Ina Claire (born Ina Fagan; October 15, 1893Born in 1893, not 1892 as per the Social Security Death Index under the name Ina Claire and her gravestoneFebruary 21, 1985) was an American stage and film actress.
Early years Ina Fagan was born October 15, 1893, in Washington, D.C. After the death of her father, Claire began doing imitations of fellow boarders in the boarding house where she and her mother, Cora, and brother, Allen,1900 United States Federal Census lived. Claire's mother took her out of school in the eighth grade, and she used her mother's maiden name when she began her career appearing in vaudeville. In 1906, she gave a recitation as the grand finale of a program presented by Miss Cora B. Shreve's pupils in Washington, D.C. She was identified in a newspaper article as Ina Claire Fagan.
Career Claire made her professional stage debut in October 1907 in Elmira, New York. She played Florie in a production of The Fatal Flower — the beginning of a two-year contract.
In 1909, she appeared in a vaudeville act entitled "Dainty Mimic", which included an imitation of actor Harry Lauder. A booking agent described this act as "one of the best single Acts" he had seen that season and remarked that "She possesses a great deal of magnatism [sic] and is a big hit."Ohio State University, Theater Research Institute, Scrapbook #172, n.p.
She performed on Broadway in the musicals Jumping Jupiter, The Quaker Girl (both 1911), and Lady Luxury (1914-1915). Claire was in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1915 and 1916. She later starred on Broadway in plays by some of the leading comic dramatists of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, 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 Fatal Weakness.
Claire later became 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). Behrman wrote of Claire's performance in one of his comedies: "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, February 21, 1928, p. 18
Claire was retired from the stage for five years in the early 1940s, living with her husband in San Francisco. She returned to perform in the comedy The Fatal Weakness. Her last stage appearance was as Lady Elizabeth Mulhammer in T. S. Eliot's The Confidential Clerk (1954).
She made her film debut in Cecil B. DeMille's The Wild Goose Chase (1915). She is best remembered today for her role as the Grand Duchess Swana in the romantic comedy Ninotchka (1939), directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Greta Garbo.
Death Ina Claire died on February 21, 1985, in San Francisco, California after suffering a heart attack. She was 91 years old. She is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery located in Salt Lake City. She was an inductee in the American Theater Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes1915 The Wild Goose Chase Betty Wright ShortLost film The Puppet Crown Princess Alexia Lost film1917 National Red Cross Pageant Jeanne D'Arc - French episode Lost film1920 Polly With a Past Polly Shannon Lost film1929 The Awful Truth Lucy Warriner Lost film1930 The Royal Family of Broadway Julie Cavendish 1931 Rebound Sara Jaffrey 1932 The Greeks Had a Word for Them Jean Lawrence 1939 Ninotchka Grand Duchess Swana 1940 I Take This Woman Cesca Marcesca (scenes deleted)1943 Claudia Mrs. Brown Stage Door Canteen Ina Claire (final film role)
References
External links
Ina Claire at Silent Ladies & Gents Ina Claire at Virtual History