Claire Luce
| Claire Luce | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
October 15, 1903 Syracuse, New York, U.S. |
| Died | August 31, 1989 (aged 85) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, dancer |
| Years active | 1930–1955 |
| Spouse(s) | Clifford W. Smith (1928-1935, divorce) |
Claire Luce (October 15, 1903 – August 31, 1989) was an American stage and screen actress, dancer and singer. Among her few films were Up the River (1930), directed by John Ford and costarring Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart, and Under Secret Orders, the English-language version of G. W. Pabst's French-language feature, Mademoiselle Docteur (1937).
Luce was born in Syracuse, New York, but she grew up in Rochester in what an article in Silver Screen magazine described as "an atmosphere of discord and squalor". Luce's parents were divorced when she was 13. Florence Colebrook Powers, a friend of Luce's mother, adopted her. Powers was in charge of a dance school, and she introduced Luce to dancing. While still 13, Luce took a job as a "sort of utility employee" at a cafe in Rochester. When she was 15, she ran away with a Russian opera troupe that played in Rochester, becoming a ballerina with the group. Before long, she said, "people in Rochester traced me and had me brought back."
Luce starred in many Broadway plays from 1923 until 1952, including costarring with Fred Astaire in the original musical Gay Divorce (1932). Astaire tried to get Luce for the film version of Gay Divorce, The Gay Divorcee (1934) but was overruled by the studio, RKO Radio Pictures, which preferred to use their contract player, Ginger Rogers.
Of her performance in Gay Divorce the critic Brooks Atkinson wrote: "In the refulgent Claire Luce, Fred Astaire has found a partner who can match him step for step and who flies over the furniture in his company without missing a beat." Unfortunately, during the London run of Gay Divorce, Luce suffered a serious injury during the "Table Dance" routine—a routine which is reprised in the film—damaging her hip, and this put an end to her stage dancing career.
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