Actress. She is best remembered for her portrayal of the exotic Yolanda Petrova in "Toast to Love" (1951). Born into a working-class family, the daughter of a housewife and a navy lieutenant, she was raised under meager circumstances in Arges, Romania during the early years of her life. Upon her family's relocation to Paris, France, following more fruitful occupational opportunities in 1930, she was introduced to dance instructress Mathilde Kschessinska following an arranged interview per her mother. After several months of training, she began her professional career originally as a ballet dancer within the Paris Opera. After nine years of dancing, she was attending a social function at the prestigious Louve Musuem she was introduced to director Edwin L. Marin. Impressed by her blonde good looks, slim physique, and articulate voice, he took notice of her potential and arranged for her to begin a newfound career as an actress appearing under his supervision per a leading role in "Florian" (1940). From there, she would go on to become a notable character actress between two continents; often typecast as wives, mothers, faithful friends, love interests, debutantes, white-collared workers, singers, nurses, secretaries, educators, historical figures, exotics, businesswomen, and, in her later years, matriarchs. She appeared in such feature films as "Toast of Love" (1943), "Train of Events" (1949), "Nijinsky" (1980), and "Ballet Russes" (2004). On the stage, she appeared in major roles in such productions as "Street Scene," "Dinner at Eight," "The Children's Hour," "All This and Heaven Too," "Watch on the Rhine," "Blithe Spirit," "Carousel," "Kiss Me Kate," "Finian's Rainbow," "The Nutcracker," "Lady in the Dark," "Pal Joey," "Mame," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "The Glass Menagerie," "Our Town," "Romeo and Juliet," "The King and I," "Wonderful Town," "The Mousetrap," "Camino Real," "Sabrina Fair," "Witness for the Prosecution," "Tea and Sympathy," "The Dark is Light Enough," "Separate Tables," "A View from the Bridge," "Towards Zero," "Her Cardboard Lover," "Suddenly Last Summer," "Sweet Bird of Youth," "Critic's Choice," "Toys in the Attic," "Swan Lake," "The Little Foxes," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," "Forty Carats," "Plaza Suite," "The Gingerbread Lady," "Applause," "The Prisoner of Second Avenue," "Veronica's Room," and "First Monday in October". During her career, she held dual citizenship with the United States and England, was a member of the Screen Actors Guild, had been an honorary member of the Theatre Guild, was a theatrical instructor for the HB Studio, had been a dance instructor for the Australian Ballet School, presided on the board of directors for the Royal Academy of Dance, was a vice-treasurer for the Mariinsky Theatre, had been a 1996 recipient of the Vaslav Nijinsky Medal, was a political conservative, had been a regular parishioner of the Catholic church, and she was married to MCA talent agent Cecil Tennant with whom she mothered three children (one of whom became film and television actress Victoria Tennant). Following her 2005 retirement following the publication of her autobiography "Irina: Ballet, Love, and Life", she spent the final years of her life being a motivational speaker, and was involved in various charitable and religious causes, until her death from the complications of advanced age.