Iris Stuart

A striking brunette with an expressive face, Iris Stuart was born Frances McCann on February 2, 1903, in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents, Thomas and Mary McCann, were both born in Ireland. After high school, she briefly attended secretarial college before dropping out to work as an artist's model. Her look soon landed her in advertisements and on magazine covers, earning her the nickname "the girl with a million faces." In an interview, she remarked, "To be a model is pleasant enough but it isn't any good for a girl who is ambitious."

B.P. Schulberg offered her a film contract at Paramount in 1926, and she made her debut in the drama Stranded In Paris. She then appeared in Children Of Divorce alongside Clara Bow. In 1927, Iris was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, an honor she shared with Helen Costello and Sally Rand. But in the spring of that year, she contracted tuberculosis and had to be hospitalized. She hoped to continue acting, but her health was too fragile to allow it. Her final film was the comedy Wedding Bills.

Iris married publisher Bert MacKinnon on January 3, 1928, and the couple lived quietly in Mt. Vernon, New York. Tragically, her tuberculosis returned in 1936, and she passed away on December 21, 1936, at just 33 years old. She was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. Her career lasted only about a year, but her face and her story have lingered in Hollywood history.