Lorena Carr

born: 20 September 1911
Ann Arbor, Michigan,
United States of America
died: 26 August 1964
Los Angeles, California,
United States of America
(heart attack, age 52)

American actress who had a brief film career in the 1930s. She was previously known as Lorema/Lorima/Lorena Clark.
Lorena's paternal grandparents, Hiram and Laura (Case) Clark, were pioneer settlers in the San Bernardino Valley of California. Her parents were Alice (Morgan) (1892-1963) and Fay Goodsell Clark (1884-1960), who married in 1910 but separated sometime in the 1920s before Alice obtained a divorce in 1931; Fay was a professor at the Montana State University School of Forestry. Born in Michigan, Lorena was raised in Montana and later in California. She had a younger brother, Fay Morgan "Buddie" Clark (1914-1929), who tragically committed suicide at the young age of 15, despondent over an unrequited love.
Lorena's film career began in the late 1920s and largely consisted of bit roles and chorus work; the W. C. Fields/Mack Sennett comedy short "The Pharmacist" (1933) proved an exception to this, giving Lorena a decent supporting role as "Ooleota Dilweg," the oldest of Fields' two daughters, who is seen throughout most of the film chatting away on the phone with her boyfriend "Cuthbert" (revealed at film's end to be Grady Sutton). After her film career petered out in the mid-1930s, Lorena explored other career opportunities. By 1938, she had moved to New York and got into the wholesale dress-selling business. She later returned to California and began a new career as a modeling teacher. She would serve as director of instructors at the John Robert Powers School.
She was married at least three times: first to actor Robert Louis Farfan in 1929 (annulled in 1931), then later to a Mr. Cooper (divorced by 1950). In 1956, she married Simon S. Rose, owner of the Powers School; they remained together until her death about eight years later. Mrs. Lorena Cooper Rose passed away at 6:00am on 26 August 1964 (just over a year after her mother's passing) at Mount Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, California, at the age of only 52, as the result of an "acute myocardial infarction" [heart attack]. She is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
For years her identity in several movies was mistaken for the similar-looking Dorothy Layton.
Real name: Laura Emma Clark
Films listed on this page: complete Hal Roach filmography.

11


1930
Dollar Dizzy
Gold digger

1931
Chickens Come Home
Switchboard operator

1931
Catch-As Catch-Can
Woman in phone booth with flowers

1931
On The Loose
Lady in fun house

1932
Red Noses
Physical therapist

1932
The Chimp
Circus performer

1932
County Hospital
Hotel receptionist

1932
Pack Up Your Troubles
Bridesmaid

1932
Alum And Eve
Nurse

1933
Bring 'Em Back A Wife
Telephone operator

1935
Slightly Static
Member of stock company

Acknowledgements:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8Q7-KX9 (1920 Census)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8N5-DCT (1929 marriage)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCJY-YZK (1930 Census)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZQ3-S9Q (1932 pass. list)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZQC-VF7 (1938 pass. list)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XGN-P59K (1950 Census)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VV5R-8S9 (1956 marriage)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VVKY-9LV (1956 marriage)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPKL-C23 (CA Death Index)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HGWY-53ZM (death/burial record)
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9B8-Q3FV-C (funeral service record)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6541593 (Find a Grave)
https://books.google.com/books?id=ym0UAAAAYAAJ&q=%22laura+emma+clark%22
('History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties,' by John Brown, Jr. & James Boyd) https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19291112.1.9 (San Bernardino Daily Sun, 12 Nov 1929)
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/349347005/ (Daily Missoulian, 23 Mar 1938)
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/239313086/ (Great Falls Tribune, 06 Apr 1938)
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/704912061/ (Independent-Press-Telegram [Long Beach, CA], 09 May 1954)
https://www.classicactresses.org/2018/11/lorena-carr-1930s-starlet.html (Classic Actresses, Elizabeth Ann)
https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/sayre/id/21221/ (1928 photo)
Jesse Brisson (research and information; identification in several movies)

This page was last updated on: 03 February 2023