1898-12-20 ( 126 years old ) in Louisville, Kentucky, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn, December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron (1931), Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939) and I Remember Mama (1948). In 1985, Dunne was given Kennedy Center Honors for her services to the arts. Dunne was discovered by Hollywood while starring with the road company of Show Boat in 1929. She signed a contract with RKO and appeared in her first movie, Leathernecking (1930), a film version of the musical Present Arms. Already in her thirties when she made her first film, she would be in competition with younger actresses for roles, and found it advantageous to evade questions that would reveal her age. Her publicists encouraged the belief that she was born in 1901 or 1904, and the former is the date engraved on her tombstone.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Dunne blossomed into a popular screen heroine in movies such as the original Back Street (1932) and the original Magnificent Obsession (1935) and re-created her role as Magnolia in Show Boat (1936), directed by James Whale. Love Affair (1939) is the first of three films she made opposite Charles Boyer. She starred, and sang "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", in the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film version of the musical Roberta (1935).
Dunne was apprehensive about attempting her first comedy role, as the title character in Theodora Goes Wild (1936), but discovered that she enjoyed it. She turned out to possess an aptitude for comedy, with a flair for combining the elegant and the madcap, a quality she displayed in such films as The Awful Truth (1937) and My Favorite Wife (1940), both co-starring Cary Grant. Other roles include Julie Gardiner Adams in Penny Serenade (1941), again with Grant, Anna and the King of Siam (1946) as Anna Leonowens, Lavinia Day in Life with Father (1947), and Marta Hanson in I Remember Mama (1948). In The Mudlark (1950), she was nearly unrecognizable under heavy makeup as Queen Victoria.
The comedy It Grows on Trees (1952) became Dunne's last screen performance, although she remained on the lookout for suitable film scripts for years afterwards. The following year, she was the opening act on the 1953 March of Dimes showcase in New York City. While in town, she made an appearance as the mystery guest on What's My Line? She also made television performances on Ford Theatre, General Electric Theater, and the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, continuing to act until 1962.
In 1952–53, Dunne played newspaper editor Susan Armstrong in the radio program Bright Star. The syndicated 30-minute comedy-drama also starred Fred MacMurray.
Dunne commented in an interview that she had lacked the "terrifying ambition" of some other actresses and said, "I drifted into acting and drifted out. Acting is not everything. Living is."
Movies
Rat Pack
2022-01-11
Becoming Cary Grant
2017-05-23
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
2009-07-02
Cary Grant: A Celebration of a Leading Man
1988-06-05
Musical Comedy Tonight III
1985-11-22
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975-08-06
It Grows on Trees
1952-09-02
The Mudlark
1950-10-03
Never a Dull Moment
1950-08-19
You Can Change The World
1950-02-25
I Remember Mama
1948-03-09
Life with Father
1947-09-13
Anna and the King of Siam
1946-08-11
Over 21
1945-08-08
Together Again
1944-12-23
The White Cliffs of Dover
1944-05-11
Twenty Years After
1944-01-01
A Guy Named Joe
1943-12-24
Show-Business at War
1943-05-21
Lady in a Jam
1942-06-19
Unfinished Business
1941-08-27
Penny Serenade
1941-04-24
My Favorite Wife
1940-05-17
When Tomorrow Comes
1939-08-11
Invitation to Happiness
1939-06-07
Love Affair
1939-04-07
Joy of Living
1938-05-06
The Awful Truth
1937-10-21
High, Wide and Handsome
1937-07-21
Theodora Goes Wild
1936-11-12
Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)
1936-09-11
Show Boat
1936-05-17
Magnificent Obsession
1935-12-30
Things You Never See on the Screen
1935-12-01
Roberta
1935-03-07
Sweet Adeline
1934-12-29
The Age of Innocence
1934-09-14
Stingaree
1934-05-24
This Man Is Mine
1934-04-13
If I Were Free
1933-12-01
Ann Vickers
1933-09-26
The Silver Cord
1933-05-05
The Secret of Madame Blanche
1933-02-03
No Other Woman
1933-01-06
Thirteen Women
1932-09-16
Back Street
1932-08-04
Symphony of Six Million
1932-04-29
Consolation Marriage
1931-11-21
The Great Lover
1931-07-18
Bachelor Apartment
1931-04-15
The Stolen Jools
1931-04-04
Cimarron
1931-01-26
Leathernecking
1930-09-12
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