Irène Bordoni
| Irène Bordoni | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
16 January 1885 Ajaccio, Corsica |
| Died | 19 March 1953 (aged 68) Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress, singer |
| Years active | 1914–1951 |
| Spouse(s) | Edgar Becman E. Ray Goetz |
Irène Bordoni (16 January 1885 – 19 March 1953) was a Corsican-American actress and singer.
Bordoni was born in Ajaccio, Corsica to Sanveur Bordoni, a tailor, and Marie Lemonnier. The 19th-century painter Francis Millet was a great uncle who died in the Titanic disaster. She became a child actor, performing in Paris on stage and in silent films for a few years, having signed with theatrical agent André Charlot. Bordoni made her first appearance on the stage at the age of thirteen, at the Variétés, Paris.
She went to the United States on 28 December 1907, in steerage on the S. S. La Provence. Bordoni's year of birth is given in standard theatrical biographies as 1895, but her real birth year is 1885. She was 22 on the ship's passenger list when she arrived in the United States in 1907. She went first to Reno, Nevada, where her father had reportedly settled previously.
Bordoni made her Broadway debut in a Shubert brothers production of Broadway to Paris at the Winter Garden Theatre and was a successor to Anna Held as Broadway's idea of French piquancy and Continental flavor. She was in Miss Information (1915) and successive productions of Hitchy-Koo (1917 and 1918). 1919 audiences saw Bordoni in Sleeping Partners co-starring with H. B. Warner at the Bijou. In 1920 her "captivating voice and presence" graced As You Were at the Central Theater.
Bordoni introduced George Gershwin's hit song "Do It Again" with vivacity and verve in the 1922 Broadway show The French Doll at the Lyceum. The title of the show became her soubriquet. She also starred in Little Miss Bluebeard (1923) and Naughty Cinderella (1925) by Avery Hopwood, about which the theatre critic for the New York Times said, "Of Miss Bordoni one can report only what has been reported many times. Her voice, her accent and particularly her reeling eyes are, as ever, unmistakably attractive."
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