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Irene Dailey was a versatile and respected stage actress, known especially for her work on Broadway and London's West End. However, she gained wider recognition as the neurotic patrician Liz Matthews on the daytime soap opera Another World (1964), a role that made her a familiar face to many viewers.
Born on September 12, 1920, in New York City, she was the daughter of Daniel James Dailey, manager of the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, and Helen (Ryan) Dailey. Her older brother, Dan Dailey, became a popular song-and-dance star in 1940s and 1950s musicals. Inspired by her brother, Irene began performing in vaudeville at age eight and gained experience through stock and touring productions during her teenage years. She later studied acting under Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen and eventually taught at the Berghof studio. From 1961, she ran her own School of Actors Co. in New York for over a decade.
During the 1940s and 1950s, Dailey appeared on Broadway in short-lived shows such as Nine Girls, Truckline Cafe, Springtime Folly, Idiot's Delight, and Miss Lonelyhearts. She earned acclaim in London for her performance in Tomorrow--In Pictures (1960). Her breakthrough role came in 1964 with The Subject Was Roses, a war-themed drama in which she portrayed Nettie, the mother of a troubled family, alongside Jack Albertson and Martin Sheen. The production won a Tony Award.
When The Subject Was Roses was adapted into a film, Dailey, lacking significant film credentials, was the only main cast member not to reprise her role on screen; Patricia Neal took over the part and received an Oscar nomination for her performance. This missed opportunity might have launched Dailey's film career. Although she never achieved major success in movies, she appeared in supporting roles in films including No Way to Treat a Lady (1968), Daring Game (1968), Five Easy Pieces (1970), The Grissom Gang (1971), The Amityville Horror (1979), and Stacking (1987).
Dailey began focusing on on-camera roles in middle age, excelling in soap operas where she often portrayed unsympathetic characters. Throughout the 1960s, she guest-starred on popular prime-time series such as The Defenders (1961), The Twilight Zone (1959), Dr. Kildare (1961), Ben Casey (1961), and The Nurses (1962). However, it was daytime television that best showcased her talents. After a brief role on The Edge of Night (1956), she took over as the manipulative aunt Liz Matthews on Another World in 1974. Over more than two decades, the character was alternately loved and hated by fans, and Dailey earned a Daytime Emmy Award in 1979 for her work.
In addition to her television career, Dailey won a Drama Desk Award in 1966 for her performance in the play Rooms. She also served as a replacement in the successful comedy You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running. In her seventies, she returned to Broadway with roles in Lost in Yonkers, playing the grandmother, and The Father during the 1990s.
Irene Dailey passed away from colon cancer on September 24, 2008, at a healthcare facility in Santa Rosa, California, at the age of 88. She never married and had no children. Her brother Dan had died thirty years earlier.
