This week’s edition of “Remembering a Forgotten Star” features prolific actress Irene Hervey, who died on December 20, 1998. She was born Beulah Irene Herwick on July 11, 1909. Under the stage name Irene Hervey, she was a ubiquitous face on screen, appearing in more than fifty films and numerous television series over a career spanning five decades.
Among her film credits: The Stranger’s Return (1933), with Lionel Barrymore, The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), Destry Rides Again (1939) opposite Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, The House of Fear (1939), and the musical The Boys from Syracuse (1940), in which she starred with her then-husband, Allan Jones.
Who was Allan Jones? If you’ve seen A Night at the Opera, you know him as the good-guy tenor managed by Chico Marx, and romancing Kitty Carlisle.
Hervey became a horror queen in the late 40s and 50s, appearing in Night Monster (1942) opposite Bela Lugosi, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948), and A Cry in the Night (1956).
She made a seamless transition to television appearing in dozens of programs, including Perry Mason, Honey West, and My Three Sons, where she earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Single Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role. Later in her career, she had minor roles in the Goldie Hawn vehicle Cactus Flower (1969) and Clint Eastwood‘s Play Misty for Me (1971).
She continued to work on television through the 70s, guesting on Dr. Kildare, The Twilight Zone, Burke’s Law, Ironside, The Mod Squad and Charlie’s Angels. Her last appearance was in the Animal House TV spin off, Delta House in 1979.
She was married to Jones from 1936 to 1957, giving birth to two children, one of whom was singer Jack Jones.
Irene Hervey lived to age 89 and although not a household name, she’s one of those familiar faces you see on MeTV and say, “Hey, don’t I know that woman?”
