1. Ina Fagan was born October 15,1893, in Washington, DC After the death of her father, Claire began doing imitations of fellow boarders in the boarding house where she and her mother, Cora, and brother, Allen, were forced to live.
12 Facts About Ina Claire
1. 2.
Ina Claire made her professional stage debut in October 1907 in Elmira, New York.
3.
Ina Claire performed on Broadway in the musicals Jumping Jupiter, The Quaker Girl, and Lady Luxury.
4.
Ina Claire was in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1915 and 1916.
5.
Ina Claire later starred on Broadway in plays by some of the leading comic dramatists of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, including the roles of Jerry Lamarr in Avery Hopwood's The Gold Diggers, Mrs Cheyney in Frederick Lonsdale's The Last of Mrs Cheyney, Lady George Grayston in W Somerset Maugham's Our Betters, and Enid Fuller in George Kelly's Fatal Weakness.
6.
Ina Claire was retired from the stage for five years in the early 1940s, living with her husband in San Francisco.
7.
Ina Claire returned to perform in the comedy The Fatal Weakness.
8.
Ina Claire made her film debut in Cecil B DeMille's The Wild Goose Chase.
9.
Ina Claire is best remembered today for her role as the Grand Duchess Swana in the romantic comedy Ninotchka, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Greta Garbo.
10.
Ina Claire died on February 21,1985, in San Francisco, California after suffering a heart attack.
11.
Ina Claire is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery located in Salt Lake City.
12.
Ina Claire was an inductee in the American Theater Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.