Introduction
Irene Bentley (1870 – June 3, 1940) was an American stage actress and vocalist.
Biography
Bentley was born in 1870 in Baltimore, Maryland. She appeared in Sally in Our Alley with Marie Cahill and also in The Belle of New York, It Happened in Nordland, and The Belle of Mayfair. In 1906 she married librettist Harry B. Smith. This was her second marriage.
She died at Allenhurst, New Jersey, on June 3, 1940.
Niece
A niece of her husband Harry B. Smith, used Bentley's name to become a film actress. Hence there are two Irene Bentleys when perusing film or stage biographies. The younger Irene Bentley was born in 1904 and died in 1965, and appeared in films such as My Weakness (1933), Smoky (1933), and Frontier Marshal (1934). She is not the child of Irene Bentley and Harry B. Smith.