From left to right: Irene Cara, Joyce |
Throughout her career, Irene's acting and music have often overlapped. She's had an opportunity to meet and work with some of entertainment's greatest pioneers and icons as well as her own personal heroes. Here we have included photos, some from Irene's own personal scrapbook, that highlight her incredible journey. |
Here is a candid shot of Irene with David Lasley. David is a |
 |
 |
Irene is all smiles
backstage Here she sings and performs at the piano at NYC's famous Carnegie Hall where she opened for Mr. Charles. |
 |
| Here, the legendary R&B singer/songwriter Luther Vandross, who was Irene's beloved friend and mentor, arranges the vocals on one of her tracks. |
 |
 |
Irene had fun working with |
 |
 |
These shots of Irene and actor Stan Shaw depict them on the set of "Roots - The Next Generation". Irene played Mr. Shaw's daughter which was so much fun for them both being that they had been friends since Irene was a child! |
 |
 |
Working on "Roots - The Next Generation" also gave Irene the opportunity to work with acting legend, |
| A legendary shot of Irene as a young Bertha Haley, who would go on to be Alex Haley's mother in the groundbreaking mini-series "Roots: The Next Generation." |
|
 |
Here, a very young Irene performs in a touring production of "The Wiz". |
| In October 2005, Irene was honored at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival along with legendary Director Arthur Penn, Producer Tom Pollock, and Director Michael Moore. Here she is with news anchor Lonnie Quinn who interviewed her for South Florida Today. " |
|
 |
It was a great honor for Irene to portray Myrlie Evers |
| In another photo right out of the scrap book, Irene acts with Richard Roundtree. Always the ingenue and a testament to her ageless beauty, Irene portrayed Roundtree's girlfriend in "City Heat". A decade later she would be cast as his daughter in an Aaron Spelling TV pilot. |
|
 |
Irene has appeared on dozens of magazine covers both as an individual artist and with fellow cast mates like in this cover with Diahann Carroll and Rosalind Cash from "Sister, Sister", written by Maya Angelou, for which Irene won an NAACP Image Award |
| 1985's "Certain Fury" matched Irene up with Tatum O'Neal and was directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal, father of Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal. |
|
 |
Although Irene has won an Oscar for Best Original |