1895 (2 sources cite 1885)-1953
Stage and screen actress, musical performer and Broadway fixture Irène Bordoni was born Ajaccio (Aiacciu in Corsican), Corsica, France on this day. She started acting and performing as a child in mainland France, where debuted on the stage age of ten. We know her motion picture debut came opposite one of France's most well known dancers Stacia Napierkowska in the short film Pierrot aime les roses in 1910. She appeared in three more short films in 1912, two of which also starred Napierkowska, while the last of them--Le club des élégants--featured star of the Paris stage André Brulé. All four of these films were Pathé Frères productions, and all four were directed by René Leprince. She was thereafter signed with Paris impresario André Charlot--famed for his musical revues in the capital--as her agent in 1914. She appeared in just two more films in her French stage days: Le secret du Châtelain in 1914 and Le traquenard in 1915. Both films were directed by Paul Garbagni. This is where things get confusing. One source list her as actually born in 1885, claiming that she had traveled to the United States in 1907 at age 22...this doesn't square with her film timeline in France. But her Internet Broadway Database page also lists that year as her birth. We do know that she had been acting since childhood and that she did appear in the above French films, but since none of them have survived to screen, no one is sure at this time if she was a teenager or a young adult when she made her screen debut...it might be hard to tell in any case, as Bordoni always had a youthful look, and stuck with signature bangs hair-style all of her life. Not helping matter is that her grave marker only lists the year of her death. Her Broadway career starting in the 1910's and 1920's is much easier to assess thankfully. She was very much a success and became a popular singer as well. She first worked with the famous Shubert Brothers and actually "introduced" or debuted a number of famous songs on Broadway, including numbers by Gershwin and Cole Porter. She did not, however, appear in any American silent films. She did not make her U.S. film debut until the coming of sound when she appeared Warner Bros. revue extravaganza Show of Shows (1929) in a song performance accompanied just by a piano. She quickly signed on to star in Paris, a musical film based on a Cole Porter stage musical that she had made a hit on Broadway. The film was directed by Clarence Badger and featured Zasu Pitts and Jason Robards Sr. and released on the 7th of November of 1929; it utilized the Vitagraph sound system and was shot in one of the early technicolor processes in major portions; it is also believed lost (soundtrack survives and tape reels of the sound are preserved at UCLA). Her presence in film failed to fire off the spark that she and producers were hoping for, so despite buying a home that she kept in California, she returned to Broadway, where she continued to please audiences. She did have quite the career on radio, making guest appearances to sing--and was a favorite on The RKO Hour. She did occasionally make the odd appearance in a film, the most significant of which was Louisiana Purchase, a Bob Hope film from 1941 which was again based on a Broadway hit that she herself starred in. She even made one appearance in a television series reprising that same role in an episode of Musical Comedy Time in their episode Louisiana Purchase, which aired live on the 22nd of January in 1951. It would be her last time in front of cameras. Bordoni succumbed to cancer just two years later on the 19th of March. Most sources cite her age at death as 58; goes without saying that she may have actually been 68. In any case, she was laid to rest at Ferncliff in Hartsdale, New York. Bordoni was known for her fashions both on stage and off and was an extremely extroverted person...so she made sure everyone knew have marvelous she was, always.
[Source: Elliott (Find a Grave)]
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