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Irene Dunne (née Irene Marie Dunn, December 20, 1898 - September 4, 1990) was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s and 1940s.

Early life

Dunne was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of a steamboat inspector. After her father's death in 1909, she moved to her mother's hometown of Madison, Indiana with her mother and younger brother, Charles. Nicknamed "Dunnie," she took piano and voice lessons, sang in local churches and high school plays before her graduation in 1916. In her Madison senior yearbook, her activities are listed as "Girls Chorus, Class Play Committee and Senior Commissioner." Along with her nickname, it is written that she was "divinely tall and most divinely fair," as well as her "byword" being "Oh, that's swell." Her aspirations were "Dramatics."

Film career

She was first discovered in 1928, and was signed to play the role of Magnolia Hawks in the first national touring company of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's classic musical play Show Boat. Her success in that role led to her film career, and to her re-creation of the role in what is considered the classic film version of Show Boat - the 1936 version.

She is now best remembered for her Magnolia in Show Boat, her madcap performances in The Awful Truth and My Favorite Wife, her Anna in the 1946 Anna and the King of Siam, and as Martha Hanson in George Stevens' 1948 I Remember Mama. In addition, she introduced the song "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" to filmgoers in the 1935 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film version of the musical Roberta, playing a glamorous White Russian princess. In 1939, she played opposite Charles Boyer in Love Affair, which would be remade years later as An Affair to Remember. All of these films were box office and critical successes.

She retired from the screen in 1952, after the disastrous critical and box office reception of It Grows on Trees, a would-be comedy about a couple who discovers that money does grow on trees - at least in their back yard, and after the box-office failure of The Mudlark, a 1950 made-in-England film in which Dunne was nearly unrecognizable under heavy makeup as Queen Victoria. The Mudlark, however, is highly thought of by some critics, especially for the performance of Alec Guinness as Disraeli.

Dunne received five Academy Award Best Actress nominations in her career; three in the 1930s and two more in the 40s.

Later life

In 1957, Dunne was appointed one of five alternate U.S. delegates to the United Nations by Dwight David Eisenhower. This was done in recognition of her charitable works and interest in conservative Catholic and Republican political causes.

She was married to Dr. Francis Dennis Griffin from July 16, 1928 until his death on October 15, 1965. They had one daughter, Mary Frances (née Anna Mary Bush), who was adopted in 1938 at the age of four from the New York Foundling Hospital."Irene Dunne Adopts Baby: Actress Formally Becomes Foster-Mother of Girl, 4", The New York Times, 17 March 1938, p. 17

Dunne died of cardiac arrest at her Holmby Hills home in Los Angeles, California and is entombed in the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6440 Hollywood Blvd.

Films remade

Many of Dunne's films have been remade, some more than once, and modern audiences are at times more familiar with the newer versions than with Dunne's. Show Boat and Roberta, for example, were remade in 1951 and 1952 respectively, with Kathryn Grayson taking Dunne's role in both films; My Favorite Wife was remade as Move Over, Darling with Doris Day, Back Street was remade twice, once with Margaret Sullavan and then with Susan Hayward. Similarly, Love Affair became An Affair to Remember (with Deborah Kerr in Dunne's role) and then Love Affair with Annette Bening in Dunne's role; Anna and the King of Siam became the musical The King and I with Deborah Kerr again in a role first identified on film with Dunne, while Jodie Foster was a non-singing Anna in the more recent Anna and the King.

Academy Award nominations for Best Actress

* Cimarron (1931)
* Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
* The Awful Truth (1937)
* Love Affair (1939)
* I Remember Mama (1948)

Her other notable roles included Anna Leonowens in Anna and the King of Siam and Lavinia (Vinnie) Day in Life with Father.

Filmography

*Leathernecking (1930)
*Cimarron (1931)
*The Slippery Pearls (1931) (short subject)
*Bachelor Apartment (1931)
*The Great Lover (1931)
*Consolation Marriage (1931)
*Symphony of Six Million (1932)
*Back Street (1932)
*Thirteen Women (1932)
*No Other Woman (1933)
*The Secret of Madame Blanche (1933)
*The Silver Cord (1933)
*Ann Vickers (1933)
*Only Yesterday (1933)
*If I Were Free (1933)
*This Man Is Mine (1934)
*Stingaree (1934)
*The Age of Innocence (1934)
*Sweet Adeline (1934)
*Roberta (1935)
*Magnificent Obsession (1935)
*Show Boat (1936)
*Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
*High, Wide, and Handsome (1937)
*The Awful Truth (1937)
*Joy of Living (1938)
*Love Affair (1939)
*Invitation to Happiness (1939)
*When Tomorrow Comes (1939)
*My Favorite Wife (1940)
*Penny Serenade (1941)
*Unfinished Business (1941)
*Lady in a Jam (1942)
*Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)
*A Guy Named Joe (1943)
*The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
*Together Again (1944)
*Over 21 (1945)
*Anna and the King of Siam (1946)
*Life with Father (1947)
*I Remember Mama (1948)
*Never a Dull Moment (1950)
*The Mudlark (1950)
*You Can Change the World (1951) (short subject)
*It Grows on Trees (1952)