American film, stage, and television actress who appeared in over fifty films and numerous television series spanning her five-decade career.
Hervey was trained in her youth by British stage and film actress Emma Dunn, a friend of her mother. She signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933, appearing in several films for the studio–including The Stranger’s Return (1933), opposite Lionel Barrymore–before landing a supporting role as Valentine de Villefort in United Artists’ The Count of Monte Cristo (1934). She would subsequently sign a contract with Universal Pictures, appearing in numerous films for the studio, including the Western Destry Rides Again (1939) opposite Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, the mystery The House of Fear (1939), and the musical The Boys from Syracuse (1940), the latter of which she appeared opposite her then-husband, Allan Jones.
She would continue to frequently appear in films throughout the 1940s into the 1950s, with roles in the horror film Night Monster (1942) opposite Bela Lugosi, the fantasy Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948), and the film noir A Cry in the Night (1956).
Beginning in the mid-1950s, Hervey transitioned to television, appearing as a guest star on Perry Mason, Honey West, and My Three Sons, the latter of which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Single Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role. Hervey appeared in occasional minor film roles in her later career, such as Gene Saks’s Cactus Flower (1969) and Clint Eastwood’s thriller Play Misty for Me (1971).
As a teenager, Hervey married her first husband William Fenderson in 1929 and had a daughter, Gail, before they divorced. In the mid-1930s, she was romantically linked, and subsequently engaged, to actor Robert Taylor. In 1936, she met and married actor Allan Jones. The couple had a son, singer Jack Jones, born in 1938. They divorced in 1957. Irene Hervey died on 20 December 1998 at age 89 of heart failure in Los Angeles.
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