Matinee Classics - Irene Rich Biography & Filmography

Irene Rich ACTOR

PHOTOS

IRENE RICH BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Irene Rich was born on October 13th, 1891 in Buffalo, New York with the birth name Irene Luther. Her family began their lives in Buffalo, but later relocated to California. After earning her high school diploma she went on to find work as a realtor but later at the age of twenty seven began pursuing an interest in acting.

She began with working as an extra and it did not take long before she was appearing in such feature films as, "The Girl in His House" (1918), "Everywhere" (1920), "The Strange Boarder" (1920), "Jes' Call Me Jim" (1920), "Boys Will Be Boys" (1921) and "The Ropin' Fool" (1921) starring Will Rogers.

Irene continued her career in films in a number of more successful roles such as, "Desperate Trails" (1921), "The Trap" (1922), "Brawny of the North" (1922), "Lady Windermere's Fan" (1925), 'So This is London" (1930) , "Down to Earth" (1932) and "Queen of the Yukon" (1940).

Along with having a successful career as a film actress she also began working on the radio on such programs as, "Dear John" (1933) which was also known as, "The Irene Rich Show". This show lasted ten years and in addition to her film and radio work she also took the opportunity to appear in a number of stage productions such as, "Seven Keys to Baldpate" (1935).

Her final film roles prior to retiring were in, "Angel and the Badman" (1947) starring John Wayne, Gail Russell and Harry Carey, "Calendar Girl" (1947), "New Orleans" (1947), "Joan of Arc" (1948), "Fort Apache" (1948) starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda and her final role in 1949 on, "The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre".

She married a total of four times throughout her lifetime. First to Elvo Deffenbaugh and they had one child together before the marriage came to an end. She then married Charles Rich and together they had two children before this marriage also ended in divorce after only four years. Her third husband was David Blankenthorn whom she wed in 1926 but this marriage also ended in divorce. Her fourth time to marry was to George Henry Clifford in 1950, but again this was another unsuccessful union.

Irene was awarded with two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for Radio and one for Motion Pictures. She passed away on April 22nd, 1988 in Hope Ranch, California after suffering from heart failure at the age of ninety six.