Background
Irene Catherine Ahlberg was born November 6, 1910, in New York City. Her father, Ernest Ahlberg, born in Sweden, managed a saloon. Her mother, Anna Freya, born in New York of Austrian parents, was a real estate agent.
Irene Catherine Ahlberg was born November 6, 1910, in New York City. Her father, Ernest Ahlberg, born in Sweden, managed a saloon. Her mother, Anna Freya, born in New York of Austrian parents, was a real estate agent.
She was a beauty queen and showgirl before appearing in 29 films between 1932 and 1940, and is mostly remembered for her roles as Princess Nadji in Chandu the Magician (1932) with Edmund Lowe and Bela Lugosi, and as Boris Karloff"s and Lugosi"s leading lady in 1935"s The Raven. She died in 1993, aged 82, in Orange, California. She lived in New York and Los Los Angeles
Her second marriage was to federal Judge Fred Campbell.
As an 18-year-old stenographer, (5'6"/168 cm tall), she was crowned Mission Greater New York, then "Mission United States" in 1929, and the same year was first runner-up for the title of Mission Universe at a pageant held in Galveston, Texas. ("Mission United States" was an unofficial alternative to the Mission America Pageant, which was not held in 1929 The Mission Universe contest of the 1920s was not connected to the current Mission Universe system, which was launched in 1952)
Through early 1932 she starred in Earl Carroll"s Vanities on Broadway.
She was then contracted to Fox Studios and moved to Hollywood, changing her name to Irene Ware. Her first movie was Society Girl, in 1932 at Fox Film Corporation as uncredited together with names like James Dunn, Peggy Shannon and Spencer Tracy.
The second film, which quickly made her a star, was Chandu the Magician, also released in 1932 and directed by Marcel Varnel.