Iris Adrian was one of the best character actresses in movies of the 1930s-1960s. Though a versatile actress, she's best remembered for roles as a wisecracking brassy character.
Ms. Adrian was a friend of Muriel Landers, another character actress whom I knew for the last couple of years of her life. Once, from Muriel's house in Van Nuys, California, I talked to Iris on the phone, briefly, and told her my enjoyment of her screen portrayals.
It was several years later, following a phone call to Muriel's sister Janice Davies, during which Janice called Iris and we had an entertaining "conference call", that I sent Iris a photo to sign.
She promptly returned the photo, along with a handwritten letter in which she briefly reminisced about Muriel (who died in 1977) and Jack Benny (who died in 1974). The letter can be read here.
Keeping with her usual wit, she signed the photo "Have a good life in spite of it all". The photo can be viewed here.
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What's also nice about Iris Adrian is that late in her career, she had a wonderful stint playing roles in live action Walt Disney movies.
She appeared in That Darn Cat! (1965), The Love Bug (1968), The Barefoot Executive (1971), Scandalous John (1971), The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975), No Deposit, No Return (1976), Gus (1976), The Shaggy D.A. (1976), Freaky Friday (1976), and her last role ever, for Disney or anyone else, was in Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) (she appeared in the first and last films of the original "Herbie" series).
Clearly, somewhat at Disney had a good eye for extra casting.
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