Ina Claire

Infobox actor
name = Ina Claire

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imagesize = 160px
caption = Portrait
birthname = Ina Fagan
birthdate = birth date|1893|10|15|mf=y
birthplace = Washington, D.C., U.S.
deathdate = death date and age|1985|2|21|1893|10|15|mf=y
deathplace = San Francisco, California, U.S. (heart attack)
spouse = James Whittaker (1919 - 1925)
John Gilbert (1929 - 1931)
William R. Wallace (1939 - 1976)
awards = Walk of Fame - Motion Picture
6160 Hollywood Blvd

Ina Claire (October 15, 1893–February 21, 1985) was an American stage and film actress.

Career

Born Ina Fagan in Washington, D.C., Claire began her career appearing in vaudeville. She performed on Broadway in the musicals "Jumping Jupiter" and "The Quaker Girl" (both 1911) and "Lady Luxury" sophisticated comedienne, and starred on Broadway in plays by some of the leading comic dramatists of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, including the roles of Jerry Lamarr in Avery Hopwood's "The Gold Diggers" (1919), Mrs. Cheyney in Frederick Lonsdale's "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney" (1925), Lady George Grayston in W. Somerset Maugham's "Our Betters" (1928), and Enid Fuller in George Kelly's "The Fatal Weakness".

Her last stage appearance was as Lady Elizabeth Mulhammer in T. S. Eliot's "The Confidential Clerk" (1954). She was particularly identified with the high comedies of S. N. Behrman, and created the female leads in three of his plays: "Biography" (1934), "End of Summer" (1936), and "The Talley Method" (1941). of her, Behrman wrote, "Her readings were translucent, her stage presence encompassing. The flick of an intonation deflated pomposity. She never missed a nuance." [S. N. Behrman, "People in a Diary" (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1972), 196. ] Critic J. Brooks Atkinson praised Claire for her "refulgent comic intelligence." [ J. Brooks Atkinson, "Americans Stopping in London", "The New York Times", Feb. 21 1928, p. 18. ]

Claire's second husband was screen actor John Gilbert. Claire is an inductee in the American Theatre Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Filmography

*"The Wild Goose Chase" (1915)
*"The Puppet Crown" (1915)
*"National Red Cross Pageant" (1917)
*"Polly with a Past" (1920)
*"The Awful Truth" (1929)
*"The Royal Family of Broadway" (1930)
*"Rebound" (1931)
*"The Greeks Had a Word for Them" (1932)
*"Ninotchka" (1939)
*"Claudia" (1943)

References

External links

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* [http://silentladies.com/BClaireI.html Ina Claire] at Silent Ladies & Gents