Oscar Actors: Dunne, Irene (Five-Time Nominee)–Background, Career, Awards

Research in Progress
Irene Dunne Career Summary:

Occupational Inheritance:

Nationality: US

Social Class:

Race/Ethnicity/Religion

Family:

Education:

Training:

Teacher/Inspirational Figure:

Radio Debut:

TV Debut:

Stage Debut:

Broadway Debut:

Film Debut:

Breakthrough Role:

Oscar Role:

Other Noms:

Other Awards:

Frequent Collaborator:

Screen Image: character actor

Last Film:

Career Output: 42 films

Film Career Span:

Marriage:

Politics:

Death:

Irene Dunne DHS (Irene Marie Dunn) December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress and singer who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other genres.

After her father died when she was fourteen, Dunne’s family relocated from Kentucky to Indiana and she became determined to become an opera singer, but when she was rejected by The Met, she performed in musicals on Broadway until she was scouted by RKO and made her Hollywood film debut in the musical Leathernecking (1930).

She starred in 42 movies and in popular anthology television, and made guest appearances on radio until 1962,

Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress—for her performances in Cimarron (1931), Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939), and I Remember Mama (1948)—and was one of the top 25 highest-paid actors of her time.

In the present, Dunne is considered one of the best actresses who never won an Academy Award. Some critics theorize that her performances have been underappreciated and largely forgotten, overshadowed by movie remakes and her better-known co-stars. Dunne once fled across the Atlantic Ocean to avoid starring in a comedy, but she has been praised by many during her career, and after her death, as one of the best comedic actresses in the screwball genre. She was nicknamed “The First Lady of Hollywood” for her regal manner despite being proud of her Irish-American, country girl roots.

Dunne devoted her retirement to philanthropy and was chosen by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as a delegate for the United States to the United Nations, in which she advocated for world peace and highlighted refugee-relief programs. She also used the time to be with her family—her husband, dentist Dr. Francis Griffin, and their daughter Mary Frances, whom they adopted in 1938. She received numerous awards for her philanthropy, including honorary doctorates, a Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame, and a papal knighthood—Dame of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1985, she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor for her services to the arts.

Contents
1 Early life
2 Career
2.1 1920–1929: Acting beginnings, Broadway debut
2.2 1930–1949: Hollywood leading lady
2.3 1950–1962: Declining movie star power
3 Hollywood retirement
3.1 Activism
3.2 American delegate to the United Nations
3.3 Political views
4 Personal life
4.1 Relationships
4.2 Religion
5 Death
6 Legacy
7 Awards and nominations
8 Filmography
8.1 Box–office ranking
9 Discography
9.1 Singles
9.2 Songs from the Pen of Jerome Kern
10 References
10.1 Notes
10.2 Citations
10.3 Other sources
11 Further reading
11.1 Books
11.2 Interviews
11.3 Articles
12 External links
Early life
Irene Marie Dunn was born on December 20, 1898,[1][2] at 507 East Gray Street in Louisville, Kentucky,[9] to Joseph John Dunn (1863–1913), an Irish-American steamboat engineer/inspector for the United States government,[10] and Adelaide Antoinette Dunn (née, Henry) (1871–1936), a concert pianist/music teacher of German descent from Newport, Kentucky.[11] She was their second child and second daughter,[12] and had a younger brother named Charles (1901–1981);[13][14] Dunne’s elder sister, born 1897, died soon after her birth.[12] The family alternated between living in Kentucky and St. Louis,[12] due to her father’s job offers, but he died in April 1913[15][16] from a kidney infection[17] when she was fourteen.[Note 2] She saved all of his letters and both remembered and lived by what he told her the night before he died: “Happiness is never an accident. It is the prize we get when we choose wisely from life’s great stores.”[Note 3][20]

Following her father’s death, Dunne’s family moved to her mother’s hometown of Madison, Indiana,[22] living on W. Second St.,[23] in the same neighborhood as Dunne’s grandparents’ home.[24] Dunne’s mother taught her to play the piano as a very small girl—according to Dunne, “Music was as natural as breathing in our house,”[20]—but unfortunately for her, music lessons frequently prevented her from playing with the neighborhood kids.[12] Her first school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream began her interest in drama,[25] so she took singing lessons as well, and sang in local churches and high school plays before her graduation in 1916.[26] Her first ambition was to become a music teacher[27] and studied at the Indianapolis Conservatory of Music,[28][23] earning a diploma in 1918, but saw an audition advertizement for the Chicago Musical College when she visited friends during a journey to Gary, and won the College scholarship, officially graduating in 1926.[29] She hoped to become a soprano opera singer, relocating to New York after finishing her second year in 1920, but failed two auditions with the Metropolitan Opera Company due to her inexperience and her “slight” voice.[30][31]

Career
1920–1929: Acting beginnings, Broadway debut

Dunne dressed as a rabbit for a Broadway show, c. mid-1920s
Dunne took more singing lessons and then dancing lessons to prepare for a possible career in musical theater.[12] On a New York vacation to visit family friends, she was recommended to audition for a stage musical,[20] eventually starring as the leading role in the popular play Irene,[12] which toured major cities as a roadshow throughout 1921.[3][32] “Back in New York,” Dunne reflected, “I thought that with my experience on the road and musical education it would be easy to win a role. It wasn’t.”[20] Her Broadway debut was December 25 the following year as Tessie in Zelda Sears’s The Clinging Vine.[33] She then obtained the leading role when the original actress took a leave of absence in 1924.[20] Supporting roles in musical theater productions followed in the shows The City Chap (1925),[34][35] Yours Truly (1927)[36] and She’s My Baby (1928).[37][38] Her first top-billing, leading role Luckee Girl (1928)[39] was not as successful as her previous projects.[12] She would later call her career beginnings “not great furor.”[20] At this time, Dunne added the extra “e” to her surname,[Note 4][5] which had ironically been misspelled as “Dunne” at times throughout her life until this point;[41][42] until her death, “Dunne” would then occasionally be misspelled as “Dunn.”[43][44] Starring as Magnolia Hawks in a road company adaptation of Show Boat was the result of a chance meeting with its director Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.[Note 5] in an elevator the day she returned from her honeymoon,[46] when he mistook her for his next potential client, eventually sending his secretary to chase after her.[20][Note 6] A talent scout for RKO Pictures attended a performance,[12] and Dunne signed the studio’s contract, appearing in her first movie, Leathernecking (1930),[49] an adaptation of the musical Present Arms.[50] Already in her 30s when she made her first film, she would be in competition with younger actresses for roles, and found it advantageous to evade questions that would reveal her age, so publicists encouraged the belief that she was born in 1901 or 1904;[5][51] the former is the date engraved on her tombstone.[52][12]

Dunne starred in three films with both Charles Boyer and Cary Grant. The pairings would be called two of the best out of Hollywood.
1930–1949: Hollywood leading lady
The “Hollywood musical” era had fizzled out so Dunne moved to dramatic roles during the Pre-Code era, leading a successful campaign for the role of Sabra in Cimarron (1931) with her soon-to-be co-star Richard Dix,[53] earning her first Best Actress nomination.[54] A Photoplay review declared, “[This movie] starts Irene Dunne off as one of our greatest screen artists.”[55] Other dramas included Back Street (1932)[56] and No Other Woman (1933);[57] for Magnificent Obsession (1935),[58] she reportedly studied Braille and focused on her posture with blind consultant Ruby Fruth.[59] This was after she and Dix reunited for Stingaree (1934),[60] where overall consensus from critics was that Dunne had usurped Dix’s star power.[61][62][63] The remake of Sweet Adeline (1934)[64] and Roberta (1935)[65] were Dunne’s first two musicals since Leathernecking; Roberta also starred dancing partners Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and she sang “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” in the musical. In 1936, she starred as Magnolia Hawks in Show Boat (1936), directed by James Whale.[66] Dunne had concerns about Whale’s directing decisions,[67] but she later admitted that her favorite scene to film was “Make Believe” with Allan Jones because the blocking reminded her of Romeo and Juliet.[68] It was during this year that Dunne’s RKO contract had expired and she had decided to become a freelance actor,[5] with the power to choose studios and directors.[69] She was apprehensive about attempting her first comedy role as the title character in Theodora Goes Wild (1936),[70] but discovered that she enjoyed the production process,[71] and received her second Best Actress Oscar nomination for the performance.[70]

Magnolia singing “Make Believe” with Gaylord Ravenal made Dunne fantasize she was in Romeo and Juliet. She later said, “Allan and I put our hearts (and lungs) into it [as] if we had really been doing a Shakespearean play.”[68]
Dunne followed Theodora Goes Wild with other romantic and comedic roles. The Awful Truth (1937)[72] was the first of three films also starring Cary Grant and was later voted the 68th best comedy in American cinema history by the American Film Institute.[73] Their screwball comedy My Favorite Wife (1940)[74] was praised as an excellent spiritual successor,[75][76] whereas Penny Serenade (1941)[77] was a “romantic comedy that frequently embraced melodrama.”[78] Dunne also starred in three films with Charles Boyer: Love Affair (1939),[79] When Tomorrow Comes (1939),[80] and Together Again (1944).[81] Love Affair was such an unexpected critical and financial success that the rest of Dunne and Boyer’s films were judged against it;[82][83] When Tomorrow Comes was considered the most disappointing of the “trilogy,”[84][83] and the advertising for Together Again promoted the actors’ reunion more than the movie.[85] Dunne and Grant were praised as one of the best romantic comedy couples,[86] while the Dunne and Boyer pairing was praised as the most romantic in Hollywood.[87]

On her own, Dunne showed versatility through many film genres. Critics praised her comedic skills in Unfinished Business (1941)[88] and Lady in a Jam (1942),[89] despite both movies’ negative reception.[90][91] When the United States entered the Second World War, Dunne participated in celebrity war bond tours around the country,[92] announcing at a rally in 1942, “This is no time for comedy. I’m now a saleswoman, I sell bonds.”[93] She followed the tour with her only two war films: A Guy Named Joe (1943)[Note 7] and The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).[96] Despite A Guy Named Joe’s troubled production and mixed reviews, it was one of the most successful films of the year.[97] Over 21 (1945)[98] was Dunne’s return to comedy but the themes of war (such as her character’s husband enlisting in the army) immediately dated the story,[99][100] which may have contributed to its lack of success.[101] Strong but ladylike motherly roles in the vein of Cimarron’s Sabra would follow throughout her next films,[102] such as Anna Leonowens in the fictionalized biopic Anna and the King of Siam (1946),[103] and mothers Vinnie Day in Life with Father (1947),[104] and Marta Hanson in I Remember Mama (1948).[105] Dunne openly disliked Vinnie’s ditziness and had rejected Life with Father numerous times,[106] eventually taking the role because “it seemed to be rewarding enough to be in a good picture that everyone will see.”[107] For I Remember Mama, Dunne worked on her Norwegian accent with dialect coach Judith Sater,[108] and wore body padding to appear heavier;[30][109] Marta Hanson was her fifth and final Best Actress nomination.

1950–1962: Declining movie star power
Dunne’s last three films were box-office failures.[110] The comedy Never a Dull Moment (1950) was accused of trying too hard.[111][112] Dunne was excited to portray Queen Victoria in The Mudlark (1950)[113] for a chance to “hide” behind a role with heavy makeup and latex prosthetics.[30][114] It was a success in the UK, despite initial critical concern over the only foreigner in a British film starring as a well-known British monarch,[115] but her American fans disapproved of the prosthetic decisions.[30] The comedy It Grows on Trees (1952) became Dunne’s last movie performance,[116] although she remained on the lookout for suitable film scripts for years afterwards.[117] She filmed a television pilot based on Cheaper by the Dozen that was not picked up.[30] On the radio, she and Fred MacMurray respectively played a feuding editor and reporter of a struggling newspaper in the 52-episode comedy-drama Bright Star, which aired in syndication between 1952 and 1953 by the Ziv Company.[118][119] She also starred in and hosted episodes of television anthologies, such as Ford Theatre, General Electric Theater, and the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. Faye Emerson wrote in 1954 that “I hope we see much more of Miss Dunne on TV,”[120] and Nick Adams called Dunne’s performance in Saints and Sinners worthy of an Emmy nomination.[121] Dunne’s last acting credit was in 1962, but she was once rumored to star in unmaterialized movies named Heaven Train[122] and The Wisdom of the Serpent,[123] and rejected an offer to cameo in Airport ’77.[124] In 1954, Hedda Hopper reported a rumor that Dunne would star alongside Robert Mitchum in Charles Laughton’s stage adaptation of The Web and the Rock.[125] “I never formally retired,” Dunne later explained, “but an awful lot of the girls my age soldiered on in bad vehicles. [I] couldn’t run around with an ax in my hand like Bette [Davis] and Joan [Crawford] did to keep things going.”[30]

Hollywood retirement

Dunne christens SS Carole Lombard next to Louis B. Mayer. Standing behind her is Clark Gable, Carole Lombard’s widower, and Lombard’s secretary Madalynne Field.
Dunne was a presenter at the 1950 BAFTAs when she was in London filming The Mudlark,[126] and then represented Hollywood for the 12th Venice International Film Festival in 1951.[127] She later appeared at 1953’s March of Dimes showcase in New York City to introduce two little girls nicknamed the Poster Children, who performed a dramatization about polio research.[128] She accepted Walt Disney’s offer to present at Disneyland’s “Dedication Day” in 1955, and christened the Mark Twain Riverboat with a bottle containing water from several major rivers across the United States.[9][129][130] Years before, Dunne had also christened the SS Carole Lombard.[131][132] She was the only actress who was appointed a member of the California Arts Commission between 1967 and 1970.[133][134]

Activism
During the Second World War, Dunne co-founded the Clark Gable’s Hollywood Victory Committee.[92] It organized servicemen entertainment and war bond sales tours on behalf of willing Hollywood participants.[Note 8]

In her retirement, she devoted herself primarily to humanitarianism.[135] Some of the organizations she worked with include the Sister Kenny Foundation,[136] the American Cancer Society[9] (becoming Chairwoman of its Field Army in 1948),[137][138] the Los Angeles Orphanage,[139] the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women,[133] and was Co-Chairman of the American Red Cross.[138][9][140] She was elected president of Santa Monica’s St. John’s Hospital and Health Clinic[139] in 1950[141] and became a board member of Technicolor in 1965, the first woman ever elected to the board of directors.[142][143] She established an African American school for Los Angeles,[144] negotiated donations to St. John’s through box office results,[145][146] and Hebrew University Rebuilding Fun’s sponsors committee.[133][147] Harold E. Stassen appointed her chairwoman for the American Heart Association’s[148][9] women’s committee in 1949.[133][144][149] She appeared in a celebrity-rostered television special Benefit Show for Retarded Children (1955)[43] with Jack Benny as host.[150] Dunne also donated to refurbishments in Madison, Indiana, funding the manufacture of Camp Louis Ernst Boy Scout’s gate in 1939[151] and the Broadway Fountain’s 1976 restoration.[9][152] In 1987, she founded the Irene Dunne Guild, a foundation which remains “instrumental in raising funds to support programs and services at St. John’s.”[153] It was reported that the Guild had raised $20 million by the time of her death.[154]

Dunne reflected in 1951: “If I began living in Hollywood today I would certainly one thing that I did when I arrived, and that is to be active in charity. If one is going to take something out of a community—any community—one must put something in, too.”[155] She also hoped that charity would encourage submissive women to find independence: “I wish women would be more direct. […] I was amazed when some quiet little mouse of a woman was given a job which seemed to be out of all proportion to her capabilities. Then I saw the drive with which she undertook that job and put it through to a great finish. It was both inspiring and surprising. I want women to be individuals. They should not lean on their husbands’ opinions and be merely echoes of the men of the family[.]”[156]

American delegate to the United Nations
In 1957, President Eisenhower appointed Dunne one of five alternative U.S. delegates to the United Nations in recognition of her interest in international affairs and Roman Catholic and Republican causes.[157] Dunne admired the U.N.’s dedication to creating world peace,[158][159] and was inspired by colleagues’ beliefs that Hollywood influenced the world.[160] On September 12, she was sworn in with Herman B. Wells, Walter H. Judd, A. S. J. Carnahan, Philip M. Klutznick and George Meany.[161] She held delegacy for two years and addressed the General Assembly twice.[162] She gave her delegacy its own anthem: “Getting to Know You” because “it’s so simple, and yet so fundamental in international relations today.”[163] Dunne later described her Assembly request for $21 million to help Palestinian refugees as her “biggest thrill,”[164] and called her delegacy career the “highlight of my life.”[165] She also concluded, “I came away greatly impressed with the work the U.N. does in its limited field—and it does have certain limits. I think we averted a serious situation in Syria, which might have been much more worse without a forum to hear it… And I’m much impressed with the work the U.N. agencies do. I’m especially interested in UNICEF’s work with children[,] and the health organization [.]”[166]

Political views
Dunne was a lifelong Republican and participated in 1948’s Republican convention.[167] She accepted the U.N. delegacy offer because she viewed the U.N. as apolitical.[168][169] She later explained: “I’m a Nixon Republican, not a Goldwater one.[Note 9] I don’t like extremism in any case. The extreme rights do as much harm as the extreme lefts.”[171] Her large input in politics created an assumption that she was a member of the “Hollywood right-wing fringe,” which Dunne denied, calling herself “foolish” for being involved years before other celebrities did.[168]

Personal life
Monochrome photo of two women and a man dressed in formal attire; the two women (standing right) are smiling up at the man (facing opposite), who looks slightly amused.
Dunne with James Stewart and Loretta Young at Samuel Goldwyn’s party (August 30, 1962)
Dunne’s father frequently told Dunne about his memories of traveling on bayous and lazy rivers.[172] Dunne’s favorite family vacations were riverboat rides and parades, later recalling a voyage from St. Louis to New Orleans,[173] and watching boats on the Ohio River from the hillside.[174][172] She admitted, “No triumph of either my stage or screen career has ever rivaled the excitement of trips down the Mississippi on the riverboats with my father.”[20]

Dunne was an avid golfer, playing the sport since high school graduation;[12] she and her husband often played against each other and she made a hole in one in two different games.[144] She and her husband often socialized with Californian businesspeople,[175][124] but she was good friends with Loretta Young,[176] Jimmy Stewart,[176] Bob Hope,[176] Rosalind Russell,[177][175] Van Johnson,[177] Ronald Reagan,[124] Carole Lombard,[178][179] and George Stevens Jr.,[124] and became godmother to Young’s son, Peter.[180] Dunne also bonded with Leo McCarey over numerous similar interests, such as their Irish ancestry, music, religious backgrounds,[Note 10] and humor.[182] School friends nicknamed her “Dunnie”[25] and she was referred to as this in Madison High School’s 1916 yearbook, along with the description “divinely tall and most divinely fair.”[12] John Cromwell, however, reportedly described her as “always [having] the look of a cat who had swallowed the canary.”[183]

Dunne was popular with co-workers off-camera, earning a reputation as warm, approachable and having a “poised, gracious manner”[184] like royalty,[130] which spilled into her persona in movies. On observing life behind the scenes of a typical days of filming in Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler noted “There is something about Irene Dunne that makes every man in the room unconsciously straighten his tie.”[185] Dunne earned the nickname “The First Lady of Hollywood”[130] because “she was the first real lady Hollywood has ever seen,” said Leo McCarey,[186] with Gregory La Cava adding, “If Irene Dunne isn’t the first lady of Hollywood, then she’s the last one.”[187] Ironically, this title had been bestowed on her when she was a little girl when an aunt cooed “What a little lady!”[184] When approached about the nickname in 1936, Dunne admitted it had grown tiresome but approved if it was meant as “the feminine counterpart of ‘gentleman'”;[188] a later interview she did have with the Los Angeles Times would ironically be titled “Irene Dunne, Gentlewoman.”[159]

Her fashion tastes were often the talk of newspapers,[189][190] and Best Dressed lists featured her as one of the most stylish celebrities in the world.[191][192] Dunne explained in a 1939 fashion-advice interview that her husband was partially responsible because he was equally stylish, but also chooses outfits based on personality, color scheme and the context of where the outfits will be worn.[190] McCall’s magazine later revealed Dunne chose outfits specifically designed for her by Mainbocher and Jean Louis because she did not like buying clothes in stores.[175]

One of Dunne’s later public appearances was in April 1985, when she attended the unveiling of a bronze bust in her honor at St. John’s Hospital and Health Clinic. The artwork, commissioned by the hospital from artist Artis Lane, has a plaque reading “IRENE DUNNE First Lady Of Saint John’s Hospital and Health Center Foundation.”[193][194]

Relationships
Between 1919 and 1922, Dunne was close to Fritz Ernst, a businessman based in Chicago who was 20 years older than she, and a member of one of the richest families in Madison, Indiana.[195] They frequently corresponded while Dunne was training for musical theater but when Fritz proposed, Dunne declined, due to pressure from her mother and wanting to focus on acting.[195] They remained friends and continued writing letters until Ernst died in 1959.[196]

Dunne with husband, Dr. Francis Griffin
At a New York, Biltmore Hotel supper party in 1924, Dunne met Northampton-born dentist[197] Francis Griffin.[20] According to Dunne, he preferred being a bachelor, yet tried everything he could to meet her.[20] To her frustration, he did not telephone her until over a month later, but the relationship had strengthened and they married in Manhattan on July 13, 1927.[198] They had constantly argued about the state of their careers if they ever got married,[20] with Dunne agreeing to consider theater retirement sometime in the future and Griffin agreeing to support Dunne’s acting.[199] Griffin later explained: “I didn’t like the moral tone of show business. […] Then Ziegfeld signed her for Show Boat and it looked like she was due for big things. Next came Hollywood and [she] was catapulted to the top. Then I didn’t feel I could ask her to drop her career. [I] really didn’t think marriage and the stage were compatible but we loved each other and we were both determined to make our marriage work.”[200]

When Dunne decided to star in Leathernecking, it was meant to be her only Hollywood project, but when it was a box-office bomb, she took an interest in Cimarron.[20] Soon after, she and her mother moved to Hollywood and maintained a long-distance relationship with her husband and brother in New York until they joined her in California in 1936.[201] A family friend described their dynamic as “like two pixies together,”[175] and they remained married until Griffin’s death on October 14, 1965,[202][203] living in the Holmby Hills in a “kind of French Chateau”[204] they designed.[205][Note 11] A hobby they both shared was astronomy.[206][207] Griffin explained the marriage had lasted so long because: “When she had to go on location for a film I arranged my schedule so I could go with her. When I had to go out of town she arranged her schedule so she could be with me. We co-operate in everything. […] I think a man married to a career woman in show business has to be convinced that his wife’s talent is too strong to be dimmed or put out. Then, he can be just as proud of her success as she is and, inside he can take a bow himself for whatever help he’s been.”[200] Due to Dunne’s privacy,[Note 12] Hollywood columnists struggled to find scandals to write about her—an eventual interview with Photoplay included the disclaimer, “I can guarantee no juicy bits of intimate gossip. Unless, perhaps she lies awake nights heartsick about the kitchen sink in her new home. She’s afraid it’s too near to the door. Or would you call that juicy? No? No, I thought not.”[208] When the magazines alleged that Dunne and Griffin would divorce, Griffin released a statement denying any marital issues.[209]

After retiring from dentistry, Griffin became Dunne’s business manager,[124] and helped negotiate her first contract.[210] The couple became interested in real estate, later investing in the Beverly Wilshire[124] and throughout Las Vegas[211] (including co-founding and chairing the board of Huntridge Corporation),[212][213][214][215] and partnering with Griffin’s family’s businesses (Griffin Equipment Company and The Griffin Wellpoint Company.)[200] Griffin sat as a board member of numerous banks,[200] but his offices were relocated from Century City to their home after his death, when Dunne took over as president.[171] They had one daughter, Mary Frances (née Anna Mary Bush; 1935[Note 13] – 2020),[217] who was adopted by the couple in 1936 (finalized in 1938) from the New York Foundling Hospital, run by the Sisters of Charity of New York.[218][216]

Religion
Dunne was a devout Catholic laywoman,[219][220] who became a daily communicant.[221] She was a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.[222] In 1953, Pope Pius XII[223] awarded Dunne and her husband papal knighthoods as Dame[Note 14] and Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, respectively.[225][52] Griffin also became a Knight of Malta in 1949.[226]

Death

Crypt of Irene Dunne at Calvary Cemetery (notice incorrect birth year)
Dunne died at the age of 91 in her Holmby Hills home on September 4, 1990,[154] and is entombed in the Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles.[52] She had been unwell for a year and became bedridden about a month before.[5] Her personal papers are housed at the University of Southern California.[227] She was survived by her daughter, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.[228]

Legacy
Dunne is considered one of the best actresses of The Golden Age of Hollywood never to win an Academy Award.[229][230][231][232] After I Remember Mama was released, Liberty magazine hoped she would “do a Truman” at the 1949 Oscars[233] whereas Erskine Johnson called her and Best Actor nominee Montgomery Clift the dark horses of that ceremony.[234] In 1985, Roger Fristoe said “a generation of filmgoers is mostly unfamiliar with her work” because eight[230] of her movies had been remade, including Love Affair (remade as An Affair to Remember), Show Boat (remade in 1951), My Favourite Wife (remade as Move Over, Darling),[235][236] and Cimarron (remade in 1960).[130][230] Dunne explained she had lacked the “terrifying ambition” of some other actresses, commenting in 1977, “I drifted into acting and drifted out. Acting is not everything. Living is.”[237][238]

Monochrome photograph of a bespectacled, short-haired woman in a suit jacket reading from papers at a podium
Dunne addresses the United Nations General Assembly[239] in 1957 about the United States’ $21.8 million donation towards the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).[240]
Although known for her comedic roles, Dunne admitted that she never saw comedy as a worthy genre, even leaving the country to the London premiere of Show Boat[241] with her husband and James Whale to get away from being confronted with a script for Theodora Goes Wild.[45] “I never admired a comedienne,” she said retrospectively, “yet it was very easy for me, very natural. It was no effort for me to do comedy at all. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t so appreciative of it.”[71] She ascribed her sense of humor to her late father,[184] as well as her “Irish stubbornness.”[17] Her screwball comedy characters have been praised for their subversions to the traditional characterisation of female leads in the genre, particularly Susan (Katharine Hepburn) in Bringing Up Baby and Irene (Carole Lombard) in My Man Godfrey. “Unlike the genre’s stereotypical leading lady, who exhibits bonkers behaviour continuously,” writes Wes D. Gehring, “Dunne’s screwball heroine [in Theodora Goes Wild] chooses when she goes wild.”[242] Biographers and critics argue that Dunne’s groundedness made her screwball characters more attractive than her contemporaries. In his review for My Favorite Wife, Bosley Crowther wrote that a “mere man is powerless” to “her luxurious and mocking laughter, her roving eyes and come-hither glances.”[243] Maria DiBattista points out that Dunne is the “only comic actress working under the strictures of the Production Code” who ends both of her screwball movies alongside Cary Grant with a heavy implication of sharing a bed with him, “under the guise of keeping him at bay.”[244] Frankie Teller claimed Dunne’s sexiness had been overshadowed by her melodramatic movies until The Awful Truth was released.[245] Meanwhile, outside of comedy, Andrew Sarris theorized that Dunne’s sex appeal is due to the common narrative in her movies about a good girl “going bad.”[246] Dunne’s backstage “First Lady” reputation furthered Sarris’ sex appeal claims, admitting the scene when she shares a train carriage with Preston Foster in Unfinished Business was practically his “rite of passage” to a sex scene in a film,[246] theorizing that the sex appeal of Dunne came from “a good girl deciding thoughtfully to be bad.”[246] On the blatant eroticism of the same train scene, Megan McGurk wrote, “The only thing that allowed this film to pass the censors was that good-girl Irene Dunne can have a one-night stand with a random because she loves him, rather than just a once-off fling. For most other women of her star magnitude, you could not imagine a heroine without a moral compass trained on true north. Irene Dunne elevates a tawdry encounter to something justifiably pure or blameless. She’s just not the casual sex type, so she gets away with it.”[247]

She’s the twinkle of diamond heels going down a theater aisle [but] the person wearing them might just possibly be chewing bubble gum. There’s an irrepressible youthfulness about Irene.
Charles Boyer, “IRENE as Seen by Charles Boyer”, Photoplay, 1939, p. 24
The Los Angeles Times referred to Dunne’s publicity in their obituary as trailblazing, noting her as one of the first actors to become a freelancer in Hollywood during its rigid studio system through her “non-exclusive contract that gave her the right to make films at other studios and to decide who should direct them,”[69] and her involvement with the United Nations as a decision that allowed entertainers from movies and television to branch out into philanthropy and politics, such as Ronald Reagan and George Murphy.[69][248]

Dunne later said, “Cary Grant always said that I had the best timing of anybody he ever worked with.”[71] Lucille Ball admitted at an American Film Institute seminar that she based her comedic skills on Dunne’s performance in Joy of Living.[249] When asked about life after retiring from baseball, Lou Gehrig stated he would want Dunne as a screen partner if he ever became a movie actor.[250] Charles Boyer described her as “a gracious house,”[251] adding, “the best room would be the music room […] Great music, and the best of good swing, and things by Gershwin would sound there always. The acoustics would be perfect. Guests in this house would be relaxed and happy but they would have to mind their manners.”[252] Charles Mendl once called her one of the most attractive and fascinating women in the world “who has beauty as an accomplished actress and sophisticated conversationalist.”[253] Dunne told James Bawden in 1977: “Now don’t you dare call me normal. I was never a Pollyanna. There was always a lot of Theodora in me.”[30]

Awards and nominations

Dunne looking at her Laetare Medal with her husband and daughter, Mary Frances, at the University of Notre Dame in 1949.

Dunne with Cardinal McIntyre at Loyola University’s graduation ceremony in 1958. She attended to accept her honorary Law degree and give a commencement speech.

Dunne received five Best Actress nominations during her career: for Cimarron (1931), Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939) and I Remember Mama (1948).

She was the first actor to lose against the same actor in the same category twice, losing to Best Actress winner Luise Rainer in 1936 and 1937.

When asked if she ever resented never winning, Dunne pointed out that the nominees she was up against had strong support, believing that she would never have had a chance, especially when Love Affair was against Gone with the Wind. “I don’t mind at all,” she told Joyce Haber, “Greta Garbo never got an Oscar either and she’s a living legend.”

However, Dunne was honored numerous times for her philanthropy from Catholic organizations and schools, receiving the University of Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, and the Bellarmine Medal from Bellarmine College.

She received numerous honorary doctorates,[255] including from Chicago Musical College (for music),[256] Loyola University and Mount St. Mary’s College (both for Law).[9][69] For her film career, she was honored by the Kennedy Center,[257][258] a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6440 Hollywood Blvd,[259] and displays in the Warner Bros. Museum and Center for Motion Picture Study.[260] A two-sided marker was erected in Dunne’s childhood hometown of Madison in 2006.[261][152]

Received Honors

Chicago Musical College honorary Doctor of Music 1945 [262][9][27]
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre Handprints 1946 [263][264]
NCCJ’s American Brotherhood Award 1948 [265][147][140]
Laetare Medal 1949 [9][266]
American Heart Association Gold Medal [267][268]
Protestant Motion Picture Council Award[Note 15] [144]
American Motherhood Pictures Award [144]
Woman’s Voice of the Year [138][270]
Lateran Cross 1951 [168]
Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year [168]
New York Dress Institute’s International Best Dressed Women [191]
Dame of the Holy Sepulchre 1953 [52][224][271]
Honorary member of the Madison Chamber of Commerce 1954 [272]
International Best Dressed List 1958 [192]
Indiana’s Woman of the Year [273]
Loyola University honorary Law degree [274]
Seattle University honorary Law degree 1959 [275][276][277]
St. Mary’s College honorary Law degree 1964 [224][278]
Bellarmine Medal 1965 [3][279]
Colorado Women of Achievement 1968 [255]
St. John’s Hospital and Health Center’s Lifetime Trustee 1982 [194]
Irene Dunne Guild bust 1985 [193]
Kennedy Center Honoree

Box–Office Ranking

1936 – 17th
1938 – 23rd
1939 – 24th
1944 – 19th
1948 – 24th

xosotin chelseathông tin chuyển nhượngcâu lạc bộ bóng đá arsenalbóng đá atalantabundesligacầu thủ haalandUEFAevertonxosokeonhacaiketquabongdalichthidau7m.newskqbdtysokeobongdabongdalufutebol ao vivofutemaxmulticanaisonbetbsport.fitonbet88.oooi9bet.bizhi88.ooookvip.atf8bet.atfb88.cashvn88.cashshbet.atbóng đá world cupbóng đá inter milantin juventusbenzemala ligaclb leicester cityMUman citymessi lionelsalahnapolineymarpsgronaldoserie atottenhamvalenciaAS ROMALeverkusenac milanmbappenapolinewcastleaston villaliverpoolfa cupreal madridpremier leagueAjaxbao bong da247EPLbarcelonabournemouthaff cupasean footballbên lề sân cỏbáo bóng đá mớibóng đá cúp thế giớitin bóng đá ViệtUEFAbáo bóng đá việt namHuyền thoại bóng đágiải ngoại hạng anhSeagametap chi bong da the gioitin bong da lutrận đấu hôm nayviệt nam bóng đátin nong bong daBóng đá nữthể thao 7m24h bóng đábóng đá hôm naythe thao ngoai hang anhtin nhanh bóng đáphòng thay đồ bóng đábóng đá phủikèo nhà cái onbetbóng đá lu 2thông tin phòng thay đồthe thao vuaapp đánh lô đềdudoanxosoxổ số giải đặc biệthôm nay xổ sốkèo đẹp hôm nayketquaxosokq xskqxsmnsoi cầu ba miềnsoi cau thong kesxkt hôm naythế giới xổ sốxổ số 24hxo.soxoso3mienxo so ba mienxoso dac bietxosodientoanxổ số dự đoánvé số chiều xổxoso ket quaxosokienthietxoso kq hôm nayxoso ktxổ số megaxổ số mới nhất hôm nayxoso truc tiepxoso ViệtSX3MIENxs dự đoánxs mien bac hom nayxs miên namxsmientrungxsmn thu 7con số may mắn hôm nayKQXS 3 miền Bắc Trung Nam Nhanhdự đoán xổ số 3 miềndò vé sốdu doan xo so hom nayket qua xo xoket qua xo so.vntrúng thưởng xo sokq xoso trực tiếpket qua xskqxs 247số miền nams0x0 mienbacxosobamien hôm naysố đẹp hôm naysố đẹp trực tuyếnnuôi số đẹpxo so hom quaxoso ketquaxstruc tiep hom nayxổ số kiến thiết trực tiếpxổ số kq hôm nayso xo kq trực tuyenkết quả xổ số miền bắc trực tiếpxo so miền namxổ số miền nam trực tiếptrực tiếp xổ số hôm nayket wa xsKQ XOSOxoso onlinexo so truc tiep hom nayxsttso mien bac trong ngàyKQXS3Msố so mien bacdu doan xo so onlinedu doan cau loxổ số kenokqxs vnKQXOSOKQXS hôm naytrực tiếp kết quả xổ số ba miềncap lo dep nhat hom naysoi cầu chuẩn hôm nayso ket qua xo soXem kết quả xổ số nhanh nhấtSX3MIENXSMB chủ nhậtKQXSMNkết quả mở giải trực tuyếnGiờ vàng chốt số OnlineĐánh Đề Con Gìdò số miền namdò vé số hôm nayso mo so debach thủ lô đẹp nhất hôm naycầu đề hôm naykết quả xổ số kiến thiết toàn quốccau dep 88xsmb rong bach kimket qua xs 2023dự đoán xổ số hàng ngàyBạch thủ đề miền BắcSoi Cầu MB thần tàisoi cau vip 247soi cầu tốtsoi cầu miễn phísoi cau mb vipxsmb hom nayxs vietlottxsmn hôm naycầu lô đẹpthống kê lô kép xổ số miền Bắcquay thử xsmnxổ số thần tàiQuay thử XSMTxổ số chiều nayxo so mien nam hom nayweb đánh lô đề trực tuyến uy tínKQXS hôm nayxsmb ngày hôm nayXSMT chủ nhậtxổ số Power 6/55KQXS A trúng roycao thủ chốt sốbảng xổ số đặc biệtsoi cầu 247 vipsoi cầu wap 666Soi cầu miễn phí 888 VIPSoi Cau Chuan MBđộc thủ desố miền bắcthần tài cho sốKết quả xổ số thần tàiXem trực tiếp xổ sốXIN SỐ THẦN TÀI THỔ ĐỊACầu lô số đẹplô đẹp vip 24hsoi cầu miễn phí 888xổ số kiến thiết chiều nayXSMN thứ 7 hàng tuầnKết quả Xổ số Hồ Chí Minhnhà cái xổ số Việt NamXổ Số Đại PhátXổ số mới nhất Hôm Nayso xo mb hom nayxxmb88quay thu mbXo so Minh ChinhXS Minh Ngọc trực tiếp hôm nayXSMN 88XSTDxs than taixổ số UY TIN NHẤTxs vietlott 88SOI CẦU SIÊU CHUẨNSoiCauVietlô đẹp hôm nay vipket qua so xo hom naykqxsmb 30 ngàydự đoán xổ số 3 miềnSoi cầu 3 càng chuẩn xácbạch thủ lônuoi lo chuanbắt lô chuẩn theo ngàykq xo-solô 3 càngnuôi lô đề siêu vipcầu Lô Xiên XSMBđề về bao nhiêuSoi cầu x3xổ số kiến thiết ngày hôm nayquay thử xsmttruc tiep kết quả sxmntrực tiếp miền bắckết quả xổ số chấm vnbảng xs đặc biệt năm 2023soi cau xsmbxổ số hà nội hôm naysxmtxsmt hôm nayxs truc tiep mbketqua xo so onlinekqxs onlinexo số hôm nayXS3MTin xs hôm nayxsmn thu2XSMN hom nayxổ số miền bắc trực tiếp hôm naySO XOxsmbsxmn hôm nay188betlink188 xo sosoi cầu vip 88lô tô việtsoi lô việtXS247xs ba miềnchốt lô đẹp nhất hôm naychốt số xsmbCHƠI LÔ TÔsoi cau mn hom naychốt lô chuẩndu doan sxmtdự đoán xổ số onlinerồng bạch kim chốt 3 càng miễn phí hôm naythống kê lô gan miền bắcdàn đề lôCầu Kèo Đặc Biệtchốt cầu may mắnkết quả xổ số miền bắc hômSoi cầu vàng 777thẻ bài onlinedu doan mn 888soi cầu miền nam vipsoi cầu mt vipdàn de hôm nay7 cao thủ chốt sốsoi cau mien phi 7777 cao thủ chốt số nức tiếng3 càng miền bắcrồng bạch kim 777dàn de bất bạion newsddxsmn188betw88w88789bettf88sin88suvipsunwintf88five8812betsv88vn88Top 10 nhà cái uy tínsky88iwinlucky88nhacaisin88oxbetm88vn88w88789betiwinf8betrio66rio66lucky88oxbetvn88188bet789betMay-88five88one88sin88bk88xbetoxbetMU88188BETSV88RIO66ONBET88188betM88M88SV88Jun-68Jun-88one88iwinv9betw388OXBETw388w388onbetonbetonbetonbet88onbet88onbet88onbet88onbetonbetonbetonbetqh88mu88Nhà cái uy tínpog79vp777vp777vipbetvipbetuk88uk88typhu88typhu88tk88tk88sm66sm66me88me888live8live8livesm66me88win798livesm66me88win79pog79pog79vp777vp777uk88uk88tk88tk88luck8luck8kingbet86kingbet86k188k188hr99hr99123b8xbetvnvipbetsv66zbettaisunwin-vntyphu88vn138vwinvwinvi68ee881xbetrio66zbetvn138i9betvipfi88clubcf68onbet88ee88typhu88onbetonbetkhuyenmai12bet-moblie12betmoblietaimienphi247vi68clupcf68clupvipbeti9betqh88onb123onbefsoi cầunổ hũbắn cáđá gàđá gàgame bàicasinosoi cầuxóc đĩagame bàigiải mã giấc mơbầu cuaslot gamecasinonổ hủdàn đềBắn cácasinodàn đềnổ hũtài xỉuslot gamecasinobắn cáđá gàgame bàithể thaogame bàisoi cầukqsssoi cầucờ tướngbắn cágame bàixóc đĩa开云体育开云体育开云体育乐鱼体育乐鱼体育乐鱼体育亚新体育亚新体育亚新体育爱游戏爱游戏爱游戏华体会华体会华体会IM体育IM体育沙巴体育沙巴体育PM体育PM体育AG尊龙AG尊龙AG尊龙AG百家乐AG百家乐AG百家乐AG真人AG真人<AG真人<皇冠体育皇冠体育PG电子PG电子万博体育万博体育KOK体育KOK体育欧宝体育江南体育江南体育江南体育半岛体育半岛体育半岛体育凯发娱乐凯发娱乐杏彩体育杏彩体育杏彩体育FB体育PM真人PM真人<米乐娱乐米乐娱乐天博体育天博体育开元棋牌开元棋牌j9九游会j9九游会开云体育AG百家乐AG百家乐AG真人AG真人爱游戏华体会华体会im体育kok体育开云体育开云体育开云体育乐鱼体育乐鱼体育欧宝体育ob体育亚博体育亚博体育亚博体育亚博体育亚博体育亚博体育开云体育开云体育棋牌棋牌沙巴体育买球平台新葡京娱乐开云体育mu88qh88