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Irene Dunne
Birthday:
20 December 1898
Birth Name:
Irene Marie Dunn
Height:
165 cm
Biography
[1974] The latest offer was to be in one of those "Airplane" movies - Universal said they'd donate my six figures to a Catholic charity but I didn't want to be stuck inside a crippled airplane for several months of shooting.
[1974] The latest offer was to be in one of those "Airplane" movies - Universal said they'd donate my six figures to a Catholic charity but I didn't want to be stuck inside a crippled airplane for several months of shooting.
[1974] MGM wanted me to play Grace Kelly's mother in The Swan (1956), which ironically would be her last movie although nobody knew that. The part was choice but I'd have to settle for fourth billing and my husband said to forget that. "Go out number one," was his advice. Well, Jessie Royce Landis finally took the part and was very funny. And then MGM wanted...
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[1974] MGM wanted me to play Grace Kelly's mother in The Swan (1956), which ironically would be her last movie although nobody knew that. The part was choice but I'd have to settle for fourth billing and my husband said to forget that. "Go out number one," was his advice. Well, Jessie Royce Landis finally took the part and was very funny. And then MGM wanted me as Leslie Caron's dotty aunt in Gigi (1958) but the subject matter was distasteful. The family was raising their precious to be a courtesan. If they'd offered me one great song I might have reconsidered.
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[1974] I never formally retired. That would have been presumptuous. But an awful lot of the girls my age soldiered on in bad vehicles. I'd do a TV half hour drama every year just to keep my hand in it. But I couldn't run around with an axe in my hand like Bette [Davis] and Joan [Crawford] did to keep things going. The difference was I had a family and they d...
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[1974] I never formally retired. That would have been presumptuous. But an awful lot of the girls my age soldiered on in bad vehicles. I'd do a TV half hour drama every year just to keep my hand in it. But I couldn't run around with an axe in my hand like Bette [Davis] and Joan [Crawford] did to keep things going. The difference was I had a family and they didn't have one - only the all-mighty career.
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I drifted into acting and drifted out. Acting is not everything. Living is.
I drifted into acting and drifted out. Acting is not everything. Living is.
[in 1983, on being asked if she would ever write her memoirs] The Lord never wrote a book, not that I knew about. Not really. And I don't think Abraham Lincoln ever wrote a book. So I have put it off again.
[in 1983, on being asked if she would ever write her memoirs] The Lord never wrote a book, not that I knew about. Not really. And I don't think Abraham Lincoln ever wrote a book. So I have put it off again.
I love beautiful things, but a woman who considers herself best dressed usually spends all of her time at it.
I love beautiful things, but a woman who considers herself best dressed usually spends all of her time at it.
I appeared with many leading men. But working with Cary Grant was different from working with other actors - he was much more fun! I think we were a successful team because we enjoyed working together tremendously, and that pleasure must have shown through onto the screen ... I will always remember two compliments he made me. He said I had perfect timing in ...
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I appeared with many leading men. But working with Cary Grant was different from working with other actors - he was much more fun! I think we were a successful team because we enjoyed working together tremendously, and that pleasure must have shown through onto the screen ... I will always remember two compliments he made me. He said I had perfect timing in comedy and that I was the sweetest-smelling actress he ever worked with.
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I don't know why the public took a liking to me so fast. Popularity is a curious thing. The public responds to a dimple, a smile, a giggle, a hairstyle, an attitude. Acting talent has less to do with it than personality.
I don't know why the public took a liking to me so fast. Popularity is a curious thing. The public responds to a dimple, a smile, a giggle, a hairstyle, an attitude. Acting talent has less to do with it than personality.
Trying to build the brotherhood of man without the Fatherhood of God is like having the spokes of a wheel without the hub.
Trying to build the brotherhood of man without the Fatherhood of God is like having the spokes of a wheel without the hub.
When we have learned to love our neighbour, not just ourselves, no matter where we come from, then America will be perfect.
When we have learned to love our neighbour, not just ourselves, no matter where we come from, then America will be perfect.
Whenever I have to weep for the cameras, I prefer to cry real tears . . . provided I have enough time to recover my emotions before I make the "take". But if I have to do another and greatly different scene afterward, it frequently is easier on my emotions just to put glycerine or some other tear substitute in my eyes.
Whenever I have to weep for the cameras, I prefer to cry real tears . . . provided I have enough time to recover my emotions before I make the "take". But if I have to do another and greatly different scene afterward, it frequently is easier on my emotions just to put glycerine or some other tear substitute in my eyes.
[Comedy] demands more timing, pace, shading and subtlety of emphasis. It is difficult to learn but once it is acquired it can be easily slowed down and becomes an excellent foundation for dramatic acting.
[Comedy] demands more timing, pace, shading and subtlety of emphasis. It is difficult to learn but once it is acquired it can be easily slowed down and becomes an excellent foundation for dramatic acting.
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.
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.
Irene Dunne
Irene Marie Dunne was born on December 20, 1898, in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Joseph Dunne, who inspected steamships, and Adelaide Henry, a musician who prompted Irene in the arts. Her first production was in Louisville when she appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the age of five. Her "debut" set the tone for a fabulous career. Following the tragic death of her father when she was 12, she moved with her remaining family to the picturesque and historic town of Madison, Indiana, to live with her maternal grandparents at 916 W. Second St. During the next few years Irene studied voice and took piano lessons in town. She was able to earn money singing in the Christ Episcopal Church choir on Sundays. After graduating from Madison High School in 1916, she studied until 1917 in a music conservatory in Indianapolis. After that she accepted a teaching post as a music and art instructor in East Chicago, Indiana, just a stone's throw from Chicago. She never made it to the school. While on her way to East Chicago, she saw a newspaper ad in the Indianapolis Star and News for an annual scholarship contest run by the Chicago Music College. Irene won the contest, which enabled her to study there for a year. After that she headed for New York City because it was still the entertainment capital of the world. Her first goal in New York was to add her name to the list of luminaries of the Metropolitan Opera Company. Her audition did her little good, as she was rejected for being too young and inexperienced. She did win the leading role in a road theater company, which was in turn followed by numerous plays. During this time she studied at the Chicago Music College, from which she graduated with high honors in 1926. In 1928, Irene met and married a promising young dentist from New York named Francis Dennis Griffin. She remained with Dr. Griffin until his death in 1965.Irene came to the attention of Hollywood when she performed in "Show Boat" on the East Coast. By 1930 she was under contract to RKO Pictures. Her first film was Leathernecking (1930), which went almost unnoticed. In 1931 she appeared in Cimarron (1931), for which she received the first of five Academy Award nominations. No Other Woman (1933) and Ann Vickers (1933) the same year followed.In 1936 (due to her comic skits in Show Boat (1936) she was "persuaded" to star in a comedy, up to that time a medium for which she had small affection. However, Theodora Goes Wild (1936) was an instant hit, almost as popular as the more famous It Happened One Night (1934) from two years before. From this she earned her second Academy Award nomination. Later, in 1937, she was teamed with Cary Grant in The Awful Truth (1937). This helped her garner a third Academy Award nomination. She starred with Grant later in My Favorite Wife (1940) and Penny Serenade (1941).Her favorite film was Love Affair (1939) with Charles Boyer, a huge hit in a year with so many great films, and a role for which she was again nominated for an Academy Award. Howevever, it was the tear-jerker I Remember Mama (1948) for which she will be best remembered in the role of the loving, self-sacrificing Norwegian mother. She got another nomination for that but again lost. This was the picture in which she should have won the Oscar.She began to wean herself away from films toward the many charities and public works she championed. Her last major movie was as Polly Baxter in 1952's It Grows on Trees (1952). After that she only appeared as a guest on television. Irene knew enough to quit while she was ahead of the game and this helped keep her legacy intact.In 1957 she was appointed as a special US delegate to the United Nations during the 12th General Assembly by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, such was her widespread appeal. The remainder of her life was spent on civic causes. She even donated $10,000 to the restoration of the town fountain in her girlhood home of Madison, Indiana, in 1976, even though she had not been there since 1938 when she came home for a visit. She died of heart failure on September 4, 1990, in Los Angeles, California.
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