Iris Adrian

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Iris Adrian Hostetter (born May 29, 1912 in Los Angeles , California - † September 17, 1994 in Hollywood , California) was an American actress . Between 1928 and 1986 she played in more than 160 film and television productions, specializing mainly in comedic supporting roles.

life and career

Iris Adrian grew up as an only child with her single mother in Los Angeles and graduated from Hollywood High School. She headed for a show career at an early age, as she received dance lessons from Ernest Belcher ( Marge Champion's father ) and won a beauty contest at the age of 13. Towards the end of the 1920s, at the beginning of the age of the sound film , she made her first small film appearances. Since she was unsuccessful in Hollywood at first, she went to the US east coast and performed as a choir girl on Broadway in New York , where she became known as one of the Ziegfeld Girls of 1931. She then performed as a nightclub singer in the USA and Europe and was temporarily on stage with George Raft as a dance couple. With a burlesque appearance in the play The Fabulous Invalid by George S. Kaufman and Lorenz Hart , Adrian caused a sensation in 1938, also because New York's Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia had banned the official burlesque houses in New York at that time and many men had therefore banned it came into the play to see Adrian's relatively revealing appearance.

In Hollywood, the blonde was in most cases limited to supporting roles, and she particularly often played “Gold Diggers” who were conscious of her feminine charms - women who exploit men financially for themselves. This is also the case in her best-known film appearance of the 1930s in The Doppelgangers , where she and a friend have Laurel and Hardy's meal bill paid for and thus make the wives of the comedian duo jealous. Many of her characters - often with illustrious names such as Sugar, Pepper, Pearl, Sunny, Goldie and Bubbles - were attractive, at the same time self-confident, funny and made sharp-tongued sayings while they chewed on chewing gum. Because of these qualities, she also appeared in many film comedies, including with the Marx Brothers , Bob Hope , Milton Berle and Jerry Lewis . She had notable film roles outside of the comedy genre, including in Roxie Hart as a criminal and as a burlesque dancer in Lady of Burlesque , both times directed by veteran director William A. Wellman , the actor who is often stamped on a certain role type like Adrian for unusual or larger roles occupied. In the 1960s and 1970s, when she was getting too old to portray gold diggers, dancers and prostitutes, she also played waitresses, secretaries and wives. Adrian appeared in several Disney comedies in the 1960s and 1970s , including small supporting roles in two films in the Herbie film series.

She made her entry into the television business in 1949 in the Buster Keaton Show produced by Hal Roach . She quickly established herself as a successful guest actress, with particular emphasis on her roles in the TV series by Jack Benny . In 1978 she had a recurring supporting role in the series The Ted Knight Show at the side of Ted Knight , in which she played the sarcastic secretary of an escort service. She played her last role in 1986, 58 years after her first film, as Emma Baxter in an episode of the series Love Boat .

She invested her acting skills in real estate early on, so she could live comfortably in old age and owned several houses in Los Angeles. Adrian was married four times, their first three marriages were divorced, with her last husband Raymond Murphy she was married from 1950 until his death in 1983. She fractured her hip in the Northridge earthquake in 1994 , and died eight months later of complications from the fracture at the age of 82. She was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Iris Adrian  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Iris Adrian | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved July 27, 2019 (American English).
  2. ↑ Iris Adrian | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved July 27, 2019 (American English).
  3. ^ Clipping from Jefferson City Post-Tribune. Accessed July 27, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Iris Adrian | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved July 27, 2019 (American English).
  5. ↑ Iris Adrian. Retrieved July 27, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Obituary: Iris Adrian. October 4, 1994, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Iris Adrian | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved July 27, 2019 (American English).
  8. ↑ Iris Adrian | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved July 27, 2019 (American English).
  9. ↑ Obituary: Iris Adrian. October 4, 1994, accessed July 27, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Obituary: Iris Adrian. October 4, 1994, accessed July 27, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Adrian, Iris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hofstadter, Iris Adrian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film actress
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California , USA
DATE OF DEATH 17th September 1994
Place of death Hollywood , California, USA