Catherine Dale Owen

Catherine Dale Owen was an American stage and film actress. Dale was born in Louisville, Kentucky to a prominent Kentucky family. She attended private school in Philadelphia and Bronxville, New York before attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.

First discovered by Laura MacGillivray, the wife of Actors Equity president Frank Gillmore, Owen appeared on Broadway in the 1920s through early 1930s in productions including The Mountain Man, The Whole Town's Talking, Trelawny of the Wells, The Love City and The Play's the Thing. In 1925, Owen was acclaimed as one of the ten most beautiful women in the world. Owen made her film debut as Princess Orsolini opposite John Gilbert's Captain Kovacs in the 1929 film His Glorious Night. It was to Owen that Gilbert spoke the lines, "Oh beauteous maiden, my arms are waiting to enfold you. I love you. I love you. I love you." The scene, which proved disastrous for Gilbert's career, was later parodied in the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain. In 1930, Owen starred in Lawrence Tibbett's film debut, The Rogue Song and also with Edmund Lowe in Born Reckless. Owen appeared in her final film, Defenders of the Law in 1931. She retired from acting in 1935.