Irene Fenwick
Irene Fenwick | |
|---|---|
 Husband Lionel Barrymore with Fenwick | |
| Born | Irene Frizell September 5, 1887 |
| Died | December 24, 1936 (aged 49) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Spouses |
|
| Family | Barrymore |
Irene Fenwick (born Irene Frizell; September 5, 1887 – December 24, 1936) was an American stage and silent film actress.[1] She was married to Lionel Barrymore[2] from 1923 until her death in 1936. Fenwick has several surviving features, mainly because she worked for the Kleine-Edison Feature Film Service,[3][4] which has numerous surviving shorts in the Library of Congress.[5]
Years before marrying Lionel, Irene had dated Lionel's brother, John.[6][7]
Life
Frizell was born in Chicago and began acting in local theatre. She had a few chorus roles in London,[8] including one in a musical comedy that won critics praise for her "nearly natural performance".[9] In New York she met Broadway producer Charles Frohman who gave her the stage name Fenwick and the ingénue role in The Brass Bottle (1910).[9] A vivacious redhead, adept at both drama and comedy, she had a forceful stage presence that belied her tiny stature of 4'11". She continued on stage opposite Douglas Fairbanks in Hawthorne of the U.S.A. and was touted as a young actress with "the tact and intelligence of a veteran player" in The Family Cupboard.[10]
While on Broadway she started working in silent films with film maker George Kleine.[11][12] Fenwick often played wronged women and vamps in such films as The Sentimental Lady (1915), The Woman Next Door (1915),[13] A Coney Island Princess (1916), with her performance as Princess Zim-Zim highlighted as the films "chief force",[14][15] and The Sin Woman (1917), but she felt restricted by them and returned to the stage. In the hit plays The Claw (1921)[16] and Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1923) she co-starred with Lionel Barrymore, whom she married on June 14, 1923,[17]after a brief engagement.[18] It was his second marriage and her third.[19] She retired in 1926 after her husband chose a Hollywood career.[17]
Death
Fenwick died on Christmas Eve in 1936, at age 49[19] from complications of anorexia nervosa (called "overdieting" then). Barrymore was replaced by his brother John in his famous annual radio broadcast as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol for that year.[20] He never remarried.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Costar |
|---|---|---|
| 1915 | The Commuters | |
| 1915 | The Spendthrift | |
| 1915 | The Woman Next Door | |
| 1915 | The Green Cloak | |
| 1915 | The Sentimental Lady | |
| 1916 | The Child of Destiny | |
| 1916 | A Coney Island Princess | Owen Moore |
| 1917 | A Girl Like That | |
| 1917 | The Sin Woman | |
| 1917 | National Red Cross Pageant |
References
- ^ Irene Fenwick;biography, Hans J. Wollstein
- ^ "Lionel Barrymore – Actor, Director, Writer, Composer". goldensilents.com. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
- ^ The Moving Picture World. Chalmers Publishing Company. 1915. p. 626.
- ^ Slide, Anthony (1994). Early American Cinema. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-2722-6.
- ^ congress), kleine (george) collection (library of. "Search results from Film, Video, Available Online, Kleine (George) Collection (Library of Congress)". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
- ^ Alpert, Hollis (1964). The Barrymores. New York: The Dial Press. OCLC 194133.
- ^ Kobler, John (1977). Damned in Paradise: The Life of John Barrymore. New York: Atheneum. OCLC 3001896.
- ^ Theatre Magazine. Theatre Magazine Company. 1915.
- ^ a b The Theatre. Meyer Bros. & Company. 1910.
- ^ Thorold, W. J.; Hornblow (Jr.), Arthur; Maxwell, Perriton; Beach, Stewart (1913). Theatre Magazine. Theatre Magazine Company.
- ^ The Moving Picture World. World Photographic Publishing Company. 1916.
- ^ Motography. 1915.
- ^ The Moving Picture World. World Photographic Publishing Company. 1915.
- ^ Motography. 1916.
- ^ Parascandola, Louis J.; Parascandola, John (December 9, 2014). A Coney Island Reader: Through Dizzy Gates of Illusion. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-53819-0.
- ^ American Magazine. Colver Publishing House. 1922.
- ^ a b Menefee, David W. (October 20, 2007). The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era. BearManor Media.
- ^ Time. Time Incorporated. 1923.
- ^ a b "Irene Fenwick (married to John Jay O'Brien) ?". Daily News. December 25, 1936. p. 69. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
- ^ Inc, Time (December 25, 1944). LIFE. Time Inc.
{{cite book}}:|last=has generic name (help)
External links
- Irene Fenwick at IMDb
- Irene Fenwick at the Internet Broadway Database
- Irene Fenwick at Find a Grave
- passport photo of Irene Fenwick
- Article about Fenwick and Barrymore (with Tallulah Bankhead) shortly before her death
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
 | This article about an American theatre actor born in the 1880s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This article about a United States film actor born in the 1880s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |