- Her last official public appearance was in December 1985 for the Kennedy Center honors in Washington. She collapsed at the Saturday night reception after the group photograph of the honorees and was unable to attend the gala the next night.
- She played Cary Grant's wife in three movies: The Awful Truth (1937), My Favorite Wife (1940) and Penny Serenade (1941).
- During her marriage to Dr. Frank Griffin, Irene adopted a child, Mary Frances. The child was adopted in 1938 at the age of four from the New York Foundling Hospital.
- Smashed the traditional champagne bottle on the bow of the Liberty Ship S.S. Carole Lombard at its launching ceremony.
- In 1965, she was the first woman elected into Technicolor's board of directors.
- Irene claimed that always getting enough sleep kept her looking young. Her studio contracts allowed her to start work as late as 10 A.M. and leave by 6 P.M.
- After being nominated 5 times for the Best Actress Oscar and never winning, it was hoped by many that she would receive an honorary award after her retirement but the Academy (for reasons best known to itself) failed to present one.
- Following her death, she was interred at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California. Her tombstone mistakenly gives her date of birth as 1901 rather than 1898.
- Was discovered for films while appearing in the first national touring company of "Show Boat" in 1929. She played and sang the role of Magnolia, and repeated her performance in Show Boat (1936).
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower named her an alternate delegate to the U.N. General Assembly in 1959. Dunne had actively campaigned for him in the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections.
- Loretta Young, was one of Irene's closest friends. Back in the day, Loretta had a girls club for her friends, they met once a week and some of the members were Anita Louise, Irene Dunne and Loretta's two sisters as well.
- Because she rode riverboats as a girl in Kentucky and starred in Show Boat (1936), she was chosen by Walt Disney to christen the stern-wheel riverboat "Mark Twain" when Disneyland officially opened in Anaheim, California on July 17, 1955.
- She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6440 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.
- Friends with Loretta Young, Bob Hope, James Stewart, Ricardo Montalban, Roddy McDowall, Caesar Romero, director Bill Freye, and interfaith foundation director Daniel Donahue.
- Her only full color production (in three-strip Technicolor) was Life with Father (1947) in which she co-starred with William Powell. (Her debut film Leathernecking (1930), of which no print is known to survive, featured a sequence in two-color Technicolor.).
- Irene possessed a beautiful singing voice. In the 1944 movie "Together again" she sings in Spanish Gardel's tango "Adiós muchachos".
- Was offered the role of Aunt Alicia in Vincente Minnelli's Gigi (1958), but she declined, preferring to stay in retirement.
- Stars in three Oscar Best Picture nominees; Cimarron (1931), The Awful Truth (1937) and Love Affair (1939). Only the first of these won.
- She was one of the most active supporters of the Republican Party in Hollywood, and campaigned for Richard Nixon in 1960. She later supported Ronald Reagan's two runs for Governor of California and his two presidential campaigns.
- She was a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.
- On August 16, 2019, she was honored with a day of her film work during the Turner Classic Movies Summer Under the Stars.
- Mary Pickford was considered for the role of Vinnie in Life with Father (1947). While Miss Pickford was interested in the project, director Michael Curtiz held out for Irene Dunne. He eventually won over the studio administration with convincing argument that Miss Dunne's box office appeal was a known quantity. Miss Pickford's, after such a long absence from the screen, was questionable.
- In 1968, she was named one of Colorado's Women of achievement.
- After retiring from acting, Dunne devoted herself primarily to Republican Party political causes.
- Lost the Best Actress Oscar to Luise Rainer twice back-to-back for films released in 1936 and 1937.
- After her death, her Holmby Hills home was listed for sale for $6.9 million. One of the realtors was William Bakewell who had acted with Irene in Back Street (1932).
- Was considered for the role of Mildred Rogers in Of Human Bondage (1934), but Bette Davis was cast instead.
- Was considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), which went to Vivien Leigh.
- She has two great-grandchildren from yoga instructor granddaughter Ann Shinnick Streibich.
- Her adopted daughter Mary Frances was nicknamed Murph.
- For years, during her lifetime, her date of birth was listed in the World Almanac as 1904.
- Profiled in book "Funny Ladies" by Stephen Silverman. (1999)
- Her grandson married writer Vanna Bonta in her home.
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 261-263. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
- She has an entry in Jean Tulard's "Dictionnaire du Cinéma/Les Acteurs" published in Paris in 2007 (ISBN: 978-2-221-10895-6), pages 384, 385.
- Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 145-146. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
- Profiled in "American Classic Screen Interviews" (Scarecrow Press). (2010)
- She has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Show Boat (1936) and The Awful Truth (1937).
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