Biography

Sugar, Pepper, Pearl, Bunny, Dottie, Ruby, Ginger, Sunny, Goldie, Bubbles, all those are nicknames borne by petite actress Iris Adrian in several of the 160 movies and television productions she appeared in. With such names, don't expect to see her playing Joan of Arc or Electra but it remains that all these pet names reflect her winning femininity, its sweetness, its spiciness, its radiance. What's more their funny overtones are telltale signs of Iris Adrian's own quick witty sense of humor. Sexy yes, but with a sharp tongue. This aspect of her personality helped her to evolve and last, changing from the roles of blonde chorus girls or waitresses or, on the wilder side, of streetwalkers and other gangsters' molls to colorful bit parts in comedies with Abbott and Costello, Jerry Lewis and Elvis Presley. She ended up playing almost exclusively for Walt Disney productions before retiring at the respectable age of 82. Though she never achieved star status she could easily have if the circumstances had been favorable. For she steals scenes in a lot of movies provided of course her role is fleshed out sufficiently. She was excellent, for instance, in more than one poverty row crime movies. Don't miss her in Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936), Go West (1940) (with the Marx Brothers), Lady of Burlesque (1943), The Paleface (1948), Once a Thief (1950), and The Errand Boy (1961) (with Jerry Lewis).
- IMDb mini biography by: Guy Bellinger

Iris Adrian Hostetter was born in Los Angeles and educated at Miss Page's School for Girls. She won a beauty contest in 1929, and two years later made her Broadway debut as a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies . She then had a brief spell as a dancer in Paris and London before returning to New York and being signed up by Paramount. She made her film debut in the short Chasing Husbands (1928), while her first feature was The Vagabond King (1930) two years later, although this was in an uncredited part. Her first credited roles came in the 1930 short College Cuties (1930) and the full length film Rumba (1935) as support to Carole Lombard while the film that established her was Our Relations (1936) with Laurel and Hardy. She went on to appear in other roles such as Road to Zanzibar (1941) with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, Roxie Hart (1942) with Ginger Rogers, and The Woman in the Window (1944) with Edward G. Robinson. While she was still being offered parts through the 50's the quality of them weren't so good and she was reduced to making television commercials. However by the 1960's directors, particularly those at the Disney studios, were coming to regard her a something of a Hollywood institution and to revalue her. She was seen in cameos such as The Odd Couple (1968), The Love Bug (1968), The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975), and Herbie Goes Bananas (1980). Over the years she had sensibly invested her earnings in real estate and had become an expert in astrology. She was married for a third time to former football star Fido Murphy, later a consultant with the Chicago Bears.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tonyman 5