Biography for
Irene (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

8 December 1900, Baker, Montana, USA

Date of Death

15 November 1962, Los Angeles, California, USA (suicide)

Birth Name

Irene Lentz

Spouse

Eliot Gibbons	(1936 - 15 November 1962) (her death)
F. Richard Jones	(1929 - 14 December 1930) (his death)

Trivia

Became sister-in-law to legendary MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, when she married his brother.

On November 15th, 1962, she took a room at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles, under an assumed name. She cut her wrists. This did not prove immediately fatal so she jumped to her death from the fourteenth floor window. Her suicide note read: "I'm sorry. This is the best way. Get someone very good to design and be happy. I love you all. Irene."

Doris Day wrote in her 1975 autobiography that she got to know Irene quite well. One night after Irene had a few drinks, Irene told Day that the "love of her life" was Gary Cooper. On several other occasions Irene spoke about the intensity of her love for Cooper, and Day got the feeling that Irene had never mentioned this to anyone before her. Day wrote that today she honestly could not tell if they actually had or were having an affair, or if it was a one-sided love. Irene took her own life about a year and a half after Cooper's death from cancer.

Began in the film industry in 1925 as an extra, working at MGM. After studying design at the Wolf School in Los Angeles, she opened her own salon in 1928. In 1932, she designed 'Irene' originals for motion pictures, first free-lancing, then under contract at United Artists (1937-41) and Columbia (1941-42). Her reputation for designing sophisticated and unique evening gowns led to her being signed by MGM in 1942, replacing Adrian as executive costume designer. After her contract expired in 1949, she concentrated on managing her design boutiques.

She was known to have a long standing problem with alcohol addiction, which contributed to her turbulent private life.