Iris Adrian was an American film actress.

Life and career

Born in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 as Iris Hostetter, Adrian won a beauty pageant and worked with the Ziegfeld Follies

Ziegfeld Follies

The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....

, before she entered films at the end of the silent era

Silent Movies

Silent Movies are 13 solo guitar compositions by Marc Ribot released September 28, 2010 on Pi Recordings.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4 stars stating "For those interested in one of the more compelling and quietly provocative and graceful guitar records of 2010,...

 in Chasing Husbands (1928) and appeared as an extra or chorus girl in early sound film

Sound film

A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...

s like Paramount on Parade

Paramount on Parade

Paramount on Parade is a all-star revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Victor Heerman, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H...

(1930).

During the 1930s she specialised in playing glamorous gold-diggers and gangsters' "molls", and played supporting roles in numerous features. She was considered a versatile actress, who could play drama or comedy, and she was also regarded as a capable dancer, dancing in a couple of films with George Raft

George Raft

George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...

. She also appeared on several radio programs, including serving as a regular on the Abbott and Costello Show.

She continued to act regularly without achieving star status and by the end of the 1960s had appeared in more than one hundred films. In her later years she appeared in several Walt Disney

Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

 films, including That Darn Cat!, The Love Bug

The Love Bug

The Love Bug is the first in a series of comedy films made by Walt Disney Productions that starred an anthropomorphic pearl-white, fabric-sunroofed 1963 Volkswagen racing Beetle named Herbie...

, The Shaggy D.A.

The Shaggy D.A.

The Shaggy D.A. is a 1976 film sequel to 1959's The Shaggy Dog by Walt Disney Productions. It was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Don Tait, based on the original film and inspired by the long out-of-print Felix Salten novel, The Hound of Florence.It starred Dean Jones as the adult...

and Freaky Friday

Freaky Friday (1976 film)

Freaky Friday is a 1976 American comedy film starring Jodie Foster as Annabel Andrews and Barbara Harris as her mother.The film is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Rodgers, in which mother and daughter switch bodies and get a taste of each others' lives. The cause of the switch is left...

. She also played numerous guest roles in such television series as Get Smart

Get Smart

Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...

, The Beverly Hillbillies

The Beverly Hillbillies

The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....

, Green Acres

Green Acres

Green Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm...

, Petticoat Junction

Petticoat Junction

Petticoat Junction is an American situation comedy produced by Filmways which originally aired on CBS from 1963 to 1970. The series is one of three interrelated shows about rural characters created by Paul Henning; the others are The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.The setting for the series...

, The Munsters

The Munsters

The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...

, The Love Boat

The Love Boat

The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...

, The Lucy Show

The Lucy Show

The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program...

and The Jack Benny Show.

Personal life

She was married three times, the first time to Charles Over from 1935 to 1936; that marriage ended in divorce. Her second marriage, to George Jay, also ended in divorce. Her third and final marriage was to Ray Murphy, and lasted more than 30 years. None of the unions produced children.

Death

Adrian died in Los Angeles, from injuries she sustained during the 1994 Northridge earthquake exactly eight months earlier, and was entombed at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery

Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...

.

Features

• The Vagabond King
  The Vagabond King (1930 film)
  The Vagabond King is a 1930 American musical operetta film photographed entirely in two-color Technicolor. The plot of the film was based on the 1925 operetta of the same name, which was based on the 1901 play If I Were King by Justin Huntly McCarthy. The play told the story of a renegade French...
  
  (1930)
• Lord Byron of Broadway
  Lord Byron of Broadway
  Lord Byron of Broadway , also known as What Price Melody?, is an American musical drama film, directed by Harry Beaumont and William Nigh...
  
  (1930)
• Paramount on Parade
  Paramount on Parade
  Paramount on Parade is a all-star revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Victor Heerman, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H...
  
  (1930)
• Let's Go Native
  Let's Go Native
  Let's Go Native, is a 1930 American black-and-white musical comedy film, directed by Leo McCarey and released by Paramount Pictures.A very memorable, witty quote is when Jerry comments on being the only man on an island populated by women...
  
  (1930)
• Rumba
  Rumba (1935 film)
  Rumba is a 1935 musical drama film starring George Raft as a Cuban dancer and Carole Lombard as a Manhattan socialite. The movie was directed by Marion Gering and is considered an unsuccessful follow-up to Raft and Lombard's smash hit Bolero the previous year.-Cast:*George Raft as Joe Martin*Carole...
  
  (1935)
• Stolen Harmony
  Stolen Harmony
  Stolen Harmony is a 1935 film about a saxophone-player/dancer who joins a Big Band upon his release from jail. The movie climaxes with an exciting car chase and was directed by Alfred L...
  
  (1935)
• The Gay Deception (1935)
• Grand Exit (1935)
• Murder at Glen Athol
  Murder at Glen Athol
  -Plot summary:A famous detective is invited to a swanky party at an elegant mansion, but before the night is over he finds himself involved with gangsters, blackmail and murder.-Cast:*John Miljan as Bill Holt, the detective*Irene Ware as Jane Maxwell...
  
  (1936)
• A Message to Garcia (1936)
• One Rainy Afternoon
  One Rainy Afternoon
  One Rainy Afternoon is a 1936 romantic comedy film directed by Rowland V. Lee, starring Francis Lederer and Ida Lupino and featuring Hugh Herbert, Roland Young and Erik Rhodes...
  
  (1936)
• Stage Struck (1936)
• Lady Luck (1936)
• Mister Cinderella (1936)
• Our Relations
  Our Relations
  Our Relations is a 1936 feature film starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, produced by Laurel for Hal Roach Studios.-Plot:Laurel and Hardy star as both their famous Stan and Ollie characters and as Stan and Ollie's twin brothers Bert and Alf...
  
  (1936)
• Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936)
• One Third of a Nation (1939)
• Back Door to Heaven (1939)
• Meet the Wildcat (1940)
• Go West (1940)
• Meet the Chump (1941)
• Horror Island (1941)
• Road to Zanzibar
  Road to Zanzibar
  Road to Zanzibar is a 1941 Paramount Pictures comedy film starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour, and marked the second picture in the popular "Road to …" series made by the trio....
  
  (1941)
• The Lady from Cheyenne (1941)
• Too Many Blondes (1941)
• Wild Geese Calling (1941)
• Swing It Soldier (1941)
• Sing Another Chorus (1941)
• Hard Guy (1941)
• New York Town (1941)
• I Killed That Man (1941)
• Roxie Hart
  Roxie Hart (film)
  Roxie Hart is a 1942 film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, George Montgomery, Nigel Bruce, Phil Silvers, William Frawley, and Spring Byington....
  
  (1942)
• To the Shores of Tripoli
  To the Shores of Tripoli
  To the Shores of Tripoli is a Technicolor 1942 film starring John Payne, Maureen O'Hara, Randolph Scott, Nancy Kelly and Minor Watson. The film was directed by H...
  
  (1942)
• Rings on Her Fingers
  Rings on Her Fingers
  Rings on Her Fingers is a 1942 screwball comedy film starring Henry Fonda and Gene Tierney. A poor man gets mistaken for a millionaire and is swindled out of his life savings.-Cast:* Henry Fonda as John Wheeler...
  
  (1942)
• Juke Box Jenny (1942)
• Fingers at the Window (1942)
• Broadway
  Broadway (1942 film)
  Broadway is a 1942 film about Broadway theatre with George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Janet Blair, Broderick Crawford, Marjorie Rambeau, Anne Gwynne, and S.Z. Sakall. Raft plays himself, recalling an incident early in his pre-movie career as a dancer. The movie was directed by William A....
  
  (1942)
• Moonlight Masquerade (1942)
• Orchestra Wives
  Orchestra Wives
  Orchestra Wives is a 1942 American musical film by 20th Century Fox starring Ann Rutherford, George Montgomery, and Glenn Miller. The film was the second and last film to feature The Glenn Miller Orchestra, and is notable among the many swing era musicals because its plot is more serious and...
  
  (1942)
• Highways by Night (1942)
• Thunder Birds (1942)
• The Crystal Ball (1943)
• Calaboose (1943)
• He's My Guy (1943)
• Ladies' Day (1943)
• Taxi, Mister (1943)
• Lady of Burlesque
  Lady of Burlesque
  Lady of Burlesque is a 1943 American mystery film starring Barbara Stanwyck and Michael O'Shea, based on the novel The G-String Murders written by famous strip tease artist Gypsy Rose Lee...
  
  (1943)
• Action in the North Atlantic
  Action in the North Atlantic
  Action in the North Atlantic is a 1943 war film directed by Lloyd Bacon, featuring Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey as sailors in the U.S. Merchant Marine in World War II.-Plot:...
  
  (1943)
• Hers to Hold (1943)
• Submarine Base (1943)
• Spotlight Revue (1943)
• His Butler's Sister (1943)
• Career Girl (1944)
• Million Dollar Kid (1944)
• Shake Hands with Murder (1944)
• Once Upon a Time (1944)
• Swing Hostess
  Swing Hostess
  Swing Hostess is a 1944 American musical comedy film directed by Sam Newfield and starring Martha Tilton, Iris Adrian, Charles Collins, Betty Brodel, Cliff Nazarro and Harry Holman.- Plot summary :...
  
  (1944)
• The Singing Sheriff (1944)
• I'm from Arkansas (1944)
• The Woman in the Window
  The Woman in the Window
  The Woman in the Window is a film noir directed by Fritz Lang that tells the story of psychology professor Richard Wanley who meets and becomes enamored with a young femme fatale....
  
  (1944)
• Bluebeard
  Bluebeard (1944 film)
  Bluebeard is a 1944 film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, starring John Carradine in the title role. After the film's release, it became a favorite of horror movie fans and still later, a cult classic. It would also be registered as a film in thepublic domain...
  
  (1944)

• Alaska (1944)
• It's a Pleasure (1945)
• Boston Blackie's Rendezvous
  Boston Blackie
  Boston Blackie is a fictional character created by author Jack Boyle . Originally a jewel thief and safecracker in Boyle's novels, he became a detective in adaptations for films, radio and television—an "enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend."-Literature:Jack...
  
  (1945)
• Steppin' in Society (1945)
• Road to Alcatraz (1945)
• The Stork Club (1945)
• The Bamboo Blonde (1946)
• Vacation in Reno
  Vacation in Reno
  Vacation in Reno is a 1946 film directed by Leslie Goodwins starring Jack Haley, Anne Jeffreys, Iris Adrian, Wally Brown, Alan Carney, and Morgan Conway.-Plot:...
  
  (1946)
• Cross My Heart (1946)
• Fall Guy (1947)
• Philo Vance Returns
  Philo Vance
  Philo Vance featured in 12 crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine , published in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, movies, and on the radio. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent...
  
  (1947)
• Love and Learn (1947)
• The Trouble with Women (1947)
• Smart Woman (1948)
• Out of the Storm (1948)
• The Paleface (1948)
• Miss Mink of 1949 (1949)
• My Dream Is Yours (1949)
• The Sky Dragon
  Charlie Chan
  Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu...
  
  (1949)
• Flamingo Road
  Flamingo Road (1949 film)
  Flamingo Road is a Warner Bros. feature film starring Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet and David Brian in a noir story about small town political corruption. The screenplay by Edmund H. North was based on a play by Robert and Sally Wilder, which was adapted from Robert Wilder's...
  
  (1949)
• The Loveable Cheat (1949)
• Mighty Joe Young (1949)
• Trail of the Yukon (1949)
• I Married a Communist
  I Married a Communist (film)
  I Married a Communist is a 1949 film drama produced by RKO Radio Pictures. Due to audience resistance to the title, RKO re-released the film as The Woman on Pier 13 and Beautiful But Dangerous.-Plot:...
  
  (1949)
• Tough Assignment (1949)
• Always Leave Them Laughing (1949)
• Bodyhold (1949)
• There's a Girl in My Heart (1950)
• Blondie's Hero
  Blondie (film)
  Blondie is a 1938 movie directed by Frank Strayer, based on the comic strip of the same name. The screenplay was written by Chic Young and Richard Flournoy....
  
  (1950)
• Joe Palooka in Humphrey Takes a Chance
  Joe Palooka
  Joe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher in 1921. The strip debuted in 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers....
  
  (1950)
• Sideshow (1950)
• Once a Thief (1950)
• Hi-Jacked (1950)
• Hunt the Man Down (1950)
• Stop That Cab (1951)
• The Scarf (1951)
• G.I. Jane (1951)
• Varieties on Parade (1951)
• My Favorite Spy (1951)
• The Big Trees
  The Big Trees
  The Big Trees is a 1952 film starring Kirk Douglas and directed by Felix E. Feist. It was Kirk Douglas's final film for Warner Brothers, a film he did for free in exchange for the studio agreeing to release him from his long-term contract....
  
  (1952)
• Carson City
  Carson City (1952 film)
  Carson City is a 1952 western film starring Randolph Scott, Lucille Norman, Raymond Massey, and Richard Webb. Carson City was Warner Bros.' first film shot in WarnerColor.-Plot:...
  
  (1952)
• Take the High Ground!
  Take the High Ground!
  Take the High Ground! is a film about the Korean War, starring Richard Widmark and Karl Malden as drill instructors who must transform a batch of everyday civilians into soldiers.-Plot:...
  
  (1953) (scenes deleted)
• Crime Wave
  Crime Wave (1954 film)
  Crime Wave is a 1954 film noir, directed by André De Toth. It was adapted from a short story which originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post - Criminal Mark by John and Ward Hawkins.-Plot:...
  
  (1954)
• Highway Dragnet
  Highway Dragnet
  Highway Dragnet is a 1954 crime drama film directed by Nathan Juran, based on story by U.S. Anderson and Roger Corman. The film stars Richard Conte, Joan Bennett and Wanda Hendrix. It tells the story of a former Korean War-era Marine, who hitches a ride with a female fashion photographer and her...
  
  (1954)
• The Fast and the Furious
  The Fast and the Furious (1954 film)
  The Fast and the Furious is a 1955 film starring John Ireland and Dorothy Malone. It was the first film produced by American International Pictures production company. The black-and-white B-movie was co-directed by the film's leading man, John Ireland. The story was written by Roger Corman and the...
  
  (1955)
• Carnival Rock (1957)
• The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
• The Buccaneer
  The Buccaneer (1958 film)
  The Buccaneer is a 1958 War film, made by Paramount Pictures like the 1938 version and shot in Technicolor and VistaVision. It takes place during the War of 1812, and tells a heavily fictionalized version of how the pirate Jean Lafitte helped in the Battle of New Orleans and how he had to choose...
  
  (1958)
• Blue Hawaii
  Blue Hawaii
  Blue Hawaii is a 1961 musical film set in the state of Hawaii and starring Elvis Presley. The screenplay by Hal Kanter was nominated by the Writers Guild of America in 1962 in the category of Best Written American Musical. The movie opened at no...
  
  (1961)
• The Errand Boy
  The Errand Boy
  The Errand Boy is a 1961 American comedy film directed, co-written and starring Jerry Lewis.-Plot:Paramutual Pictures decides that they need a spy to find out the inner workings of their studio. Morty Tashman is a paperhanger who happens to be working right outside their window. They decide that...
  
  (1961)
• Fate Is the Hunter
  Fate Is the Hunter
  Fate Is the Hunter , ISBN 0-671-63603-0, was a 1961 bestseller by aviation author Ernest K. Gann. Autobiographical, though reading at times like an adventure novel, it describes his years working as a pilot at American Airlines starting in DC-2s and DC-3s when civilian air transport was in its...
  
  (1964)
• That Darn Cat! (1965) - Landlady
• The Odd Couple
  The Odd Couple (film)
  The Odd Couple is a 1968 comedy film written by Neil Simon, based on his play The Odd Couple, directed by Gene Saks, and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau...
  
  (1968)
• The Love Bug
  The Love Bug
  The Love Bug is the first in a series of comedy films made by Walt Disney Productions that starred an anthropomorphic pearl-white, fabric-sunroofed 1963 Volkswagen racing Beetle named Herbie...
  
  (1968)
• The Barefoot Executive
  The Barefoot Executive
  The Barefoot Executive is a live-action Disney film released by Buena Vista Distribution in 1971 starring Kurt Russell, Joe Flynn, Wally Cox, Heather North and John Ritter , about a pet chimpanzee, named Raffles, who can predict the popularity of television programs...
  
  (1971)
• Scandalous John (1971)
• The Apple Dumpling Gang
  The Apple Dumpling Gang (film)
  The Apple Dumpling Gang is a 1975 Disney film about slick gambler Russel Donavan who is duped into taking care of a group of orphan children who eventually strike gold during the California Gold Rush....
  
  (1975)
• No Deposit, No Return
  No Deposit, No Return
  No Deposit, No Return is a 1976 comedy film directed by Norman Tokar. It was written by Arthur Alsberg and Don Nelson. It is the story of two children who hold themselves for ransom, reluctantly aided by an expert safecracker and his sidekick .-Cast:*David Niven - J.W...
  
  (1976)
• Gus
  Gus (film)
  Gus is a 1976 American film by Walt Disney Productions. Its center character is Gus, a football-playing mule.- Plot :Gus is a film about a football-kicking mule and his trainer "Andy" ....
  
  (1976)
• The Shaggy D.A.
  The Shaggy D.A.
  The Shaggy D.A. is a 1976 film sequel to 1959's The Shaggy Dog by Walt Disney Productions. It was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Don Tait, based on the original film and inspired by the long out-of-print Felix Salten novel, The Hound of Florence.It starred Dean Jones as the adult...
  
  (1976)
• Freaky Friday
  Freaky Friday (1976 film)
  Freaky Friday is a 1976 American comedy film starring Jodie Foster as Annabel Andrews and Barbara Harris as her mother.The film is based on the novel of the same name by Mary Rodgers, in which mother and daughter switch bodies and get a taste of each others' lives. The cause of the switch is left...
  
  (1976)
• Herbie Goes Bananas
  Herbie Goes Bananas
  Herbie Goes Bananas is the fourth of a series of films made by Walt Disney Productions starring Herbie – the white Volkswagen racing Beetle with a mind of its own. The film stars former Mel Brooks collaborators Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman....
  
  (1980)

Short subjects

• Chasing Husbands (1928)
• Whirls and Girls (1929)
• The Freshman's Goat (1930)
• Don't Give Up (1930)
• College Cuties (1930)
• Man to Man (1937)
• How to Clean House (1948)
• Foy Meets Girl (1950)
• Heebie Gee-Gees (1952)
• So You Want to Be Pretty
  Joe McDoakes
  Joe McDoakes is the protagonist of a series of 63 black and white live action comedy one reel short subjects released between 1942 and 1956. The Joe McDoakes shorts are also known as the Behind the Eight Ball series or the So You Want... series...
  
  (1956)

External links