--- name: "Irene Rich" canonical: "https://film.one/person/irene-rich" roles: ["Actor"] born: "11 October 1891" died: "22 April 1988" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-19T21:52:20.509027+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Irene Rich Actor. Born 11 October 1891 in Buffalo, New York, USA. Died 22 April 1988. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 11 October 1891, Buffalo, New York, USA - **Died:** 22 April 1988 - **Also known as:** Irene Luther, Irene Frances Luther - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Rich, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q453962, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0723658/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/14871 ## Fi1m on Irene Rich > Irene Rich spent the silent years playing women who ran the house and the sound years playing women who understood everybody in it. On the evidence of *The Champ*, understanding is the less interesting job, and she was too good for it. In *The Champ* (1931), Irene Rich turns up rich, in a good coat, and wants her son back. King Vidor gives her Linda Carleton, the mother who left, and Rich plays her as a woman who has already forgiven everyone before the scene starts. She listens well. She never raises her voice. Set against Wallace Beery's sweat and Jackie Cooper's wet eyes, she is the calm at the edge of the frame, and the film leaves her there. We called her right and dull, and we stand by both words: there is no wrong note in the performance and nothing for the notes to push against. That was not the job she started with. Rich came into pictures as an extra in 1918 and spent the 1920s in silent melodramas, cast as society women who knew exactly what they were worth, Mrs Erlynne in *Lady Windermere's Fan* (1925) among them. She made eight films with Will Rogers, usually as his wife, which is a long marriage by Hollywood standards. Then sound arrived, and with it the mothers. From 1933 to 1944 she hosted the radio anthology *Dear John*, and when she came back to film in the late 1930s and 1940s it was as Mrs Roth in *The Mortal Storm* (1940), Mrs Worth in *Angel and the Badman* (1947) and Mary O'Rourke, the frontier wife, in John Ford's *Fort Apache* (1948). *Joan of Arc* (1948) was among her last films; a Broadway run took her to 1950, and then she stopped. We have not reviewed the silents, so we will not pretend to judge them, but the pattern in the record is hard to miss. The parts got smaller and kinder as the decades went on, and the qualities that had made her a lead, poise and a certain resourcefulness, were the ones a Hollywood mother of the period was not allowed to use. The trouble with *The Champ* is not Rich. It is that Frances Marion's story wants the mother to be reasonable, and a reasonable woman asking for her child back gives Beery nobody to fight. Hale Hamilton, playing her new husband as pure decency, has the same problem beside her. Two capable actors cancel each other out in a drawing room while the film's heart is in a Tijuana bar. We were moved by *The Champ*, more than a picture that stiff has any right to manage, and none of it happened while she was on screen. That is the caveat, and it is also the recommendation. If you want to know what Rich could do, our one review is the wrong place to look, and the silents, by every account we have, are the right one. Watch *The Champ* for Cooper and Beery, note the woman in the good coat who never gets a scene of her own, and then go and find out what she did when the picture was hers. ## Biography Irene Rich was an American actress who worked in silent films and talkies. Credited as Linda Carleton in *The Champ* (1931), her other film roles include Mrs. Mary O'Rourke in *Fort Apache* (1948), Mrs. Worth in *Angel and the Badman* (1947), Mrs. Roth in *The Mortal Storm* (1940) and Catherine le Royer in *Joan of Arc* (1948). She also appeared in *Lady Windermere's Fan* (1925). Rich worked with Will Rogers in eight films, including *Water Water Everywhere* (1920), *The Strange Boarder* (1920), *Jes' Call Me Jim* (1920), *Boys Will Be Boys* (1921) and *The Ropin' Fool* (1921). From the 1930s she hosted the radio anthology series *Dear John* (also known as *The Irene Rich Show*). She appeared on stage in *Seven Keys to Baldpate* (1935) and *As the Girls Go* (1948). She received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures and radio. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, walkoffame.com, britannica.com, watch.plex.tv.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *The Champ* (1931), Fi1m 72, as Linda Carleton — [page](https://film.one/film/the-champ.md) ## Complete filmography (105) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Joan of Arc* (1948), as Catherine le Royer, Joan's friend - *Fort Apache* (1948), as Mrs. Mary O'Rourke - *New Orleans* (1947), as Mrs. Rutledge Smith - *Angel and the Badman* (1947), as Mrs. Worth - *Calendar Girl* (1947), as Lulu Varden - *This Time for Keeps* (1942), as Mrs. Bryant - *Three Sons o' Guns* (1941), as Margaret Patterson - *Keeping Company* (1940), as Mrs. Thomas - *Queen of the Yukon* (1940), as Sadie Martin - *The Lady in Question* (1940), as Michele Morestan - *The Mortal Storm* (1940), as Mrs. Roth - *Everybody's Hobby* (1939), as Mrs. Myra Leslie - *The Right Way* (1939), as Mrs. Martin - *That Certain Age* (1938), as Mrs. Dorothy Fullerton - *Hollywood Handicap* (1938), as Woman at Racetrack - *Manhattan Tower* (1932), as Ann Burns - *Her Mad Night* (1932), as Joan Manners - *Down To Earth* (1932), as Idy Peters - *The Champ* (1931), as Linda Carleton — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/the-champ.md) - *Wicked* (1931), as Mrs. Luther - *The Mad Parade* (1931), as Mrs. Schuyler - *Five and Ten* (1931), as Jenny Rarick - *Strangers May Kiss* (1931), as Celia - *Father's Son* (1931), as Ruth Emory - *Beau Ideal* (1931), as Lady Brandon - *Check and Double Check* (1930), as Mrs. Blair - *On Your Back* (1930), as Julianne - *So This Is London* (1930), as Mrs. Hiram Draper - *They Had to See Paris* (1929), as Idy Peters - *The Exalted Flapper* (1929), as Queen Charlotte of Capra - *Daughters of Desire* (1929), Actor - *Shanghai Rose* (1929), as Shanghai Rose - *Ned McCobb's Daughter* (1928), as Carol - *Craig's Wife* (1928), as Harriet Craig - *Women They Talk About* (1928), as Irene Mervin Hughes - *The Perfect Crime* (1928), as Stella - *Irene Rich in 'Lead, Kindly Light'* (1928), Actor - *Powder My Back* (1928), as Fritzi Foy - *Beware of Married Men* (1928), as Myra Martin - *The Silver Slave* (1927), as Bernice Randall - *The Desired Woman* (1927), as Diana Maxwell / Lady Diana Whitney - *Dearie* (1927), as Sylvia Darling/Dearie - *The Climbers* (1927), as Duchess of Arrogan - *Don't Tell the Wife* (1927), as Mrs. Cartier - *My Official Wife* (1926), as Hélène, Countess Orloff - *The Honeymoon Express* (1926), as Mary Lambert - *Silken Shackles* (1926), as Denise Lake - *Lady Windermere's Fan* (1925), as Mrs. Erlynne - *The Pleasure Buyers* (1925), as Joan Wiswell - *Compromise* (1925), as Joan Trevore - *The Wife Who Wasn't Wanted* (1925), as Mrs. John Mannering - *Eve's Lover* (1925), as Eva Burnside - *The Man Without a Conscience* (1925), as Shirley Graves - *My Wife and I* (1925), as Mrs. James Borden - *A Lost Lady* (1924), as Marian Forrester - *This Woman* (1924), as Carol Drayton - *What the Butler Saw* (1924), as Mrs. Barrington - *A Woman Who Sinned* (1924), as Mrs. Ransdell - *Captain January* (1924), as Isabelle Morton - *Being Respectable* (1924), as Suzanne Schuyler - *Cytherea* (1924), as Fanny Randon - *Beau Brummel* (1924), as Frederica Charlotte, Duchess of York - *Pal o' Mine* (1924), as Julia Montfort - *Boy of Mine* (1923), as Ruth Latimer - *Lucretia Lombard* (1923), as Lucretia Morgan - *Defying Destiny* (1923), as Beth Alden - *Rosita* (1923), as The Queen - *Yesterday's Wife* (1923), as Megan Daye - *Michael O'Halloran* (1923), as Nellie Minturn - *Snowdrift* (1923), as Kitty (story) - *Brass* (1923), as Mrs. Grotenberg - aka Mrs. G. - *Dangerous Trails* (1923), as Grace Alderson - *Hearts Aflame* (1923), Actor - *Brawn of the North* (1922), as Marion Wells - *The Ropin' Fool* (1922), as The Girl - *A Fool There Was* (1922), as Mrs. Schuyler - *One Clear Call* (1922), as Maggie Thornton - *The Trap* (1922), as The Teacher - *The Call of Home* (1922), as Alix Lansing - *The Poverty of Riches* (1921), as Mrs. Holt - *Desperate Trails* (1921), as Mrs. Walker - *A Voice in the Dark* (1921), as Blanche Walton - *Boys Will Be Boys* (1921), as Lucy - *A Tale of Two Worlds* (1921), as Mrs. Carmichael - *One Man in a Million* (1921), as Madame Maureveau - *Just Out of College* (1920), as Miss Jones - *Godless Men* (1920), as 'Black Pawl's' Wife - *Stop Thief* (1920), as Madge Carr - *Jes' Call Me Jim* (1920), as Miss Butterworth - *The Strange Boarder* (1920), as Jane Ingraham - *Water, Water, Everywhere* (1920), as Hope Beecher - *The Street Called Straight* (1920), as Drusilla Fane - *The Spite Bride* (1919), as Eileen Moore - *Her Purchase Price* (1919), as Marda - *Wolves of the Night* (1919), as Juanita - *The Sneak* (1919), as Enid Granley - *The Blue Bonnet* (1919), as Martha Drake - *The Lone Star Ranger* (1919), as Mrs. Laramie - *Castles in the Air* (1919), as Mrs. Owen Pauncefort - *The Silver Girl* (1919), as Julia Raymond - *A Man in the Open* (1919), as Kate - *Diane of the Green Van* (1919), as Keela - *A Law Unto Herself* (1918), as Stephanie - *The Girl in His House* (1918), as Betty Burlingham - *The Yosemite Trail*, as Eve Marsham ## Gallery - ![Irene Rich](https://film.one/media/person/1225428/gallery-bba1267de961.jpg) Irene Rich — Russell Ball (1896-1942), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Irene_Rich_Ball.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Still from the American drama film Compromise (1925). Subjects (LCTGM): motion pictures, actresses, actors](https://film.one/media/person/1225428/gallery-67ddf39d9ee3.jpg) Still from the American drama film Compromise (1925). Subjects (LCTGM): motion pictures, actresses, actors — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Compromise_%28SAYRE_14497%29.jpg/1280px-Compromise_%28SAYRE_14497%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Left to right: Irene Rich, Gail Russell, and John Wayne in Angel and the Badman (1947).](https://film.one/media/person/1225428/gallery-b02cc1a8946f.jpg) Left to right: Irene Rich, Gail Russell, and John Wayne in Angel and the Badman (1947). — film screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Irene_Rich%2C_Gail_Russell_%26_John_Wayne_in_Angel_and_the_Badman_-_1947.jpg/1280px-Irene_Rich%2C_Gail_Russell_%26_John_Wayne_in_Angel_and_the_Badman_-_1947.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Irene Rich](https://film.one/media/person/1225428/gallery-5fe13ca4c11f.jpg) Irene Rich — Image via TMDB - ![Irene Rich](https://film.one/media/person/1225428/gallery-38e4015b2d40.jpg) Irene Rich — Image via TMDB - ![Irene Rich](https://film.one/media/person/1225428/gallery-d899c99de026.jpg) Irene Rich — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/irene-rich