Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s

Irene Dunne (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). She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1958. Born Irene Marie Dunn in Louisville, Kentucky, 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, Irene, her mother, and her 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, where she graduated in 1926. With a soprano voice,[4] 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 surname, 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. In July 1928, Dunne married Francis Griffin, a New York dentist, whom she had met in 1924 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 road company of Show Boat 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 best known. She starred, and sang "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", in the 1935 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film version of the musical Roberta. Dunne and Melvyn Douglas in Theodora Goes Wild promotional poster (1936) 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 Marta 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. 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." Dunne was present at Disneyland on "Dedication Day" in 1955 and was asked by Walt Disney to christen the Mark Twain River Boat, which she did with a bottle filled with water from several major rivers across the United States. In 1957, President Eisenhower appointed Dunne one of five alternative U.S. delegates to the United Nations in recognition of her interest in international affairs and Roman Catholic and Republican causes.[11] In her retirement, Dunne devoted herself primarily to civic, philanthropic, and Republican political causes. In 1965, Dunne became a board member of Technicolor, the first woman ever elected to the board of directors. Dunne remained married to Dr. Francis Griffin until his death on October 15, 1965. They lived in Holmby Hills, California in a Southern plantation-style mansion 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 a devout Catholic who became a daily communicant. She was a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California. She was good friends with actress Loretta Young and remained close to others like Jimmy Stewart. 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. The Irene Dunne Guild remains "instrumental in raising funds to support programs and services at St. John's" hospital in Santa Monica. Irene died at her Holmby Hills home in Los Angeles on September 4, 1990 and is entombed in the Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles. Her personal papers are housed at the University of Southern California. She was survived by her daughter, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren

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Irene Dailey was an American actress best known for her work on Broadway

Irene Dailey (September 12, 1920 – September 24, 2008) was an American actress, perhaps best known for her work on Broadway and on daytime television. Dailey was born in New York City, the daughter of Helen Theresa (née Ryan) and Daniel James Dailey. Her brother was the late actor Dan Dailey. Dailey received the 1966 Drama Desk Award for her work in Rooms,[4] and played "Nettie Cleary" in the original Broadway production of the Tony Award-winning drama, The Subject Was Roses (1964). Additional Broadway credits included Idiot's Delight, The Good Woman of Szechwan, and You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running. In 1969, Dailey joined the cast of the long-running CBS serial The Edge of Night as Pamela Stewart, the vindictive wife of Nicole Drake's ex-husband Duane who stabbed Stephanie Martin to death. In 1971 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. Dailey later joined the cast of Another World in 1974 as the fourth actress to play the role of family matriarch Liz Matthews until 1986, and again from 1987 to 1994. Her work on Another World was recognized with a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in 1979; two of her fellow nominees were her AW costars Victoria Wyndham and Beverlee McKinsey. The meddling "Aunt Liz" was first a rival with Rachel for the love of Mac Cory, and later became his secretary. As Liz mellowed, Dailey was allowed to show her flare for comedy, but as the Matthews family dwindled onscreen, so did her airtime. After the death of Liz's great niece Sally, Dailey was written out, but the following year was brought back due to popular demand. The Matthews family had a brief resurgence, and Liz became a confidante for her great niece Olivia. After that storyline ended, Liz continued to appear at special events, most notably at Ada Hobson's memorial and at a Cory Publishing gathering which coincided with the show's 30th anniversary. After her final appearance in 1994, she appeared on Broadway in a revival of the Strindberg play The Father, receiving excellent notices for her performance as Frank Langella's nurse who must manipulate him into a straight jacket after he goes insane. Her film credits include No Way to Treat a Lady (1968), Five Easy Pieces (1970) and The Amityville Horror (1979). Dailey died Sept. 24, 2008 of colon cancer at a healthcare facility in Santa Rosa, Calif., according to Arleen Lorrance, a longtime friend. She had been a resident of the Sonoma County town of Guerneville.

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Ina Poindexter is an actress, known for Giant (1956) and The Millionaire (1955)

Ina Poindexter was born on February 7, 1932 in Covington, Kentucky, USA as Ina Clare Klutz. She is an actress, known for Giant (1956) and The Millionaire (1955).

Ilka Chase was an American actress and novelist

Ilka Chase (April 8, 1900 – February 15, 1978) was an American actress and novelist. Born in New York City and educated at convent and boarding schools in the United States, England, and France, she was the only child of Edna Woolman Chase, the editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, and her first husband, Francis Dane Chase. Stage Chase made her society debut in 1923 and her Broadway debut a year later, in The Red Falcon. Her stage appearances included roles in Days Without End, Forsaking All Others, While Parents Sleep, On to Fortune, Tampico, Co-Respondent Unknown, Revenge With Music, Keep Off the Grass and In Bed We Cry, which was an adaptation of her novel of the same name. She was in the first Broadway cast of Clare Boothe Luce's play The Women (1938) and subsequently appeared in Neil Simon's Broadway hit Barefoot in the Park. Her films included Fast and Loose, Once a Sinner, The Animal Kingdom, The Big Knife, No Time For Love, and Now, Voyager. Her last motion picture appearance came in Ocean's 11 (1960) as Mrs. Restes, the often married mother of Jimmy Foster Peter Lawford and her love interest mobster, Duke Santos Cesar Romero. In the early 1940s, Chase had a program, Luncheon Date With Ilka Chase, on NBC Red.[1] For several years, she was host of a radio program, Luncheon at the Waldorf. Television In 1957, she performed the role of the Stepmother in the television production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, which starred Julie Andrews. Chase made a rare television sitcom appearance as "Aunt Pauline" on The Patty Duke Show. Personal life Ilka Chase was married three times and divorced twice. She bore no children: Actor Louis Calhern, 1926–27 William B. Murray, a radio executive, 1935–46 Dr. Norton Sager Brown, 1946–78 Her autobiography Past Imperfect (Volume I), which said "Those who never fail are those who never try," was published in 1942, with Volume II, Free Admission, being published in 1948. She also wrote more than a dozen other books. Chase died in Mexico City, aged 77. She is interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. Her epitaph reads: "I've finally gotten to the bottom of things."

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Jan Chaney is an american actress, known for My Gun Is Quick (1957)

Jan Chaney was born in 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is an american actress, known for My Gun Is Quick (1957), The Alan King Show (1961) and State Trooper (1956).

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Irene Tedrow was an American character actress in stage, film, television and radio

Irene Tedrow (August 3, 1907 – March 10, 1995) was an American character actress in stage, film, television and radio. Among her most notable roles are Janet Archer in the radio series Meet Corliss Archer, Mrs. Lucy Elkins on the TV sitcom Dennis the Menace and Mrs. Webb in the stage production Our Town at the Plumstead Playhouse. Tedrow was born in Denver, Colorado. She earned a BA degree in drama from Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1929. She was a founding member of San Diego's Old Globe Theater and was cast as an ingénue in the beginning of her career. In 1934, she portrayed eighteen (18) characters in multiple adaptations of Shakespearean plays at The Old Globe during the Chicago Fair. She later joined Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. As she grew older, she found more work in films as the meddling old woman. However, she did have an intermittently recurring role as Mrs. Elkins on the Dennis the Menace television sitcom in the 1950s. As a character actor she appeared in many shows, including Jefferson Drum, Rawhide, The Twilight Zone and The Andy Griffith Show. In 1955, she appeared on The Jack Benny Program as a contestant with Jack Benny on a mock You Bet Your Life segment with Groucho Marx. She appeared on Broadway even through her eighties, in such productions as Our Town and Pygmalion. During the 1940s and 1950s, Tedrow had quality acting roles in radio productions. She played Dorothy Regent in the series Chandu the Magician, Alice Trimble on Jonathan Trimble, Esquire, Jessie Ward Calvert on the long-running radio program Aunt Mary and the title character's mother on Meet Corliss Archer. In the early 1960s, Tedrow made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Amy Douglas in "The Case of the Ominous Outcast," and a role in Bonanza in the episode "Abner Willoughby's Return". Later she would also appear in Dundee and the Culhane, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Diff'rent Strokes, The Rockford Files and Facts of Life. In 1976, Tedrow played Mary Ludlow Hall, Eleanor Roosevelt's grandmother in Eleanor and Franklin. Her performance garnered her one of the first Primetime Emmy Award nominations for "Best Supporting Actress in a Television Comedy or Drama Special". In 1979, she received her second Emmy Award nomination for her role in James at 15. On March 10, 1995, Tedrow died of a stroke in Hollywood. Her grave is located at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. She was survived by her children, actress Enid Kent and Roger Kent and her three grandchildren

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Hillary Brooke was an American film actress best known for her work in Abbott and Costello and Sherlock Holmes films

Hillary Brooke (September 8, 1914 – May 25, 1999) was an American film actress best known for her work in Abbott and Costello and Sherlock Holmes films. She also played Lou Costello's love interest in the first season of The Abbott and Costello Show. Though American-born, she began cultivating a sophisticated English accent to get more film parts early in her career. It eventually became second nature to her, and she was cast as a British woman in most of her films, including one that was produced in England. A former model, the 5'6" blonde was born Beatrice Sofia Mathilda Peterson in Astoria, New York. She appeared in Africa Screams (1949) and Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952) with the comedy team, and was a regular on The Abbott and Costello Show. She also co-starred in three Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, including The Woman in Green (1945). Her other film credits include Jane Eyre (1943), The Enchanted Cottage (1945), Lucky Losers (1950) with The Bowery Boys, the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), the 3-D film The Maze (1953), and the sci-fi B-movie classic Invaders from Mars (1953). In The Abbott and Costello Show, which was broadcast in the early 1950s but syndicated for decades afterwards, Brooke played the role of a straitlaced, classy fellow tenant of the rooming house where the two main characters lived. She was treated with deference by the duo and was not a target of pranks and slapstick. As the love interest of Lou Costello, she always addressed him as "Louis". Like the other main characters, her character's name in the show was her real name. On September 28, 1957, she played Doris Cole in the second episode of the Perry Mason TV show, titled "The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece". Brooke also played Angela Randall in an infamous episode of I Love Lucy, entitled "The Fox Hunt", which aired February 6, 1956. She retired from television in 1960 with guest appearances on Richard Diamond, Private Detective as Laura Renault and Michael Shayne as Greta Morgan. She was also a regular on the 1952–1955 Gale Storm TV series My Little Margie, playing Roberta Townsend, the glamorous love interest of Margie's father Vern Albright (Charles Farrell). Hillary Brooke was married to Raymond A. Klune, an executive at MGM, from 1960 until his death on September 24, 1988. She had no children. Brooke was also married to Jack Voglin. On May 25, 1999, Brooke died from undisclosed causes at a hospital in Fallbrook, California. She was survived by her brother Arthur Peterson; For her contribution to the television industry, Hillary Brooke has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6307 Hollywood Boulevard.

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Jacqueline Fontaine

Jacqueline Fontaine is an actress, known for The Country Girl (1954), Bilitis (1977) and Untamed Mistress (1956). columnist Walter Winchell reports: “Lee Trent and Jacqueline Fontaine are among the July-terms. She’s at La Conga, and he’s in Tidbits of ‘46 which debuts tonight at the Plymouth. entertaining the contestants at one of Bing Crosby’s Pebble Beach golf tournaments, she’s cast for his upcoming movie, The Country Girl

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