Irene Rich
Born: 1891-10-11 in Buffalo, New York, USA
Died: 1988-04-22
Known For: Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia Irene Rich (October 13, 1891 - April 22, 1988) was an American actress who worked in both silent films and talkies, as well as radio. Rich worked for Will Rogers, who used her in eight pictures, including Water Water Everywhere (1920), The Strange Boarder (1920), Jes' Call Me Jim (1920), Boys Will Be Boys (1921), and The Ropin' Fool (1921). She often portrayed society women, such as in the 1925 adaptation of Lady Windermere's Fan and also in Queen of the Yukon (1940). In two of her last films she played a frontier wife and mother: She was the mother of Gail Russell's character in John Wayne's Angel and the Badman (1947); in John Ford's cavalry story Fort Apache (1948) she portrayed Mrs. O'Rourke, the wife of Sergeant O'Rourke (Ward Bond). In the 1930s, Rich did much work in radio. From 1933 to 1944, she hosted a nationwide anthology program of serialized mini-dramas, Dear John (aka The Irene Rich Show). Her leading man was actor Gale Gordon (who later played Lucille Ball's apoplectic boss "Mr. Mooney" on TV). Rich appeared in stage productions, including Seven Keys to Baldpate (1935) which starred George M. Cohan, the creator of the play, and later As the Girls Go in 1948. Rich has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for her contribution to the motion picture industry at 6225 Hollywood Boulevard and one for her contributions to the radio industry at 6150 Hollywood Boulevard.
Filmography
1948
- Fort Apache as Mrs. Mary O'Rourke
- Joan of Arc as Catherine le Royer, Joan's friend
1947
- Angel and the Badman as Mrs. Worth
- New Orleans as Mrs. Rutledge Smith
- Calendar Girl as Lulu Varden
1942
- This Time for Keeps as Mrs. Bryant
1941
- Three Sons o' Guns as Margaret Patterson
1940
- The Mortal Storm as Mrs. Roth
- The Lady in Question as Michele Morestan
- Keeping Company as Mrs. Thomas
- Queen of the Yukon as Sadie Martin
1939
- Everybody's Hobby as Mrs. Myra Leslie
- The Right Way as Mrs. Martin
1938
- That Certain Age as Mrs. Dorothy Fullerton
- Hollywood Handicap as Woman at Racetrack
1932
- Down To Earth as Idy Peters
- Her Mad Night as Joan Manners
- Manhattan Tower as Ann Burns
1931
- Five and Ten as Jenny Rarick
- The Champ as Linda Carleton
- Strangers May Kiss as Celia
- Father's Son as Ruth Emory
- Beau Ideal as Lady Brandon
- Wicked as Mrs. Luther
- The Mad Parade as Mrs. Schuyler
1930
- So This Is London as Mrs. Hiram Draper
- Check and Double Check as Mrs. Blair
- On Your Back as Julianne
1929
- Daughters of Desire
- They Had to See Paris as Idy Peters
- The Exalted Flapper as Queen Charlotte of Capra
- Shanghai Rose as Shanghai Rose
1928
- Beware of Married Men as Myra Martin
- Craig's Wife as Harriet Craig
- The Perfect Crime as Stella
- Ned McCobb's Daughter as Carol
- Powder My Back as Fritzi Foy
- Irene Rich in 'Lead, Kindly Light'
- Women They Talk About as Irene Mervin Hughes
1927
- Dearie as Sylvia Darling/Dearie
- The Silver Slave as Bernice Randall
- The Climbers as Duchess of Arrogan
- Don't Tell the Wife as Mrs. Cartier
- The Desired Woman as Diana Maxwell / Lady Diana Whitney
1926
- The Honeymoon Express as Mary Lambert
- My Official Wife as Hélène, Countess Orloff
- Silken Shackles as Denise Lake
1925
- Lady Windermere's Fan as Mrs. Erlynne
- Compromise as Joan Trevore
- The Wife Who Wasn't Wanted as Mrs. John Mannering
- Eve's Lover as Eva Burnside
- My Wife and I as Mrs. James Borden
- The Man Without a Conscience as Shirley Graves
- The Pleasure Buyers as Joan Wiswell
1924
- A Woman Who Sinned as Mrs. Ransdell
- This Woman as Carol Drayton
- Beau Brummel as Frederica Charlotte, Duchess of York
- Pal o' Mine as Julia Montfort
- What the Butler Saw as Mrs. Barrington
- A Lost Lady as Marian Forrester
- Captain January as Isabelle Morton
- Cytherea as Fanny Randon
- Being Respectable as Suzanne Schuyler
1923
- Rosita as The Queen
- Defying Destiny as Beth Alden
- Boy of Mine as Ruth Latimer
- Michael O'Halloran as Nellie Minturn
- Yesterday's Wife as Megan Daye
- Brass as Mrs. Grotenberg - aka Mrs. G.
- Lucretia Lombard as Lucretia Morgan
- Hearts Aflame
- Dangerous Trails as Grace Alderson
- Snowdrift as Kitty (story)
1922
- The Trap as The Teacher
- One Clear Call as Maggie Thornton
- The Call of Home as Alix Lansing
- The Ropin' Fool as The Girl
- A Fool There Was as Mrs. Schuyler
- Brawn of the North as Marion Wells
1921
- One Man in a Million as Madame Maureveau
- The Poverty of Riches as Mrs. Holt
- A Tale of Two Worlds as Mrs. Carmichael
- Desperate Trails as Mrs. Walker
- A Voice in the Dark as Blanche Walton
- Boys Will Be Boys as Lucy
1920
- Just Out of College as Miss Jones
- The Strange Boarder as Jane Ingraham
- Jes' Call Me Jim as Miss Butterworth
- Water, Water, Everywhere as Hope Beecher
- Stop Thief as Madge Carr
- The Street Called Straight as Drusilla Fane
- Godless Men as 'Black Pawl's' Wife
1919
- Her Purchase Price as Marda
- Castles in the Air as Mrs. Owen Pauncefort
- The Silver Girl as Julia Raymond
- Diane of the Green Van as Keela
- The Spite Bride as Eileen Moore
- Wolves of the Night as Juanita
- A Man in the Open as Kate
- The Lone Star Ranger as Mrs. Laramie
- The Blue Bonnet as Martha Drake
- The Sneak as Enid Granley
1918
- A Law Unto Herself as Stephanie
- The Girl in His House as Betty Burlingham