Irene Bentley (c. 1870 – June 3, 1940) was an American stage actress and vocalist.

Biography

Bentley was born circa 1870 in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

. She appeared in ''Sally in Our Alley'' with Marie Cahill and also in ''

The Belle of Bohemia ''The Belle of Bohemia'' is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts which opened on Broadway in 1900 before having a run on the West End of London in 1901. It was one of a series of musicals with ''Belle'' in the title that were popular on both s ...

'', '' The Belle of New York'', ''It Happened in Nordland'', and ''The Belle of Mayfair''. In 1906, she married librettist

Harry B. Smith Harry Bache Smith (December 28, 1860 – January 1, 1936) was a writer, lyricist and composer. The most prolific of all American stage writers, he is said to have written over 300 librettos and more than 6000 lyrics. Some of his best-known works ...

. This was her second marriage.Irene Bentley Weds: Actress and Harry B. Smith, the Librettist, Married in Boston
, ''New York Times'', November 26, 1906. She died at Allenhurst, New Jersey, on June 3, 1940, aged 69 or 70.

Niece

A niece of her second husband, Harry B. Smith, used Irene Bentley's name to become a film actress. Hence there are two actresses named ''Irene Bentley'' when perusing film or stage biographies. The younger Irene Bentley was born in 1904 and died in 1965, and appeared in films such as '' My Weakness'' (1933), '' Smoky'' (1933), and '' Frontier Marshal'' (1934).

References

External links

Irene Bentley profile
IBDb.com. Accessed November 13, 2022.
Portrait gallery (New York City Public Library, Billy Rose collection)Irene Bentley gallery
(University of Washington, Sayre Collection)
on the cover of THE THEATRE magazine; September 1903 (archived)
1870 births 1940 deaths American stage actresses 20th-century American actresses Date of birth unknown Actresses from Baltimore {{Actress-stub