Irene Dunne

 Irene Dunne (December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990);

She was an actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. 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). She toured several provincial cities in 1921-22 playing the lead role in the popular play "Irene",before making her Broadway debut in 1922 in Zelda Sears's The Clinging Vine. The following year, Dunne played a season of light opera in Atlanta, Georgia. Though in her own words Dunne created "no great furor", by 1929 she had a successful Broadway career playing leading roles, grateful to be at center stage rather than in the chorus line. Destined to become a movie star, she travelled to California and RKO signed her in 1930, The following year, she got an Oscar nomination for her role in the movie Cimarron (1931). Her next career highlight was the lead role in Roberta (1935) where she introduced the classic song "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." Her last film was in 1952, though she appeared on television through the early 1960s. She christened the paddlewheeler "Mark Twain" at Disneyland when it opened in 1955. She was involved in several charities and also worked with the United Nations. Irene Dunne died on September 4, 1990, in Los Angeles, age 91, and is interred at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, CA.