Iris Burton (born Iris Burstein, September 4, 1930 – April 5, 2008) was an American dancer and
talent agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or sport ...
, who discovered and represented many famous
child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in film, movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associ ...
s during her career.
Personal life and early career
Burton was born as Iris Burstein in 1930 in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, New York City, and made a career as a child
dancer
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...
, later dancing as Iris Burton in the Broadway shows ''Music in My Heart'' (1947) and ''Pardon Our French'' (1950). She also danced on television, earning $125 per week in 1951 for performing on Milton Berle's program.
In the early 1950s, she moved to
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
, appearing as a dancer in several films such as ''
Top Banana'' (1954) and ''
The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
'' (1956).
[Obituary: Iris Burton, Hollywood agent](_blank)
''The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'', April 17, 2008.
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...
-winning actor
Barry Miller Barry Miller may refer to:
*Barry Miller (actor)
Barry Miller (born February 6, 1958) is an American actor. He won Broadway's 1985 Tony Award as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) for his performance in ''Biloxi Blues''.
Early life
Miller wa ...
(''
Saturday Night Fever
''Saturday Night Fever'' is a 1977 American dance drama film directed by John Badham and produced by Robert Stigwood. It stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a young Italian-American man from the Brooklyn borough of New York. Manero spends his ...
'', ''
Fame'') is Burton's son from her brief marriage to actor/director
Sidney Miller.
Later career
Burton began her agency in 1977, becoming one of the few women at high levels in talent agencies.
She was well known for discovering the Phoenix brothers (
River Phoenix
River Jude Phoenix (; August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor, musician and activist.
Phoenix grew up in an itinerant family, as the older brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix. He ha ...
and
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix (; né Bottom; born October 28, 1974) is an American actor. He is known for playing dark and unconventional characters in independent films. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academ ...
), and their sisters (
Rain
Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...
, Liberty and
Summer
Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...
) whom she spotted singing for spare change in Westwood, Los Angeles. She worked with River throughout his short career.
Burton and her relationship with
Greg Sestero
Gregory Sestero (born July 15, 1978) is an American actor, filmmaker, model and author, best known for his role as Mark in the 2003 cult film ''The Room'', as well as for his well-received memoir ''The Disaster Artist'', detailing his experiences ...
is described in a chapter of Sestero's 2013 memoir ''
The Disaster Artist
''The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made'' is a 2013 non-fiction book written by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell. Sestero details the troubled development and production of the 2003 cult film ''The Room,'' hi ...
''. Sestero portrays Burton as a warm, quick-witted agent who took on representing him despite his lack of experience and ultimately led him to his first big roles.
This chapter was dramatized briefly in the 2017
film adaptation
A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...
of the book, with Burton portrayed by
Sharon Stone
Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress. Known for primarily playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the recipient of various ...
.
Death
Iris Burton died on April 5, 2008, aged 77, from
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
and complications of
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
in
Woodland Hills, California
Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.
Geography
Woodland Hills is in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, which is located east of Ca ...
at the Motion Picture and Television Country House.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Iris
1930 births
2008 deaths
Actresses from New York City
American child actresses
American female dancers
Dancers from New York (state)
American film actresses
Jewish American actresses
Deaths from pneumonia in California
People from Woodland Hills, Los Angeles
People from Manhattan
Hollywood talent agents
American talent agents
20th-century American dancers
20th-century American actresses
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease
Deaths from dementia in California
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women