Gus Schilling
Born: 1908-06-20 in New York City, New York, USA
Died: 1957-06-16
Known For: Acting
Biography
August "Gus" Schilling (June 20, 1908 - June 16, 1957) was an American actor. August "Gus" Schilling (June 20, 1908 – June 16, 1957) was an American film actor who started in burlesque comedy and usually played nervous comic roles, often unbilled. A friend of Orson Welles, he appeared in five of the director's films — Citizen Kane (first screen performance), The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth and Touch of Evil (final performance, released posthumously). Born in New York City, Schilling had a rubber face and flustered gestures which made him a natural comedian and he began his career understudying comedy stars Bert Lahr and Joe Penner on Broadway. He soon became a favorite among burlesque comedians, who welcomed him into the burlesque profession. Schilling was in a relationship with burlesque star Betty Rowland and the couple toured in the Minsky burlesque troupe. Orson Welles saw Schilling in New York and followed him to Florida. There Welles hired Schilling to appear in a stage production featuring several Shakespearean scenes. "I learned my part by taking the script to Welles and having him translate the lines to everyday English," Schilling recalled in 1939. Welles promised Schilling a part in Welles's first motion picture, and kept his promise: Schilling is featured in Citizen Kane (1941). This established Schilling in Hollywood movies as a "nervous" comedian (he plays a jittery symphony conductor in Olsen and Johnson's Hellzapoppin', for example). He also co-starred with character comedian Richard Lane in a series of 11 comedy shorts for Columbia Pictures; the series ran from 1945 to 1950.
Filmography
1958
- Touch of Evil as Eddie Farnham (uncredited)
1956
- Glory as Joe Page
- Bigger Than Life as Druggist (uncredited)
1955
- Rebel Without a Cause as Attendant (uncredited)
- Run for Cover as Doc Ridgeway
1954
- Executive Suite as Newsstand Vendor (uncredited)
- She Couldn't Say No as Ed Gruman
1952
- One Big Affair as Mr. Rush
1951
- Honeychile as Window Washer
- Gasoline Alley as Joe Allen
- On Dangerous Ground as Lucky
1950
- Hit Parade of 1951 as Studio Guide
- Our Very Own as Frank
1949
- Bride for Sale as Timothy
- He's in Again as Gus
- Flung by a Fling as Capt. Gus Schilling
1948
- The Return of October as Benny
- Macbeth as A Porter
- Angel on the Amazon as Dean Hartley
- Two Nuts in a Rut as Gus Schilling, Lane's assistant
- Pardon My Lamb Chop as Gus
1947
- The Lady from Shanghai as Goldfish
- Stork Bites Man as Hubert Butterfield
- Calendar Girl as Eddie Gaskin
- Wedding Belle as Gus Schilling
- Training for Trouble as Gus Schilling
1946
- Dangerous Business as Alexander Pough
- Pardon My Terror as Gus
- Ain't Love Cuckoo? as Gus Schilling
- Hot Water as Gus
1945
- River Gang as Dopey Charlie
- A Thousand and One Nights as Jafar
- See My Lawyer as J. Ambrose Winkler aka Winky
- It's a Pleasure as Bill Evans
- High Blood Pleasure as Gus
1944
- Sing a Jingle as Bucky
1943
- Chatterbox as Gillie
- The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
- Presenting Lily Mars as Scotty - Stage Manager
- Hers to Hold as Rosey Blake
- Larceny with Music as Austin J. Caldwell
- Lady Bodyguard as Bughouse Sweeney
1942
- The Magnificent Ambersons as Drug Clerk (uncredited)
- Broadway as Joe
- There's One Born Every Minute as Professor Asa Quisenberry
- Dr. Kildare's Victory as Leo Cobb
- You Were Never Lovelier as Fernando
1941
- Citizen Kane as John
- Lucky Devils as Aloysius Grimshaw
- Hellzapoppin' as Orchestra Conductor
- Ice-Capades as Dave
- It Started with Eve as Raven
- The Penalty as Bank Teller (uncredited)
- Appointment for Love as Gus
1940
- Mexican Spitfire Out West as Hotel Desk Clark
- Pop Always Pays as City Dump Watchman
- Dr. Kildare's Crisis as Orderly Cleaning Window