Irene Dunne

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."

Known For: Acting

Born: Louisville, Kentucky, USA, 1898-12-20

Died: 1990-09-04

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1930	Leathernecking	Delphine Witherspoon	0
2	1931	Cimarron	Sabra Cravat	56
3	1931	The Stolen Jools	Irene Dunne	56
4	1931	Bachelor Apartment	Helene Andrews	62
5	1931	The Great Lover	Diana	53
6	1931	Consolation Marriage	Mary Brown Porter	61
7	1932	Symphony of Six Million	Jessica	54
8	1932	Back Street	Ray Schmidt	61
9	1932	Thirteen Women	Laura Stanhope	63
10	1933	No Other Woman	Anna Stanley	52
11	1933	The Secret of Madame Blanche	Sally	40
12	1933	The Silver Cord	Christina Phelps	71
13	1933	Ann Vickers	Ann Vickers	59
14	1933	If I Were Free	Sarah Cazenove	50
15	1934	This Man Is Mine	Tony Dunlap	55
16	1934	Stingaree	Hilda Bouverie	59
17	1934	The Age of Innocence	Countess Ellen Olenska	54
18	1934	Sweet Adeline	Adeline 'Addie' Schmidt	57
19	1935	Roberta	Stephanie	70
20	1935	Things You Never See on the Screen	Self	50
21	1935	Magnificent Obsession	Helen Hudson	74
22	1936	Show Boat	Magnolia Hawkes	68
23	1936	Screen Snapshots (Series 16, No. 1)	Self	60
24	1936	Theodora Goes Wild	Theodora Lynn	65
25	1937	High, Wide and Handsome	Sally Watterson	63
26	1937	The Awful Truth	Lucy Warriner	72
27	1938	Joy of Living	Margaret 'Maggie' Garret	57
28	1939	Love Affair	Terry McKay	70
29	1939	Invitation to Happiness	Eleanor Wayne	0
30	1939	When Tomorrow Comes	Helen	53
31	1940	My Favorite Wife	Ellen Wagstaff Arden	70
32	1941	Penny Serenade	Julie Gardiner Adams	65
33	1941	Unfinished Business	Nancy Andrews	53
34	1942	Lady in a Jam	Jane Palmer	55
35	1943	Show-Business at War	Self	70
36	1943	A Guy Named Joe	Dorinda Durston	66
37	1944	Twenty Years After	(archive footage)	60
38	1944	The White Cliffs of Dover	Susan Dunn	67
39	1944	Together Again	Anne Crandall	54
40	1945	Over 21	Paula 'Polly' Wharton	53
41	1946	Anna and the King of Siam	Anna Owens	61
42	1947	Life with Father	Vinnie Day	66
43	1948	I Remember Mama	Mama	71
44	1950	You Can Change The World	Self	58
45	1950	Never a Dull Moment	Kay Kingsley	54
46	1950	The Mudlark	Queen Victoria	65
47	1952	It Grows on Trees	Polly Baxter	77
48	1975	Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?	Self (archive footage)	57
49	1985	Musical Comedy Tonight III		0
50	1988	Cary Grant: A Celebration of a Leading Man	Self (archive footage)	70
51	2009	1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year	Self (archive footage)	75
52	2017	Becoming Cary Grant	Self (archive footage)	66
53	2022	Rat Pack	Self (archive footage)	90

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1950	What's My Line?	Self	69
2	1950	The Colgate Comedy Hour	Self	68
3	1950	The Jack Benny Program	Irene Dunne	78
4	1953	General Electric Theater	Margaret Henderson	63
5	1953	The Oscars	Self	71
6	1953	Letter to Loretta	Self - Guest Host	65
7	1959	The DuPont Show with June Allyson	Dr. Gina Kerstas	63
8	1959	The Big Party	Self – Hostess	0
9	1978	The Kennedy Center Honors	Self	74

Irene Dunne

Film

Television