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Attractive, blond, dimple-cheeked artist's daughter Irene Hervey was first tutored in acting by the noted English stage thespian Emma Dunn. She appeared in junior theatrical productions during her time at Venice High School in Los Angeles. Irene completed her training at the M-G-M School of Acting before being signed as a contract player in 1933. Often on loan to other studios, she was assigned bit parts until meatier co-starring roles came along in The Girl Said No (1937) and Say It in French (1938). While at M-G-M, Irene was briefly engaged to Robert Taylor, an affair which was stymied by Louis B. Mayer who saw it as detrimental to Taylor's career.

After briefly free-lancing, Irene signed with Universal (joining her then-husband, actor/singer Allan Jones) in 1938 and remained with that studio until 1943. Her best-known film was the classic James Stewart-Marlene Dietrich western Destry Rides Again (1939) in 1939. In the 1940s, Irene became a leading lady of B-movies. In the crime melodramas San Francisco Docks (1940) and Frisco Lil (1942) she was, respectively, a barmaid and a law student, trying to clear her nearest and dearest of murders they had not committed. In the adventure yarn Bombay Clipper (1941) she was William Gargan's obligatory girlfriend - more decorative than active; and in the potboiler, Night Monster (1942), a Dr. Phibes-like tale of revenge and murder, she played second-fiddle to those great characters, Lionel Atwill and Bela Lugosi.

A charming, smart and likeable actress who some reviewers compared to Myrna Loy, Irene put her family above her career and that was perhaps the reason she never made the breakthrough to A-grade pictures. In 1943, she was injured in a car accident and sidelined for five years. When she returned to the screen, it was as a character actress in the fantasy Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948), as the titular character's sophisticated wife. From the 1950s, Irene concentrated on television work with a recurring role as Aunt Meg in the series Honey West (1965) (with Anne Francis). There were also numerous guest-starring spots in top-rating shows like Peter Gunn (1958), Perry Mason (1957), Ironside (1967) and The Twilight Zone (1959). She was nominated for an Emmy Award for a performance on My Three Sons (1960) in 1969. Her final motion picture role was as radio station owner Madge Brenner in Play Misty for Me (1971).

After her retirement from acting, Irene worked as a travel agent in Sherman Oaks, California. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.

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