Irene Ware

Irene Ware

Irene Ware in Chandu the Magician (1932)
Born November 6, 1910
New York City, New York, United States
Died March 11, 1993 (aged 82)
Orange, California, United States
Nationality American
Occupation Actress
Years active 1929-1993
Parent(s) Ernest Ahlberg (father)
Anna Freya (mother)

Irene Ware (November 6, 1910 – March 11, 1993) was an American Hollywood movie actress and is considered one of early Hollywood's most beautiful starlets. She was an American beauty queen, crowned as 1929's Miss United States (there was no Miss America pageant that year), and runner up in the Miss Universe competition of 1929. Irene appeared in 29 films between 1932-1940, and is mostly remembered for her roles as Princess Nadji in Chandu the Magician (1932) with Edmund Lowe and Bela Lugosi, and as Boris Karloff's and Lugosi's leading lady in 1935's The Raven. She died in 1993, aged 82, in Orange, California.

Biography

Irene Ware and Bela Lugosi in Chandu the Magician (1932).
Irene Ware and Bela Lugosi in The Raven (1935)
Irene Ware in The Raven (1935)
Irene Ware

Irene Catherine Ahlberg was born November 6, 1910 in New York, New York of Swedish-Austrian ancestry. Her father, Ernest Ahlberg, born in Sweden, and manager of a saloon. Her mother, Anna Freya, born in New York from Austrian parents, was a successful real estate agent. She lived in New York and Los Angeles. Her first marriage was with American screenwriter John Meehan, Jr., who won three Oscars for his work. Her second marriage was to federal judge Fred Campbell. She left the industry to become a mother to her two children, John and Deirdre Meehan.

Beauty queen

An American beauty queen, (5`6"/1.68 cm tall), she was first crowned Miss Greater NY, then Miss United States in 1929 (there was no Miss America pageant that year) and runner-up for the title of Miss Universe at the pageant in Galveston, Texas in 1929. There the 18 year old stenographer won $1,000 and second honors after an Austrian girl from Vienna, Lisl Goldarbeiter. A documentary TV movie about Lisl´s life, "Miss Universe 1929-Lisl Goldarbeiter. A Queen In Wien", was released 2006 and directed by Hungarian Peter Forgacs.

Early film years

Her career began when she was crowned Miss Universe in 1929. Through early 1932 she starred in Earl Carroll's Vanities on Broadway. She was then contracted to Fox Studios and moved to Hollywood, changing her name to Irene Ware. Her first movie was, Society Girl, in 1932 at Fox Film Corporation as uncredited together with names like James Dunn, Peggy Shannon and Spencer Tracy. The second film, which quickly made her a star, was Chandu the Magician, also released in 1932 and directed by Marcel Varnel.

False Pretenses (1935) Betty Compson, Sidney Blackmer, and Irene Ware

Filmography

External links

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