co-starred with Aditya Pancholi and Aamir Khan became an average grosser in the year 1990. Aamir said in an interview that Awwal Number is the only film he signed without reading the script because it was being directed by his senior Dev Anand. Aamir quoted: "Dev saab was an icon for many generations and entertained us throughout his life". He was already 60 years old in 1983 when he acted opposite Christine O'Neil and along side Rati Agnihotri and Padmini Kolhapure in Swami Dada, but looked half his age and shared a good on-screen chemistry. In 1989, his directorial venture Sachche ka Bolbala was released. Though critically acclaimed, it was a commercial failure. His performance as Professor Anand in the 1989 film Lashkar (film) at the age of 66 was widely appreciated and was a major success at the box office. He managed to look 35 in the film directed by Jagdish Kadar, acting opposite young actors such as Sumeet Saigal, Hemant Birje, Javed Jaffery, Sonam and Madhavi. Lashkar was his last hit film in the lead role in 1989, with him neither being Producer nor Director of the film.

Since 1992, seven of his directorial ventures were box office failures. His films Sau Crore (1991) and Censor (2000) were critically acclaimed. His performance and direction in the 1991 film Sau Crore was appreciated as it was a movie ahead of its time dealing with real life murder of badminton star Syed Modi and the arrest being made of the wife and her ex lover. Dev Anand played the role of Investigating CBI officer in Sau Crore at the age of 68 and managed to look 40 in the film. His last film Chargesheet (2011) was panned by critics across the board.

He directed Pyar Ka Tarana in 1993, without casting himself in any role. His directorial movie Gangster (1995) had a controversial nude rape scene of an unknown Actress, though the movie was released uncut. He received offers to star in lead role in outside of his home banners in films like Return of Jewel Thief and Aman Ke Farishtey but the former was not successful at the box office and the latter wasn't released in 1993 though the film was fully ready to be released.

The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2002 for his contribution to Indian cinema. His career spanned more than 65 years, acting in 114 Hindi films, of which 92 had him play the main solo lead hero, and he did two English films. He was the recipient of the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his performances in Kala Pani and Guide, the latter being India's official entry to the Oscars. He also received critical acclaim for his performances in films such as Baazi, Tere Ghar Ke Samne, Nau Do Gyarah, CID, Kala Pani, Kala Bazar, Munimji, Duniya, Teen Deviyaan, Maya, Asli-Naqli, Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai, Pocketmaar, Nau Do Gyaraah, Solva Saal, Jewel Thief, Johnny Mera Naam, Tere Mere Sapne, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Gambler, Amir Garib and Banarasi Babu.

Dev Anand had an intense emotional love affair with Actress Suraiya from 1948-1951, but it could not come to the marriage altar, because of great opposition by Suraiya's maternal grandmother. Suraiya remained unmarried throughout her life till she died on 31 January 2004. In 1954, Dev married Kalpana Kartik (actual name Mona Singha), a Bollywood Actress from Shimla, in a very private marriage during the shooting of the film Taxi Driver. Kartik was Christian. They have two children, Suneil Anand, who is unmarried and Devina Anand (Narang). Devina married in 1985, but was divorced a few years later. Devina has a daughter, Gina (Narang) (born 1986), who is married to a fashion Stylist, Prayag Menon. Gina is a professional Photographer.

In September 2007, Dev's own autobiography Romancing with Life was released at a birthday party with the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. In February 2011, his 1961 black-and-white film Hum Dono was digitised, colourised and re-released.

Dev Anand died in his room at The Washington Mayfair Hotel in London at the age of 88 on 3 December 2011 (4 December 2011 I.S.T) of a cardiac arrest. His death came just months after the release of his last film Chargesheet. Anand was reportedly in London for a medical checkup at the time of his death. Condolences poured in from all corners of the Indian film industry, with most of them remembering his positive attitude towards life. On 10 December, his funeral Service was held at a small chapel in London after which his casket was taken to the Putney Vale Crematorium in southwest London. His ashes were returned to India for immersion burial in the Godavari River.