Zasu Pitts
Born: 1894-01-03 in Parsons, Labette County, Kansas, USA
Died: 1963-06-07
Known For: Acting
Biography
Zasu Pitts (January 3, 1894 – June 7, 1963) was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning successfully to mostly comedy films with the advent of sound films. She may be best known for her performance in Erich von Stroheim's epic silent film Greed. Based on her performance, von Stroheim labeled Pitts "the greatest dramatic actress". He also featured her in his films The Honeymoon (1928), The Wedding March (1928), War Nurse (1930) and Walking Down Broadway, released as Hello, Sister! (1933). However, for the most part, with the advent of sound Pitts was mostly relegated to comedy parts. A bitter disappointment was when she was replaced in the classic war drama All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) by Beryl Mercer after her initial appearance in previews drew unintentional laughs, despite her intense performance. She had viewers rolling in the aisles in Finn and Hattie (1931), The Guardsman (1931), Blondie of the Follies (1932), Sing and Like It (1934) and Ruggles of Red Gap (1935). In 1936 and 1937 she portrayed Hildegarde Withers in two movies, succeeding Edna May Oliver as the spinster sleuth, but they were not well received. In the 1950s she started focusing on television. This culminated in her best known series role, playing second banana to Gale Storm on CBS's The Gale Storm Show (1956) (also known as Oh, Susannah) in the role of Elvira Nugent ("Nugie"), the shipboard beautician. In 1961, Pitts was cast opposite Earle Hodgins in the episode "Lonesome's Gal" on the ABC sitcom, Guestward, Ho!, set on a dude ranch in New Mexico. In 1962, Pitts appeared in an episode of CBS's Perry Mason, "The Case of the Absent Artist". Her final role was as Gertie, the switchboard operator in the Stanley Kramer comedy epic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).
Filmography
1964
- The Big Parade of Comedy as Mirabelle in 'The Gay Bride' (archive footage)
1963
- Burke's Law as Mrs. Bowie
- It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World as Gertie - Switchboard Operator
- The Thrill of It All as Olivia
1961
- Teenage Millionaire as Aunt Theodora
1960
1959
1957
- Perry Mason as Daphne Whilom
- This Could Be the Night as Mrs. Shea
1956
1955
1954
- Francis Joins the WACS as Valerie Humpert
1953
- Private Secretary
- General Electric Theater as Aunt Laura
1952
- Denver and Rio Grande as Jane Dwyer
1950
- What's My Line? as Self
- Francis as Valerie Humpert
1949
1948
- The Philco Television Playhouse as Belinda Pryde
1947
- Life with Father as Cousin Cora Cartwright
- The Perfect Marriage as Rosa
1946
- Breakfast in Hollywood as Elvira Spriggens
- Dear Miss Gloria as Guest star
1943
- Let's Face It as Cornelia Pigeon
1942
- So's Your Aunt Emma! as Aunt Emma Bates
- The Bashful Bachelor as Geraldine
- Tish as Aggie Pilkington (as ZaSu Pitts)
- Mexican Spitfire at Sea as Miss Pepper
1941
- Broadway Limited as Myra Pottle
- Niagara Falls as Emmy Sawyer
- Weekend for Three as Anna, Craig's Maid
- Miss Polly as Pandora Polly
- Uncle Joe as Julia Jordan
- The Mexican Spitfire's Baby as Emily Pepper
1940
- No, No, Nanette as Pauline Hastings
- It All Came True as Miss Flint
1939
- Nurse Edith Cavell as Mme. Moulin
- Eternally Yours as Mrs. Bingham
- Naughty but Nice as Aunt Penelope Hardwick
- The Lady's from Kentucky as Dulcey Lee
- Mickey the Kid as Lilly Handy
1937
- Forty Naughty Girls as Hildegarde Withers
- 52nd Street as Letitia Rondell
- Wanted! as Winnie Oatfield
1936
- The Plot Thickens as Hildegarde Withers
- Sing Me a Love Song as Gwen Logan
- Mad Holiday as Mrs. Fay Kinney
- 13 Hours by Air as Miss Harkins
1935
- Ruggles of Red Gap as Mrs. Judson
- Hot Tip as Belle McGill
- Spring Tonic as Maggie Conklin
- She Gets Her Man as Esmeralda
- Going Highbrow as Cora Upshaw
- The Affair of Susan as Susan Todd
1934
- The Gay Bride as Mirabelle
- Love Birds as Araminta Tootle
- Dames as Matilda Hemingway
- Private Scandal as Miss Coates
- Two Alone as Esthey Roberts
- And She Learned About Dames as Herself
- The Meanest Gal in Town as Tillie Prescott
- Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch as Miss Hazy
- Their Big Moment as Tillie Whim
- Three on a Honeymoon as Alice Mudge
- Sing and Like It as Annie Snodgrass
1933
- Professional Sweetheart as Elmerada
- Mr. Skitch as Maddie Skitch
- Hello, Sister! as Millie
- Out All Night as Bonny
- Meet the Baron as Zasu
- Her First Mate as Mary Horner
- Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men as Sybby 'Sib'
- Mother's Helper
- Love, Honor and Oh, Baby! as Connie Clark
- They Just Had to Get Married as Molly Hull
- She Whoops To Conquer as Beula
- The Bargain of the Century as Zasu
- Asleep in the Feet as Zasu
- One Track Minds as Zasu Pitts
- The Vanishing Frontier as Aunt Sylvia
- Maids a la Mode as Miss Pitts
1932
- Shopworn as Aunt Dot
- Westward Passage as Mrs. Truesdale
- Broken Lullaby as Anna, Holderlin's Maid
- Blondie of the Follies as Gertie
- Make Me a Star as Mrs. Scudder
- The Soilers as Zasu
- Back Street as Mrs. Dole
- The Crooked Circle as Nora Rafferty
- The Unexpected Father as Polly Perkins
- Once in a Lifetime as Miss Leyton
- Roar of the Dragon as Gabby Woman
- Madison Square Garden as Florrie
- Strictly Unreliable as Pitts
- Alum and Eve as Zasu
- Red Noses as Miss Pitts
- The Trial of Vivienne Ware as Gladys Fairweather
- Is My Face Red? as Morning Gazette Telephone Operator
- Destry Rides Again as Temperance Worker
- Sneak Easily as Miss Zasu Pitts - Woman of the Jury
- Show Business as Zasu
- The Old Bull as Zasu
- Strangers of the Evening as Sybil Smith
- Steady Company as Dot
- Sealskins as Zasu Pitts
1931
- The Bad Sister as Minnie
- The Big Gamble as Nora Dugan
- The Guardsman as Liesl
- Finn and Hattie as Mrs. Hattie Haddock
- A Woman of Experience as Katie
- Seed as Jennie
- On the Loose as Zasu
- The Secret Witness as Bella
- The Pajama Party as Zasu
- Penrod and Sam as Mrs. Bassett
- Beyond Victory as Fritzi Mobley
- Their Mad Moment as Miss Dibbs
- Let's Do Things as Zasu Pitts
- Catch-As Catch-Can as ZaSu
- War Mamas as Zasu
1930
- Passion Flower as Mrs. Harney
- Monte Carlo as Bertha
- River's End as Louise
- Sin Takes a Holiday as Annie
- The Lottery Bride as Hilda
- The Devil's Holiday as Ethel
- No, No, Nanette as Pauline Hastings
- Little Accident as Monica
- Free Love as Ada, the Maid
- War Nurse as Cushie
- The Squealer as Bella
- Honey as Mayme
1929
- Oh, Yeah! as The Elk
- Her Private Life as Timmins
- The Squall as Lena
- The Locked Door as Telephone Girl
- Twin Beds as Tillie
- The Honeymoon as Caecilia
- The Dummy as Rose Gleason
- This Thing Called Love as Clara Bertrand
- The Argyle Case as Mrs. Wyatt
- Paris as Harriet
1928
- Wife Savers as Germaine
- The Wedding March as Cecelia Schweisser
- Buck Privates as Hulda
- Sins of the Fathers as Mother Spengler
- 13 Washington Square as The Maid
1927
- Casey at the Bat as Camille
1926
- Mannequin as Annie Pogani
- What Happened to Jones? as Hilda (as Zazu Pitts)
- Monte Carlo as Hope Durant
- Early to Wed as Mrs. Dugan
- Risky Business as Agnes Wheaton
- Her Big Night as Gladys Smith
- Sunny Side Up as Evelyn
- The Great Love as Nancy
1925
- Old Shoes
- 1925 Studio Tour as Self
- Lazybones as Ruth Fanning
- A Woman's Faith as Blanche Odile
- Thunder Mountain as Mandy Coulter
- Pretty Ladies as Maggie Keenan
- Wages for Wives as Luella Logan
- The Great Divide as Polly Jordan
- The Re-Creation of Brian Kent as Judy
1924
- Greed as Trina
- The Goldfish as Amelia Pugsley
- Secrets of the Night as Celia Stebbins
- Changing Husbands as Delia
- The Fast Set as Mona
- West of the Water Tower as Dessie Arnhalt
- Daughters of Today as Lorena
1923
- Souls for Sale as Self - Celebrity Actress in Commissary
- Hollywood as Zasu Pitts
- Three Wise Fools as Mickey
- The Girl Who Came Back as Anastasia Muldoon
- Tea- With a Kick! as 'Brainy' Jones
- Mary of the Movies as Zasu Pitts (uncredited)
- Poor Men's Wives as Apple Annie
1922
- Youth to Youth as Emily
- Is Matrimony a Failure? as Mrs. Wilbur
- A Daughter of Luxury as Mary Cosgrove
- For the Defense as Jennie Dunn
1921
- Patsy as Patsy
1920
- Heart of Twenty as Katie Abbott
- Seeing It Through as Betty Lawrence
1919
- The Other Half as Jennie Jones, The Jazz Kid
- Men, Women, and Money as Katie Jones
- As the Sun Went Down as Sal Sue
- Better Times as Nancy Scroggs
- Poor Relations as Daisy Perkins
1918
- A Society Sensation as Mary
- How Could You, Jean? as Oscar's Sweetheart
- A Lady's Name as Emily
- The Talk of the Town
1917
- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm as Undetermined Role (uncredited)
- '49–'17 as Party Guest (uncredited)
- A Little Princess as Becky
- A Modern Musketeer as A Kansas Belle (uncredited)
- Uneasy Money as Suza - the Editor's Assistant
- Tillie of the Nine Lives
- His Fatal Beauty as Perscilla
- A Desert Dilemma
- Why They Left Home as Mary Mandrake