Irene Fenwick (born Irene Frizell; September 5, 1887 – December 24, 1936) was an American stage and silent film actress. She was married to

Lionel Barrymore Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''A Free Soul'' (1931) ...

from 1923 until her death in 1936. Fenwick has several surviving feature films from her productions for the Kleine-Edison Feature Film Service, which also has numerous surviving

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the human pelvis, pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" b ...

in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. Years before marrying Lionel, Irene had dated Lionel's brother, John.

Life

Frizell was born in Chicago and began acting in local theater. She had a few chorus roles in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, including one in a musical comedy that won critics praise for her "nearly natural performance". In New York she met Broadway producer

Charles Frohman Charles Frohman (July 15, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American theater manager and producer, who discovered and promoted many stars of the American stage. Notably, he produced ''Peter Pan'', both in London and the US, the latter production ...

who gave her the stage name Fenwick and the ingénue role in ''The Brass Bottle'' (1910). A vivacious redhead, adept at both drama and comedy, she had a forceful stage presence that belied her tiny stature of 4'11". She continued on stage in 1912 opposite

Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including '' The Thie ...

in ''Hawthorne of the U.S.A.'' The following year in the play ''The Family Cupboard'', she was touted as a young actress with "the tact and intelligence of a veteran player". While on Broadway, she started working in

silent films A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...

with producer

George Kleine George Kleine (1864June 8, 1931) was an American film producer and cinema pioneer. Biography Klein's father, Charles, was a New York optician who sold optical devices and stereopticons. Klein joined the family firm, moving to Chicago in 189 ...

. Fenwick often played wronged women and vamps in films such as ''

The Sentimental Lady ''The Sentimental Lady'' is a 1915 silent film, silent film drama produced by George Kleine and starring Irene Fenwick. A copy is preserved in the Library of Congress collection. Cast *Irene Fenwick - Amy Cary *Frank Belcher - Amy's Uncle *John D ...

'' (1915), '' The Woman Next Door'' (1915), ''

A Coney Island Princess ''A Coney Island Princess'' is a lost 1916 silent film comedy drama directed by Dell Henderson and starring Irene Fenwick. It is based on the play ''Princess Zim-Zim'' by Edward Sheldon. This film was Fenwick's first for the Famous Players Fi ...

'' (1916), with her performance as Princess Zim-Zim highlighted as the films "chief force", and '' The Sin Woman'' (1917). Fenwick felt restricted by these film roles and returned to the stage. In the hit plays ''The Claw'' (1921) and ''Laugh, Clown, Laugh'' (1923) she co-starred with Lionel Barrymore, whom she married on June 14, 1923, after a brief engagement. It was his second marriage and her third. She retired in 1926 after her husband chose a Hollywood career.

Death

Fenwick died on Christmas Eve in 1936, at age 49 from complications of

anorexia nervosa Anorexia nervosa, often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by low weight, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. ''Anorexia'' is a term of Gr ...

(called "overdieting" then). Barrymore was replaced by his brother John in his famous annual radio broadcast as

Ebenezer Scrooge Ebenezer Scrooge () is the protagonist of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol''. At the beginning of the novella, Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas. The tale of his redemption by three spirits (the Ghost of ...

in ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...

'' for that year''.'' He never remarried.

Filmography

References

External links

* * *
passport photo of Irene Fenwick

1887 births 1936 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Chicago American film actresses American silent film actresses American stage actresses Barrymore family Neurological disease deaths in California Deaths from anorexia nervosa {{US-film-actor-1880s-stub