Irene Dunne
Encyclopedia
Irene Dunne 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). She was named to the International Best Dressed List
Hall of Fame in 1958.
, to Joseph Dunn, a steamboat inspector for the United States government, and Adelaide Henry, a concert pianist/music teacher from Newport, Kentucky, Irene Dunn would later write "No triumph of either my stage or screen career has ever rivalled the excitement of trips down the Mississippi on the river boats with my father." She was only eleven when her father died in 1909. She saved all of his letters and often remembered and lived by what he told her the night before he died: "Happiness is never an accident. It is the prize we get when we choose wisely from life's great stores."
After her father's death, she, her mother and younger brother Charles moved to her mother's hometown of Madison, Indiana
. Dunn's mother taught her to play the piano as a very small girl. According to Dunn, "Music was as natural as breathing in our house." Dunne was raised as a devout Roman Catholic. Nicknamed "Dunnie," she took piano and voice lessons, sang in local churches and high school plays before her graduation in 1916.
She earned a diploma to teach art, but took a chance on a contest and won a prestigious scholarship to the Chicago Musical College and graduated in 1926. With a mezzo-soprano voice, she had hopes of becoming an opera singer, but did not pass the audition with the Metropolitan Opera Company.
, turned to musical theater, making her Broadway
debut in 1922 in Zelda Sears
's The Clinging Vine. The following year, Dunne played a season of light opera in Atlanta, Georgia
. Though in her own words Dunne created "no great furor," by 1929 she had a successful Broadway career playing leading roles, grateful to be at center stage rather than in the chorus line. Dunne met her future husband, Francis Griffin, a New York dentist, at a supper dance in New York. Despite differing opinions and battles that raged furiously, Dunne eventually agreed to marry him and leave the theater.
Dunne's role as Magnolia Hawks in Jerome Kern
and Oscar Hammerstein II
's Show Boat
was the result of a chance meeting with showman Florenz Ziegfeld
in an elevator the day she returned from her honeymoon. Dunne was discovered by Hollywood while starring with the Chicago company of the musical in 1929. Dunne signed a contract with RKO
and appeared in her first movie in 1930, Leathernecking, a film version of the musical Present Arms
. She moved to Hollywood with her mother and brother, and maintained a long-distance marriage with her husband in New York until he joined her in California in 1936. That year, she re-created her role as Magnolia in what is considered the classic film version
of the famous musical Show Boat
, directed by James Whale
. (Edna Ferber
's novel, on which the musical is based, had already been filmed as a part-talkie in 1929, and the musical would be remade in Technicolor in 1951, but the 1936 film is considered by most critics and many film buffs to be the definitive motion picture version.)
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). The first of three films she made opposite Charles Boyer
, Love Affair (1939) is perhaps one of her most well known. She starred, and sang "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
", in the 1935 Fred Astaire
-Ginger Rogers
film version of the musical Roberta
.
She 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 notable roles include Julie Gardiner Adams in Penny Serenade
(1941) (once again opposite Grant), Anna Leonowens
in Anna and the King of Siam (1946), Lavinia Day in Life with Father
(1947), and Martha Hanson in I Remember Mama
(1948). In The Mudlark
(1950), Dunne was nearly unrecognizable under heavy makeup as Queen Victoria
.
She retired from the screen in 1952, after the comedy It Grows on Trees
. She performed as the opening act on the 1953 March of Dimes
showcase in New York City. While in town, she made her first appearance as the mystery guest on What's My Line?
. She made television performances on Ford Theatre
, General Electric Theater
, and the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
, continuing to act until 1962.
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."
, the first woman ever elected to the board of directors.
Dunne remained married to Dr. Griffin until his death on October 15, 1965. They lived in Holmby Hills, California in a Southern plantation-style mansion that they designed. They had one daughter, Mary Frances (née Anna Mary Bush), who was adopted in 1938 from the New York Foundling Hospital, run by the Sisters of Charity of New York
. Both Dunne and her husband were members of the Knights of Malta.
She was good friends with actress Loretta Young
. They often attended Mass
together and met for lunch frequently.
One of her last public appearances was in April 1985, when she attended the dedication of a bust in her honor at St. John's (Roman Catholic) Hospital in Santa Monica, California, for which her foundation, The Irene Dunne Guild, had raised more than $20 million.
in 1990, and is entombed in the Calvary Cemetery
in East Los Angeles, California
. Her personal papers are housed at the University of Southern California
.
(1931), Theodora Goes Wild
(1936), The Awful Truth
(1937), Love Affair (1939) and I Remember Mama
(1948).
In 1985, she was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors
, Lifetime Achievement for a career that spanned three decades and a range of musical theater, the silver screen, Broadway, radio and television. Other honors include the Laetare Medal
from Notre Dame University in 1949, the Bellarmine Medal from Bellarmine College in 1965 and Colorado's Women of Achievement in 1968. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6440 Hollywood Blvd. and displays in the Warner Bros.
Museum and Center for Motion Picture Study.
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, for her performances in Cimarron
Cimarron (1931 film)
Cimarron is a 1931 Pre-Code film directed by Wesley Ruggles and based on the Edna Ferber novel Cimarron. It won three Academy Awards.-Background:...
(1931), Theodora Goes Wild
Theodora Goes Wild
Theodora Goes Wild is a 1936 American romantic comedy film that tells the story of a small town which is incensed by a risqué novel, little knowing that it was written under a pseudonym by a member of the town's leading family. It stars Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas and was directed by Richard...
(1936), The Awful Truth
The Awful Truth
The Awful Truth is a 1937 screwball comedy film starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. The plot concerns the machinations of a soon-to-be-divorced couple, played by Dunne and Grant, who go to great lengths to try to ruin each other's romantic escapades...
(1937), Love Affair (1939) and I Remember Mama
I Remember Mama
I Remember Mama is a play by John Van Druten. Based on the fictionalized memoir Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes, it focuses on the Hanson family, a loving family of Norwegian immigrants living on Steiner Street in San Francisco in the 1910s.Produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein...
(1948). She was named to the International Best Dressed List
International Best Dressed List
The International Best Dressed List was founded by fashionista Eleanor Lambert in 1940 as an attempt to boost the reputation of American fashion at the time.People who have been on the list include from A to Z:-The International Hall of Fame: Women:...
Hall of Fame in 1958.
Early life
Born Irene Marie Dunn in Louisville, KentuckyLouisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, to Joseph Dunn, a steamboat inspector for the United States government, and Adelaide Henry, a concert pianist/music teacher from Newport, Kentucky, Irene Dunn would later write "No triumph of either my stage or screen career has ever rivalled the excitement of trips down the Mississippi on the river boats with my father." She was only eleven when her father died in 1909. She saved all of his letters and often remembered and lived by what he told her the night before he died: "Happiness is never an accident. It is the prize we get when we choose wisely from life's great stores."
After her father's death, she, her mother and younger brother Charles moved to her mother's hometown of Madison, Indiana
Madison, Indiana
As of the census of 2000, there were 12,004 people, 5,092 households, and 3,085 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,402.9 people per square mile . There were 5,597 housing units at an average density of 654.1 per square mile...
. Dunn's mother taught her to play the piano as a very small girl. According to Dunn, "Music was as natural as breathing in our house." Dunne was raised as a devout Roman Catholic. Nicknamed "Dunnie," she took piano and voice lessons, sang in local churches and high school plays before her graduation in 1916.
She earned a diploma to teach art, but took a chance on a contest and won a prestigious scholarship to the Chicago Musical College and graduated in 1926. With a mezzo-soprano voice, she had hopes of becoming an opera singer, but did not pass the audition with the Metropolitan Opera Company.
Career
Irene, after adding an "e" to her surnameSurname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
, turned to musical theater, making her Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in 1922 in Zelda Sears
Zelda Sears
Zelda Sears, née Paldi was an American actress, screenwriter, novelist and businesswoman.-Youth:Sears was born near Brockway Township, St. Clair County, Michigan. Her father, Justin Lewis Paldi, ran a farm more than twenty miles from the closest railroad station. By age 12, she worked for L.A....
's The Clinging Vine. The following year, Dunne played a season of light opera in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. Though in her own words Dunne created "no great furor," by 1929 she had a successful Broadway career playing leading roles, grateful to be at center stage rather than in the chorus line. Dunne met her future husband, Francis Griffin, a New York dentist, at a supper dance in New York. Despite differing opinions and battles that raged furiously, Dunne eventually agreed to marry him and leave the theater.
Dunne's role as Magnolia Hawks in Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
and Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
's Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
was the result of a chance meeting with showman Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. , , was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat...
in an elevator the day she returned from her honeymoon. Dunne was discovered by Hollywood while starring with the Chicago company of the musical in 1929. Dunne signed a contract with RKO
RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
and appeared in her first movie in 1930, Leathernecking, a film version of the musical Present Arms
Present Arms (musical)
Present Arms is a Broadway musical comedy that opened April 26, 1928, with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart and book by Herbert Fields. It was produced by Lew Fields with musical numbers stage by Busby Berkeley. It ran for 155 performances at the Lew Fields' Mansfield Theatre.The...
. She moved to Hollywood with her mother and brother, and maintained a long-distance marriage with her husband in New York until he joined her in California in 1936. That year, she re-created her role as Magnolia in what is considered the classic film version
Show Boat (1936 film)
Show Boat is a 1936 film based on the musical play by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II , which the team adapted from the novel by Edna Ferber....
of the famous musical Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
, directed by James Whale
James Whale
James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein...
. (Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big , Show Boat , and Giant .-Early years:Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan,...
's novel, on which the musical is based, had already been filmed as a part-talkie in 1929, and the musical would be remade in Technicolor in 1951, but the 1936 film is considered by most critics and many film buffs to be the definitive motion picture version.)
During the 1930s and 1940s, Dunne blossomed into a popular screen heroine in movies such as the original Back Street
Back Street (1932 film)
Back Street is a 1932 film made by Universal Pictures, directed by John M. Stahl, and produced by Carl Laemmle Jr.. The screenplay was written by Gladys Lehman and based on the novel by Fannie Hurst. The film stars Irene Dunne and John Boles.-Plot:...
(1932), and the original Magnificent Obsession
Magnificent Obsession (1935 film)
Magnificent Obsession is a 1935 drama film based on a book of the same name by Lloyd C. Douglas. It was adapted by Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman, and George O'Neil, and directed by John M. Stahl...
(1935). The first of three films she made opposite Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
, Love Affair (1939) is perhaps one of her most well known. She starred, and sang "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for their 1933 operetta Roberta. It was originally recorded by Gertrude Niesen, on 13 October 1933 on the Victor label 24454. It was performed by Irene Dunne for the 1935 film adaptation,...
", in the 1935 Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
-Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
film version of the musical Roberta
Roberta
Roberta is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics and book by Otto Harbach. The musical is based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller...
.
She was apprehensive about attempting her first comedy role, as the title character in Theodora Goes Wild
Theodora Goes Wild
Theodora Goes Wild is a 1936 American romantic comedy film that tells the story of a small town which is incensed by a risqué novel, little knowing that it was written under a pseudonym by a member of the town's leading family. It stars Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas and was directed by Richard...
(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
The Awful Truth
The Awful Truth is a 1937 screwball comedy film starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. The plot concerns the machinations of a soon-to-be-divorced couple, played by Dunne and Grant, who go to great lengths to try to ruin each other's romantic escapades...
(1937) and My Favorite Wife
My Favorite Wife
My Favorite Wife is a 1940 screwball comedy produced and co-written by Leo McCarey and directed by Garson Kanin. The movie stars Irene Dunne as a woman who returns to her husband and children after being shipwrecked on a tropical island for several years, and Cary Grant as her husband...
(1940), both co-starring Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
. Other notable roles include Julie Gardiner Adams in Penny Serenade
Penny Serenade
Penny Serenade is a 1941 film melodrama starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, and Edgar Buchanan. It was directed by George Stevens and written by Martha Cheavens and Morrie Ryskind. It depicts the story of a loving couple who must overcome adversity to keep their marriage and raise a child...
(1941) (once again opposite Grant), Anna Leonowens
Anna Leonowens
Anna Leonowens was an English travel writer, educator, and social activist. She worked in Siam from 1862 to 1868, where she taught the wives and children of Mongkut, king of Siam. She also co-founded the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design...
in Anna and the King of Siam (1946), Lavinia Day in Life with Father
Life with Father (film)
Life with Father is a 1947 American comedy film. It tells the true story of Clarence Day, a stockbroker who wants to be master of his house, but finds his wife and his children ignoring him, until they start making demands for him to change his own life. In keeping with the autobiography, all the...
(1947), and Martha Hanson in I Remember Mama
I Remember Mama
I Remember Mama is a play by John Van Druten. Based on the fictionalized memoir Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes, it focuses on the Hanson family, a loving family of Norwegian immigrants living on Steiner Street in San Francisco in the 1910s.Produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein...
(1948). In The Mudlark
The Mudlark
The Mudlark is a 1950 film made in Britain by 20th Century Fox, is a fictionalized account of how Queen Victoria was eventually brought out of her mourning for her dead husband, Prince Albert...
(1950), Dunne was nearly unrecognizable under heavy makeup as Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
.
She retired from the screen in 1952, after the comedy It Grows on Trees
It Grows on Trees
It Grows on Trees is a 1952 fantasy comedy film about a couple who discover that two trees in their backyard grow money. One morning a few days after Polly Baxter purchased a couple of trees and planted them in her backyard, a $5 bill floated in through an open window, spurring a curious turn of...
. She performed as the opening act on the 1953 March of Dimes
March of Dimes
The March of Dimes Foundation is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies.-Organization:...
showcase in New York City. While in town, she made her first appearance as the mystery guest on What's My Line?
What's My Line?
What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
. She made television performances on Ford Theatre
Ford Theatre
Ford Theatre was a radio and television anthology series broadcast in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. At various times the television series appeared on all three major television networks, while the radio version was broadcast on two separate networks and on two separate coasts...
, General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald W. Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.-Radio:...
, and the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, is a weekly CBS anthology television series, was telecast on Friday nights from 1951 until 1959. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by Schlitz beer...
, continuing to act until 1962.
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."
Later life
Dunne was present at Disneyland on "Dedication Day" in 1955 and was asked by Walt Disney to christen the Mark Twain River Boat, to which she did with a bottle filled with water from several major rivers across the United States. In 1957, Dwight David Eisenhower appointed Dunne one of five alternative U.S. delegates to the United Nations in recognition of her charitable works and interest in conservative Roman Catholic and Republican causes. In her retirement, Dunne devoted herself primarily to civic, philanthropic, and Republican political causes. In 1965, Dunne became a board member of TechnicolorTechnicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
, the first woman ever elected to the board of directors.
Dunne remained married to Dr. Griffin until his death on October 15, 1965. They lived in Holmby Hills, California in a Southern plantation-style mansion that they designed. They had one daughter, Mary Frances (née Anna Mary Bush), who was adopted in 1938 from the New York Foundling Hospital, run by the Sisters of Charity of New York
Sisters of Charity of New York
The Sisters of Charity of New York is a religious congregation of women in the Catholic Church whose primary missions are education and nursing and who are dedicated in particular to the service of the poor.-History:...
. Both Dunne and her husband were members of the Knights of Malta.
She was good friends with actress Loretta Young
Loretta Young
Loretta Young was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953...
. They often attended Mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
together and met for lunch frequently.
One of her last public appearances was in April 1985, when she attended the dedication of a bust in her honor at St. John's (Roman Catholic) Hospital in Santa Monica, California, for which her foundation, The Irene Dunne Guild, had raised more than $20 million.
Death
Dunne died peacefully at her Holmby Hills home in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
in 1990, and is entombed in the Calvary Cemetery
Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles
The Calvary Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery operated by the Los Angeles Archdiocese, located at 4201 Whittier Boulevard in Los Angeles, California...
in East Los Angeles, California
East Los Angeles, California
East Los Angeles is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States...
. Her personal papers are housed at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
.
Awards and nominations
Dunne has been described as the best actress never to win an Academy Award. She received five Best Actress nominations during her career: for CimarronCimarron (1931 film)
Cimarron is a 1931 Pre-Code film directed by Wesley Ruggles and based on the Edna Ferber novel Cimarron. It won three Academy Awards.-Background:...
(1931), Theodora Goes Wild
Theodora Goes Wild
Theodora Goes Wild is a 1936 American romantic comedy film that tells the story of a small town which is incensed by a risqué novel, little knowing that it was written under a pseudonym by a member of the town's leading family. It stars Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas and was directed by Richard...
(1936), The Awful Truth
The Awful Truth
The Awful Truth is a 1937 screwball comedy film starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. The plot concerns the machinations of a soon-to-be-divorced couple, played by Dunne and Grant, who go to great lengths to try to ruin each other's romantic escapades...
(1937), Love Affair (1939) and I Remember Mama
I Remember Mama
I Remember Mama is a play by John Van Druten. Based on the fictionalized memoir Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes, it focuses on the Hanson family, a loving family of Norwegian immigrants living on Steiner Street in San Francisco in the 1910s.Produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein...
(1948).
In 1985, she was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors
Kennedy Center Honors
The Kennedy Center Honors is an annual honor given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture. The Honors have been presented annually since 1978 in Washington, D.C., during gala weekend-long events which culminate in a performance for—and...
, Lifetime Achievement for a career that spanned three decades and a range of musical theater, the silver screen, Broadway, radio and television. Other honors include the Laetare Medal
Laetare Medal
The Laetare Medal is an annual award given by the University of Notre Dame in recognition of outstanding service to the Roman Catholic church and society...
from Notre Dame University in 1949, the Bellarmine Medal from Bellarmine College in 1965 and Colorado's Women of Achievement in 1968. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 6440 Hollywood Blvd. and displays in the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Museum and Center for Motion Picture Study.
Feature films
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1930 | Leathernecking | Delphine Witherspoon |
| 1931 | Cimarron | Sabra Cravat |
| The Slippery Pearls | Herself | |
| Bachelor Apartment Bachelor Apartment (film) Bachelor Apartment is a 1931 romance film directed by and starring Lowell Sherman as a womanizing playboy who falls in love with Irene Dunne's character.-Cast:*Lowell Sherman as Wayne Carter*Irene Dunne as Helene Andrews*Mae Murray as Mrs... |
Helene Andrews | |
| The Great Lover | Diana Page | |
| Consolation Marriage | Mary Brown Porter | |
| 1932 | Symphony of Six Million | Jessica |
| Back Street Back Street (1932 film) Back Street is a 1932 film made by Universal Pictures, directed by John M. Stahl, and produced by Carl Laemmle Jr.. The screenplay was written by Gladys Lehman and based on the novel by Fannie Hurst. The film stars Irene Dunne and John Boles.-Plot:... |
Ray Smith | |
| Thirteen Women Thirteen Women Thirteen Women is a psychological thriller film, produced by David O. Selznick and directed by George Archainbaud. It starred Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, Florence Eldridge and Jill Esmond... |
Laura Stanhope | |
| 1933 | No Other Woman | Anna Stanley |
| The Secret of Madame Blanche | Sally Sanders St. John | |
| The Silver Cord | Christina Phelps | |
| Ann Vickers Ann Vickers Ann Vickers is a 1933 novel by Sinclair Lewis.It is also a 1933 drama film directed by John Cromwell, adapted by Jane Murfin from Lewis's novel, and starring Irene Dunne, Bruce Cabot, Walter Huston, and Conrad Nagel... |
Ann Vickers | |
| If I Were Free | Sarah Cazenove | |
| 1934 | This Man Is Mine | Tony Dunlap |
| Stingaree Stingaree (1934 film) Stingaree is a musical western film directed by William A. Wellman released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1934. The film was based on a story by E. W. Hornung, which was published in 1905. Set in Australia, it starred Irene Dunne as Hilda Bouverie and Richard Dix as Stingaree.- Plot :Hilda Bouverie is... |
Hilda Bouverie | |
| The Age of Innocence The Age of Innocence (1934 film) The Age of Innocence is a American drama film directed by Philip Moeller and starring Irene Dunne, John Boles and Lionel Atwill. The film is an adaptation of the novel The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton which is set amongst aristocrat New Yorkers in the 1870s.-Cast:* Irene Dunne - Countess... |
Countess Ellen Olenska | |
| Sweet Adeline | Adeline "Addie" Schmidt | |
| 1935 | Roberta Roberta (1935 film) Roberta is a 1935 musical film by RKO starring Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Randolph Scott. It was an adaptation of a 1933 Broadway theatre musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller... |
Stephanie |
| Magnificent Obsession Magnificent Obsession (1935 film) Magnificent Obsession is a 1935 drama film based on a book of the same name by Lloyd C. Douglas. It was adapted by Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman, and George O'Neil, and directed by John M. Stahl... |
Helen Hudson | |
| 1936 | Show Boat Show Boat (1936 film) Show Boat is a 1936 film based on the musical play by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II , which the team adapted from the novel by Edna Ferber.... |
Magnolia Hawks |
| Theodora Goes Wild Theodora Goes Wild Theodora Goes Wild is a 1936 American romantic comedy film that tells the story of a small town which is incensed by a risqué novel, little knowing that it was written under a pseudonym by a member of the town's leading family. It stars Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas and was directed by Richard... |
Theodora Lynn/Caroline Adams | |
| 1937 | High, Wide, and Handsome High, Wide, and Handsome High, Wide, and Handsome is a 1937 American musical film starring Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Alan Hale, Sr., Charles Bickford, and Dorothy Lamour.... |
Sally Watterson |
| The Awful Truth The Awful Truth The Awful Truth is a 1937 screwball comedy film starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. The plot concerns the machinations of a soon-to-be-divorced couple, played by Dunne and Grant, who go to great lengths to try to ruin each other's romantic escapades... |
Lucy Warriner | |
| 1938 | Joy of Living | Margaret "Maggie" Garret |
| 1939 | Love Affair | Terry Mckay |
| Invitation to Happiness | Eleanor Wayne | |
| When Tomorrow Comes When Tomorrow Comes (film) When Tomorrow Comes is a 1939 romantic drama film starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. A waitress falls in love with a man who later turns out to be a married concert pianist. Bernard B... |
Helen Lawrence | |
| 1940 | My Favorite Wife My Favorite Wife My Favorite Wife is a 1940 screwball comedy produced and co-written by Leo McCarey and directed by Garson Kanin. The movie stars Irene Dunne as a woman who returns to her husband and children after being shipwrecked on a tropical island for several years, and Cary Grant as her husband... |
Ellen Arden |
| 1941 | Penny Serenade Penny Serenade Penny Serenade is a 1941 film melodrama starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, and Edgar Buchanan. It was directed by George Stevens and written by Martha Cheavens and Morrie Ryskind. It depicts the story of a loving couple who must overcome adversity to keep their marriage and raise a child... |
Julie Gardiner Adams |
| Unfinished Business | Nancy Andrews | |
| 1942 | Lady in a Jam | Jane Palmer |
| 1943 | Show Business at War Show Business at War Show Business at War is a short film made in 1943 to tout the United States film industry's contribution to the war effort. Several studios collaborated on the production and approximately 70 stars, producers, directors and studio executives appeared in it.... |
Herself |
| A Guy Named Joe A Guy Named Joe A Guy Named Joe is a 1943 film made by MGM, directed by Victor Fleming, produced by Everett Riskin, from a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, adapted by Frederick Hazlitt Brennan from a story by Chandler Sprague and David Boehm. It starred Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne and Van Johnson, with Esther Williams... |
Dorinda Durston | |
| 1944 | The White Cliffs of Dover The White Cliffs of Dover (1944 film) The White Cliffs of Dover is a 1944 film made by Loew's and MGM. It was directed by Clarence Brown and produced by Clarence Brown and Sidney Franklin. The screenplay was by Claudine West, Jan Lustig and George Froeschel, based on the Alice Duer Miller poem titled The White Cliffs with additional... |
Susan Dunn |
| Together Again Together Again (film) Together Again is a 1944 comedy film directed by Charles Vidor. The screenplay was written by F. Hugh Herbert and Virginia Van Upp, based on story by Herbert J... |
Anne Crandall | |
| 1945 | Over 21 Over 21 Over 21 is a 1945 comedy film about a wife who supports her husband's decision to enlist in the army for World War II over the objections of his boss... |
Paula "Polly" Wharton |
| 1946 | Anna and the King of Siam | Anna Owens Anna Leonowens Anna Leonowens was an English travel writer, educator, and social activist. She worked in Siam from 1862 to 1868, where she taught the wives and children of Mongkut, king of Siam. She also co-founded the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design... |
| 1947 | Life with Father Life with Father (film) Life with Father is a 1947 American comedy film. It tells the true story of Clarence Day, a stockbroker who wants to be master of his house, but finds his wife and his children ignoring him, until they start making demands for him to change his own life. In keeping with the autobiography, all the... |
Vinnie Day |
| 1948 | I Remember Mama I Remember Mama I Remember Mama is a play by John Van Druten. Based on the fictionalized memoir Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes, it focuses on the Hanson family, a loving family of Norwegian immigrants living on Steiner Street in San Francisco in the 1910s.Produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein... |
Martha "Mama" Hanson |
| 1950 | Never a Dull Moment Never a Dull Moment (1950 film) Never a Dull Moment is a 1950 RKO comedy film starring Irene Dunne and Fred MacMurray. The film is based on the 1943 book Who Could Ask For Anything More? by Kay Swift.-Cast:*Irene Dunne ... Kay*Fred MacMurray ... Chris*William Demarest ... Mears... |
Kay Kingsley Heyward |
| The Mudlark The Mudlark The Mudlark is a 1950 film made in Britain by 20th Century Fox, is a fictionalized account of how Queen Victoria was eventually brought out of her mourning for her dead husband, Prince Albert... |
Queen Victoria Victoria of the United Kingdom Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India.... |
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| 1951 | You Can Change the World | Herself |
| 1952 | It Grows on Trees It Grows on Trees It Grows on Trees is a 1952 fantasy comedy film about a couple who discover that two trees in their backyard grow money. One morning a few days after Polly Baxter purchased a couple of trees and planted them in her backyard, a $5 bill floated in through an open window, spurring a curious turn of... |
Polly Baxter |
Television
- Schlitz Playhouse of StarsSchlitz Playhouse of StarsSchlitz Playhouse of Stars, is a weekly CBS anthology television series, was telecast on Friday nights from 1951 until 1959. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by Schlitz beer...
(1951) Host - General Electric TheaterGeneral Electric TheaterGeneral Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald W. Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.-Radio:...
(1953) episode: "Go Fight City Hall" 10/15/1962 - Saints and SinnersSaints and Sinners (1962 TV series)Saints and Sinners is an 18-episode American television series that appeared on NBC for the 1962-63 television season. The program starred 31-year-old Nick Adams as newspaper reporter Nick Alexander, and John Larkin as his mentor, newspaper editor Mark Grainger...
(1962) episode: "Source of Information" 10/15/1962 - Frontier CircusFrontier CircusFor the NBC program similarly named, see Frontier .Frontier Circus is a short-lived Western television series about a traveling circus roaming the American West in the 1880s...
(1961) episode: "Dr. Sam" 10/26/1961 - The DuPont Show with June AllysonThe DuPont Show with June AllysonThe DuPont Show with June Allyson is an American anthology drama series which aired on CBS from September 21, 1959 to April 3, 1961 with rebroadcasts continuing until June 12, 1961...
(1959) playing "Dr. Gina Kerstas", episode: "The Opening Door" 10/5/1959 - What's My Line?What's My Line?What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
(10/20/1957) (Episode # 385) (Season 9, Ep 8) Mystery Guest. - Ford TheatreFord TheatreFord Theatre was a radio and television anthology series broadcast in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. At various times the television series appeared on all three major television networks, while the radio version was broadcast on two separate networks and on two separate coasts...
(1952) episode: "Sheila" 5/24/1956 - Letter to Loretta (1953) Host, episode: "Tropical Secretary" 5/24/1956
- Ford Theatre (1952) episode: "On the Beach" 5/24/1956
- Letter to Loretta (1953) Host, episode: "Slander" 10/30/1955
- Ford Theatre (1952) episode: "Touch of Spring" 2/3/1955
- Ford Theatre (1952) episode: "Sister Veronica" 4/15/1954
Books
- Pursuits of Happiness, by Stanley Cavell, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1981.
- The Runaway Bride: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1930s, by Elizabeth Kendall, New York, 1990.
- Irene Dunne: A Bio-Bibliography, by Margie Schultz, New York, 1991.
- Irene Dunne: First Lady of Hollywood, by Wes D. Gehring (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003).
- Irene Dunne: a bio-bibliography, by Margie Schultz (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991).
- Fast-talking Dames, by Maria DiBattista (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001).
Articles
- "I'm Still In Love With Irene Dunne", by Wes D. Gehring, USA Today, July 2003
- "Irene Dunne - Elegant Leading Lady of the Golden Age" by John Roberts; Films of the Golden Age (Fall, 1998, Issue #14) http://www.filmsofthegoldenage.com/foga/1998/fall98/irenedunne.shtml
- "We Remember Irene," Film Comment (New York), by Richard Schickel, March/April 1991.
- "Irene Dunne: Nominee for The Awful Truth," Architectural Digest (Los Angeles), by Richard Schickel, April 1990.
- "Irene Dunne (1904-1990): A Bright Star," Filmnews,by Peter Kemp November 1990.
- "Irene Dunne, Top-rank Film Star of the '30s and '40s, Dead at 88," Variety (New York), 10 September 1990.
- "Irene Dunne: The Awesome Truth," Film Comment (New York), by James McCourt January/February 1980.
- Interview with J. Harvey, Film Comment (New York), January/February 1980.
- "Irene Dunne," interview with John KobalJohn KobalJohn Kobal was an Austrian-born British based film historian responsible for The Kobal Collection, a commercial photograph library related to the film industry....
, in Focus on Film (London), no. 28, 1977. - "Hats - Hunches and Happiness" by Irene Dunne Picturegoer, (England) February, 1945.
- "Irene Dunne: Native Treasure", Close-Ups: The Movie Star Book, DeWitt Bodeen, edited by Danny Peary, New York, 1978.
- Irene Dunne, in Films in Review (New York), Madden, J. C., December 1969.
External links
- The Irene Dunne Site
- Kennedy Center Biographical Info for Irene Dunne
- Irene Dunne Film Reference by Jeanine Basinger
- Real Movie Stars - Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
- Photographs of Irene Dunne
- Indiana Historical Marker for Irene Dunne in Madison, Indiana