Turner Classic Movies is paying tribute to several actors and actresses with birthdays in December. The star we chose to recognize this month is the often overlooked Irene Dunne, who was an extremely versatile comedic and dramatic actress. Among the Irene Dunne films we will be airing on Friday, December 20 (starting at 6:00 am ET) are If I Were Free (1934), My Favorite Wife (1940), Roberta (1935), A Guy Named Joe (1943), The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), Love Affair (1939), and I Remember Mama (1948). (Check our handy on-line schedule for air times).

Irene Marie Dunne was born in Louisville, Kentucky on December 20, 1898 to Joseph Dunne, a steamship inspector, and Adelaide Henry Dunne, a musician. Adelaide encouraged Irene in the world of fine arts, and at the age of five, Irene made her "debut" playing the part of Mustard Seed in a Louisville production of"A Midsummer Night's Dream". Following the death of her father in 1910, Dunne's family moved to Madison, Indiana, where she took both voice and piano lessons. After graduating from high school, Dunne studied at a music conservatory in Indianapolis and at the Chicago Music College, to which she won a year's scholarship in a contest she had entered on a whim.

Dunne's goal was to become a part of the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York, but she ended up being rejected for a lack of experience and her youth. Not to easily discouraged, Dunne joined the cast of a touring musical comedy appropriately named "Irene". Several roles on Broadway followed, but her big break came when she was discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld in an elevator. The famous producer cast her as Magnolia in a touring production of Showboat, and it was this performance which led to a film contract with RKO Studios.

During her time in Hollywood, Dunne starred in a total of forty-four films, ranging from musicals to comedies, dramas, westerns, and even a documentary, Show Business at War (1943). She acted delightfully in these films along with some of the popular leading actors of the time, including Cary Grant, Charles Boyer, and Fred MacMurray. Dunne received critical recognition in 1931 when she was nominated by the Academy for her role in Cimarron. Four more Best Actress nominations followed, but she is probably best remembered for her role as Mama Hansen in the tearjearker I Remember Mama. Dunne decided to stop acting on film while she was ahead (her last film was It Grows On Trees in 1952), but later made guest appearances on television. In 1957, President Eisenhower appointed her to the United Nations as a special U.S. delegate because of her widespread appeal. Her musical and comedic, as well as dramatic talent, made Irene Dunne a pleasure to watch in any of these fabulous films.

Other December birthdays we are celebrating at TCM include Edward G. Robinson (December 12) and Frank Sinatra (December 12).

by Sarah Heiman