Actress Irene Dailey Dies at 88

Longtime Another World Star

Irene Dailey, an actress who played the character Liz Matthews on the daytime drama Another World from 1974 to 1986, and then again from 1988 to 1994, died from colon cancer on September 24, 2008, in Santa Rosa, California. She was 88.

In 1979, Dailey won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series.

She also appeared in playwright Frank D. Gilroy’s 1964 stage drama The Subject Was Roses, and on the television series The Edge of Night, Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, The Twilight Zone and The Defenders. Her film credits include No Way to Treat a Lady, Five Easy Pieces and The Amityville Horror.

Dailey was born in New York City on September 12, 1920. Her brother, Dan Dailey, became a well-known singer, dancer and Hollywood actor.

She began performing as a child, but her success in The Subject Was Roses came after years of frustration in a string of Broadway failures.

Her fortunes changed initially when she moved to London, where she was cast as the lead in the 1960 play Tomorrow — With Pictures, for which she drew glowing notices.

She transitioned into films and television in the ’60s, and made her final film appearance in the 1987 drama Stacking.

Dailey never married, and had no children.