Irene Fenwick

American actress (1887–1936)

Felix Isman

(m. 1906; div. 1909)

Jay O'Brien

(m. 1918; div. 1923)

Lionel Barrymore

(m. 1923)

FamilyBarrymore

Irene Fenwick (born Irene Frizell; September 5, 1887 – December 24, 1936)^[1] was an American stage and silent film actress.^[2] She was married to Lionel Barrymore^[3] from 1923 until her death in 1936. Fenwick has several surviving feature films from her productions for the Kleine-Edison Feature Film Service,^[4]^[5] which also has numerous surviving shorts in the Library of Congress.^[6]

Years before marrying Lionel, Irene had dated Lionel's brother, John.^[7]^[8]

Life

Frizell was born in Chicago and began acting in local theater. She had a few chorus roles in London,^[9] including one in a musical comedy that won critics praise for her "nearly natural performance".^[10] In New York she met Broadway producer Charles Frohman who gave her the stage name Fenwick and the ingénue role in The Brass Bottle (1910).^[10] 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 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".^[11]

While on Broadway, she started working in silent films with producer George Kleine.^[12]^[13] Fenwick often played wronged women and vamps in films such as The Sentimental Lady (1915), The Woman Next Door (1915),^[14] A Coney Island Princess (1916), with her performance as Princess Zim-Zim highlighted as the films "chief force",^[15]^[16] and The Sin Woman (1917). Fenwick felt restricted by these film roles and returned to the stage. In the hit plays The Claw (1921)^[17] and Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1923) she co-starred with Lionel Barrymore, whom she married on June 14, 1923,^[18] after a brief engagement.^[19] It was his second marriage and her third.^[20] She retired in 1926 after her husband chose a Hollywood career.^[18]

Death

Fenwick died on Christmas Eve in 1936, at age 49^[20] from complications of anorexia nervosa (called "overdieting" then). Barrymore was replaced by his brother John in his famous annual radio broadcast as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol for that year.^[21] He never remarried.

Filmography

Fenwick in The Commuters (1915)

Movie poster for The Child of Destiny (1916)

Year	Film	Costar	Notes
1915	The Commuters
	The Spendthrift
	The Woman Next Door		Lost film
	The Green Cloak
	The Sentimental Lady	John Davidson
1916	The Child of Destiny		Lost film
1916	A Coney Island Princess	Owen Moore	Lost film
1917	A Girl Like That	Owen Moore	Lost film
	The Sin Woman	Clifford Bruce	Lost film
	National Red Cross Pageant		Lost film

References

^ Ellenberger, Allan R. (May 1, 2001). Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0983-9.
^ Irene Fenwick;biography, Hans J. Wollstein
^ "Lionel Barrymore – Actor, Director, Writer, Composer". goldensilents.com. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
^ The Moving Picture World. Chalmers Publishing Company. 1915. p. 626.
^ Slide, Anthony (1994). Early American Cinema. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-2722-6.
^ congress), kleine (george) collection (library of. "Search results from Film, Video, Available Online, Kleine (George) Collection (Library of Congress)". Library of Congress. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
^ Alpert, Hollis (1964). The Barrymores. New York: The Dial Press. OCLC 194133.
^ Kobler, John (1977). Damned in Paradise: The Life of John Barrymore. New York: Atheneum. ISBN 9780689108143. OCLC 3001896.
^ Theatre Magazine. Theatre Magazine Company. 1915.
^ ^a ^b The Theatre. Meyer Bros. & Company. 1910.
^ Thorold, W. J.; Hornblow (Jr.), Arthur; Maxwell, Perriton; Beach, Stewart (1913). Theatre Magazine. Theatre Magazine Company.
^ The Moving Picture World. World Photographic Publishing Company. 1916.
^ Motography. 1915.
^ The Moving Picture World. World Photographic Publishing Company. 1915.
^ Motography. 1916.
^ Parascandola, Louis J.; Parascandola, John (December 9, 2014). A Coney Island Reader: Through Dizzy Gates of Illusion. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-53819-0.
^ American Magazine. Colver Publishing House. 1922.
^ ^a ^b Menefee, David W. (October 20, 2007). The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era. BearManor Media.
^ Time. Time Incorporated. 1923.
^ ^a ^b "Irene Fenwick (married to John Jay O'Brien) ?". Daily News. December 25, 1936. p. 69. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
^ LIFE. Time Inc. December 25, 1944.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Irene Fenwick.

Irene Fenwick at IMDb
Irene Fenwick at the Internet Broadway Database
Irene Fenwick at Find a Grave
passport photo of Irene Fenwick
Article about Fenwick and Barrymore (with Tallulah Bankhead) shortly before her death