Iris Meredith

Iris Meredith (born Iris Marie Shunn; 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.
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.
Career
In 1935 she joined the Fox studio (as Iris Shunn), 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, Columbia disbanded the unit and Iris Meredith left the studio. 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, 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
Hat Check Girl (1932) - Sales Lady (uncredited)
Roman Scandals (1933) - Shantytown Resident / Goldwyn Girl (uncredited)
Lottery Lover (1935) - Manicurist (uncredited)
George White's 1935 Scandals (1935) - Miss Smith - Secretary (uncredited)
Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935) - Girl (uncredited)
Ticket to Paradise (1936) - Girl (uncredited)
Bulldog Edition (1936) - Camille Club Hatcheck Girl (uncredited)
The Cowboy Star (1936) - Mary Baker
Rio Grande Ranger (1936) - Sandra Cullen
The Gambling Terror (1937) - Betty Garret
Trail of Vengeance (1937) - Jean Warner
A Lawman Is Born (1937) - Beth Graham
The Mystery of the Hooded Horsemen (1937) - Nancy Wilson
Outlaws of the Prairie (1937) - Judy Garfield
All American Sweetheart (1937) - Alice (uncredited)
Murder Is News (1937) - Ann Leslie
Little Miss Roughneck (1938) - Girl (uncredited)
Cattle Raiders (1938) - Nancy Grayson
Call of the Rockies (1938) - Ann Bradford
Law of the Plains (1938) - Marion McGowan / Norton
West of Cheyenne (1938) - Jean Wayne
South of Arizona (1938) - Ann Madison
I Am the Law (1938) - Eddie's Girlfriend (uncredited)
The Colorado Trail (1938) - Joan Randall
West of the Santa Fe (1938) - Madge Conway
The Spider's Web (1938, Serial) - Nita Van Sloan
The Thundering West (1939) - Helen Patterson
Texas Stampede (1939) - Joan Cameron
First Offenders (1939) - Mary Kent
Spoilers of the Range (1939) - Madge Patterson
Western Caravans (1939) - Joyce Thompson
The Man from Sundown (1939) - Barbara Kellogg
Overland with Kit Carson (1939, Serial) - Carmelita Gonzalez
Riders of Black River (1939) - Linda Holden
Outpost of the Mounties (1939) - Norma Daniels
Those High Grey Walls (1939) - Mary MacAuley
The Taming of the West (1939) - Pepper Jenkins
Beware Spooks! (1939) - Babe, Spook House Ticket Seller (uncredited)
Two-Fisted Rangers (1939) - Betty Webster
Convicted Woman (1940) - Nita Lavore
Blazing Six Shooters (1940) - Janet Kenyon
The Man from Tumbleweeds (1940) - 'Spunky' Cameron
Texas Stagecoach (1940) - Jean Harper
The Return of Wild Bill (1940) - Sammy Lou Griffin
The Green Archer (1940, Serial) - Valerie Howett
Thundering Frontier (1940) - Norma Belknap
Caught in the Act (1941) - Lucy Ripportella
The Son of Davy Crockett (1941) - Doris Mathews
Louisiana Purchase (1941) - Lawyer's secretary
The Rangers Take Over (1942) - Jean Lorin
The Kid Rides Again (1943) - Joan Ainsley
Chain of Circumstance (1951) - Minor Role (uncredited) (final film role)
References
External links
Iris Meredith at b-westerns.com
Actresses from Iowa
Deaths from cancer in California
American film actresses
20th-century American actresses
Actors from Sioux City, Iowa
1915 births
1980 deaths
Western (genre) film actresses