Catherine Dale Owen was a renowned American stage and film actress, born to a prominent Kentucky family in Louisville, Kentucky. She received a private education in Philadelphia and Bronxville, New York, before attending the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.
Owen's early career was marked by her discovery by Laura MacGillivray, the wife of Actors Equity president Frank Gillmore, and she soon made her mark on the Broadway stage in the 1920s and early 1930s. Her notable productions included 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 recognized as one of the ten most beautiful women in the world, a testament to her striking features and captivating on-screen presence. Her film debut came in 1929 with His Glorious Night, opposite John Gilbert, in which she played Princess Orsolini opposite his Captain Kovacs. The film featured a memorable scene in which Gilbert spoke the lines, "Oh beauteous maiden, my arms are waiting to enfold you. I love you. I love you. I love you," a moment that would later be parodied in the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain.
Owen continued to appear on screen throughout the early 1930s, starring alongside Lawrence Tibbett in The Rogue Song and Edmund Lowe in Born Reckless. Her final film appearance was in Defenders of the Law in 1931, after which she retired from acting in 1935.
