Iris Meredith

Iris Meredith (born Iris Marie Shunn;[1] June 3, 1915 – January 22, 1980) was a B-movie actress of the 1930s and 1940s film era. She starred mostly in heroine roles, in westerns.

Iris Meredith
Born
Iris Shunn

(1915-06-03)June 3, 1915
Sioux City, Iowa
DiedJanuary 22, 1980(1980-01-22) (aged 64)
California
OccupationAmerican film actress
Years active1930s – 1940s
SpouseAbby Berlin

Early years

Meredith was born in Sioux City, Iowa, but grew up in Eagle Rock, California. She was active in journalism and dramatics at Eagle Rock High School, from which she graduated. Both of her parents died while Iris was in her teens, forcing her into the working world at an early age. She worked as a cashier in a Los Angeles theater before she became an actress.[2]

Career

In 1935 she joined the Fox studio (as Iris Shunn),[3] as a member of its stock company, playing incidental roles without screen credit. She was released after one year and joined Columbia Pictures, which changed her screen name to Iris Meredith and promoted her immediately to leading-lady status. She was featured opposite Columbia's leading cowboy star Charles Starrett, and appeared in most of his films through 1940. She also worked in Columbia short subjects, notably the serials The Spider's Web (1938), and Overland with Kit Carson (1939), and a two-reel comedy with Charley Chase, His Bridal Fright (1940).

When Starrett withdrew from westerns,[4] Columbia disbanded the unit and Iris Meredith left the studio.[5] She joined the small Producers Releasing Corporation studio in 1942, and was featured in two low-budget westerns there.

Personal life and death

Meredith married one of her Columbia co-workers, assistant director Abby Berlin,[6] and retired from the screen, returning only once (to Columbia, in 1951) for a bit role in the "B" melodrama Chain of Circumstance.

In her late fifties, she was diagnosed with oral cancer that resulted in the surgical removal of part of her jaw and tongue, which disfigured her face and affected her speech. She seldom appeared in public, but in 1975 she did accept an invitation to a convention of western and serial fans, where she wore a veil over her face and was treated as a special guest. The oral cancer finally claimed her life on January 22, 1980, in Los Angeles, California. She was 64 years old. She is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Partial filmography

References
  1. "Movie Scrapbook". Detroit Free Press. July 25, 1939. p. 13. Retrieved August 21, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Iris Meredith Came to Films From Cashier". The Times Dispatch. Virginia, Richmond. June 9, 1938. p. 34. Retrieved August 21, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Gordon, Jeff. Foxy Lady: The Authorized Biography of Lynn Bari, Bear Manor Media, 2010; p. 53.
  4. New York Times, August 5, 1940, p. 10.
  5. Hollywood Reporter, "Meredith Leaving Col.," July 12, 1940, p. 4.
  6. Willis, John (1966). Screen World, 1966. Biblo & Tannen Publishers. p. 233. ISBN 9780819603074. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
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