Irene Rich
Irene Rich (born October 13, 1891 in Buffalo , New York , † April 22, 1988 in Hope Ranch , California ; born Irene Luther ) was an American film and stage actress .
Life
Childhood and youth
Irene Rich moved with her parents from New York to California at a young age. Here, after completing school, she began to work as a real estate agent and initially strived for a middle-class life. She married twice during that period, got divorced just as often, and had two daughters, Frances and Jane. Frances Rich (1910–2007) also became an actress in the 1930s and later worked as a sculptor .
Career
Rich's acting career began in 1918 as an extra in Jerome Storm's silent film A Desert Wooing . Already in her next film The Girl in His House by director Thomas R. Mills she got a bigger role. Rich was a sought-after character actress in the silent film era, who appeared in 10 films in 1922 alone. She was also able to survive the switch to sound film at the end of the 1920s without major difficulties. In 1933, The Irene Rich Show began, one of the most successful radio programs of the time, which could be heard across the United States for over a decade until 1944.
In May 1935 she received her first of two engagements on Broadway , when she won eight times, until June 1935, in Seven Keys to Baldpate by Earl Derr Biggers . Her most successful play, however, was As the Girls Go , which was performed 414 times between November 1948 and January 1950, and in which Rich impersonated the female lead.
Next life
In the late 1940s she met her future fourth husband, businessman George Henry Clifford, whom she married in 1950. Due to the prosperity that this could offer her, she withdrew from acting into private life from that point on. Nothing is known about her later life.
She died in suburban Santa Barbara at the age of 96 .
Today a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame commemorates the actress.
Filmography (selection)
- 1920: Stop Thief
- 1923: Rosita
- 1924: The love affairs of Beau Brummel - luck and the end of the English Casanova (Beau Brummel)
- 1925: Lady Windermeres Fan (Lady Windermere's Fan)
- 1931: The Champ (The Champ)
- 1938: That Certain Age
- 1940: The Lady in Question
- 1940: Deadly Storm (The Mortal Storm)
- 1947: The Black Rider (Angel and the Badman)
- 1948: Johanna von Orleans (Joan of Arc)
- 1948: To the Last Man (Fort Apache)
Web links
- Irene Rich in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Irene Rich in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rich, Irene |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Luther, Irene (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American film and stage actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 13, 1891 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Buffalo , New York , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 22, 1988 |
| Place of death | Hope Ranch , California , United States |