Iris Hoey

Iris Hoey, born Wilhelmina Iris Winifred Hasbach on 17 July 1885 in London, England, was a British stage and film actress active in the first half of the twentieth century. Her father, Wilhelm Anton Hasbach, was a professor of political economy. She died on 13 May 1979.

Early in her career, Hoey divided her stage work between straight theatre, appearing alongside Beerbohm Tree, and musical comedy under the management of George Edwardes. During this period she took on minor musical roles, including appearances in Les P'tites Michu and the 1906 revival of The Geisha. Her career later extended to Broadway, where she performed between 1914 and 1926, with credits including the musical To-Night's the Night and the play Red Blinds. In 1934, she appeared in the West End production of the play Mary Read. Her screen work began with East Lynne in 1922, an adaptation of the 1861 novel by Mrs Henry Wood, and her most concentrated period of film activity came during the 1930s.

In 1911, Hoey married Mashiter Leeds, known as Max, born 1883 and died 1937, of Spring Grove, Bishopstoke, Hampshire, and a grandson of Sir Joseph Edward Leeds, 2nd baronet. The couple had a son, Joseph Mashiter Leeds, born in 1912, and divorced in 1922. That same year she married actor Cyril Raymond. On 4 December 1923, their son John North Blagrave Raymond was born in Bristol. John Raymond, who lived from 1923 to 1977, worked as a journalist and served as literary editor of the New Statesman.