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IMDbPro

Ina Claire(1893-1985)

  • Actress
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Ina Claire as Joan of Arc,  late 1910's
Trailer for this classic comedy
Play trailer2:17
Ninotchka (1939)
1 Video
55 Photos
Effervescent, blond star of sophisticated Broadway comedy in the 1920s. Born Ina Fagan, of Irish descent, she lost her father in a car accident four months before she was born (a CAR ACCIDENT in October 1893?!) Without a breadwinner in the family, she was forced to live in a boarding house with her mother. From earliest childhood, she displayed a precocious talent for impersonating other people, which eventually led to her abandonment of school (Holy Cross Academy) at age 17 and her entry into the world of vaudeville. Performing under her mother's maiden name as an imitator of established stage performers made her a popular name in revues on both sides of the Atlantic. Ina's first extended run on the stage (more than a year) was as Prudence in the 1911 musical "The Quaker Girl", where a very young F. Scott Fitzgerald became enamoured with her. In 1915, she appeared in the Ziegfeld Folies, and in the following year, had her first major hit as the titular heroine in the comedy "Polly With a Past" at the Belasco Theatre.

Between 1919 and 1928, Ina Claire was almost continuously employed in one theatrical success after another in comedic plays penned by the likes of S.N. Behrman, W. Somerset Maugham, Anthony Trollope and T.S. Eliot. She had huge hits in the title role of "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney" (1925) and, as Lady Grayston, in "Our Betters" (1928). Her curtain call was as the star of "The Confidential Clerk" in 1954, at the Morosco Theatre. John Mason Brown, writing for the New York Post (December 13, 1932) called her "the ablest comedienne our theatre knows". Immensely popular with audiences and critics alike, she was noted for her deft delivery, her wit and charisma and for her elegant, stylish costumes and coiffure. She also had the ability to carefully select her roles to suit her special talent for sophisticated high comedy (though in later years blaming producers for typecasting her and not allowing her the opportunity to shine in dramatic parts). Regardless, Ina Claire has long since been inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Her screen career, brief as it was, seemed desultory - possibly because Claire regarded film making as 'a director's art'. She reprised the role she had originated on Broadway in 1922 in her first talking picture The Awful Truth (1929), but, like many other early talkies, the film turned out decidedly static and ponderous. It was successfully remade by Leo McCarey in 1937 with Irene Dunne in the Claire role. Ina was then slated to play the lead in "Holiday" , an adaptation of a play by Philip Barry, but the nine months remaining of her contract with Pathe proved insufficient and Ina was paid $55,000 instead to settle the contract. Paramount picked up the option of signing her for The Royal Family of Broadway (1930), spoofing the private lives of the Barrymore dynasty. Claire essayed a very good likeness of Ethel Barrymore - in fact, it annoyed the real Ethel enough to threaten legal action against Paramount. Another eight years elapsed until Ina offered a glimpse of her Broadway panache in the classic comedy Ninotchka (1939) as Greta Garbo's elegant nemesis, the Duchess Swana. Her last film role was as the mother of movie debutante Dorothy McGuire in the domestic comedy Claudia (1943).

An intensely private person, Ina Claire successfully shunned the limelight, except for the duration of her much-publicised, and brief, marriage to fading star John Gilbert (on the rebound from Garbo). She died at age 91 of a heart attack in San Francisco, California on February 21, 1985. She was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah.
BornOctober 15, 1893
DiedFebruary 21, 1985(91)
BornOctober 15, 1893
DiedFebruary 21, 1985(91)
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  • Awards

Photos55

Joan Blondell, Ina Claire, and Madge Evans in The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932)
Ina Claire and Henry Daniell in The Awful Truth (1929)
Ina Claire and Henry Daniell in The Awful Truth (1929)
Ina Claire in Rebound (1931)
Carlyle Blackwell and Ina Claire in The Puppet Crown (1915)
Carlyle Blackwell and Ina Claire in The Puppet Crown (1915)
Carlyle Blackwell and Ina Claire in The Puppet Crown (1915)
Ina Claire in The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932)
Ina Claire in The Awful Truth (1929)
Joan Blondell, Ina Claire, and Madge Evans in The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932)
Mary Brian, Ina Claire, Henrietta Crosman, and Fredric March in The Royal Family of Broadway (1930)
Mary Brian, Ina Claire, Henrietta Crosman, and Fredric March in The Royal Family of Broadway (1930)

Known for

Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas in Ninotchka (1939)
Ninotchka
7.8
  • Swana
  • 1939
Joan Blondell, Ina Claire, Madge Evans, and Lowell Sherman in The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932)
The Greeks Had a Word for Them
6.1
  • Jean Lawrence
  • 1932
Mary Brian and Fredric March in The Royal Family of Broadway (1930)
The Royal Family of Broadway
6.2
  • Julie Cavendish
  • 1930
Carlyle Blackwell in The Puppet Crown (1915)
The Puppet Crown
  • Princess Alexia
  • 1915

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actress

  • Robert Young, Olga Baclanova, and Dorothy McGuire in Claudia (1943)
    Claudia
  • William Terry and Cheryl Walker in Stage Door Canteen (1943)
    Stage Door Canteen
  • Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr in I Take This Woman (1940)
    I Take This Woman
    • (scenes deleted)
  • Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas in Ninotchka (1939)
    Ninotchka
  • Joan Blondell, Ina Claire, Madge Evans, and Lowell Sherman in The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932)
    The Greeks Had a Word for Them
  • Ina Claire in Rebound (1931)
    Rebound
  • Mary Brian and Fredric March in The Royal Family of Broadway (1930)
    The Royal Family of Broadway
  • Ina Claire in The Awful Truth (1929)
    The Awful Truth
  • Ina Claire in Polly with a Past (1920)
    Polly with a Past
  • National Red Cross Pageant (1917)
    National Red Cross Pageant
  • Carlyle Blackwell in The Puppet Crown (1915)
    The Puppet Crown
  • Ina Claire in The Wild Goose Chase (1915)
    The Wild Goose Chase

Videos1

Ninotchka
Trailer 2:17
Ninotchka

Personal details

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    • October 15, 1893
    • Washington, District of Columbia, USA
    • February 21, 1985
    • San Francisco, California, USA(heart attack)
    • March 16, 1939 - February 28, 1976 (his death)
  • Other works
    Active on Broadway in the following productions:
  • Publicity listings
    • 13 Articles
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6150 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

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