Acting

Zasu Pitts

Born January 3, 1894 · Parsons, Labette County, Kansas, USA

Died June 7, 1963 · aged 69

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 h…

Known For

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World · 1963

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

MovieAdventureComedy

A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is the madcap adventures of those strangers as each attempts to claim the prize for himself.

Greed

MovieDramaCrime

When housewife Trina wins the lottery, her comfortable life with her dentist husband John slowly deteriorates, in part by her own increasing paranoia and partly by the machinations of villainous acquaintance Marcus.

Westward Passage

Westward Passage · 1932

Westward Passage

MovieRomanceDrama

A struggling writer divorces his wife to pursue his career without interference, but they meet in Europe years later after she has remarried.

Love Birds

Love Birds · 1934

ZaSu Pitts and Slim Summerville meet when both are sold deeds to an abandoned ranch in the California desert. Their lonely lives become much more crowded when a drifter discovers gold on the property—though all he’s found is Slim’s missing filling. (adapted from MoMA capsule)

The Thrill of It All

The Thrill of It All · 1963

The Thrill of It All

MovieComedyRomance

A housewife's sudden rise to fame as a soap spokesperson leads to chaos in her home life.

Shopworn

Shopworn · 1932

MovieDramaRomance

A waitress falls for a wealthy young man but has to fight his mother to find happiness.

Professional Sweetheart

Professional Sweetheart · 1933

Professional Sweetheart

MovieComedyRomance

Radio singer Glory Eden is publicized as the ideal of American womanhood in order to sell the sponsor's product Ippsie-Wippsie Washcloths. In reality, Glory would like to at least sample booze, jazz, gambling, and men. When the strain of representing "purity" brings her to rebellion, the sponsor and his nutty henchmen pick her a public-relations "sweetheart" from fan mail, who turns out to be a hayseed.

Passion Flower

Passion Flower · 1930

A bored society woman invites scandal and heartache when she falls in love with her low-born chauffeur.

Filmography

Sort

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World · 1963

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

MovieAdventureComedy

A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is the madcap adventures of those strangers as each attempts to claim the prize for himself.

Gertie - Switchboard Operator

Greed

MovieDramaCrime

When housewife Trina wins the lottery, her comfortable life with her dentist husband John slowly deteriorates, in part by her own increasing paranoia and partly by the machinations of villainous acquaintance Marcus.

Trina

Westward Passage

Westward Passage · 1932

Westward Passage

MovieRomanceDrama

A struggling writer divorces his wife to pursue his career without interference, but they meet in Europe years later after she has remarried.

Mrs. Truesdale

Love Birds

Love Birds · 1934

ZaSu Pitts and Slim Summerville meet when both are sold deeds to an abandoned ranch in the California desert. Their lonely lives become much more crowded when a drifter discovers gold on the property—though all he’s found is Slim’s missing filling. (adapted from MoMA capsule)

Araminta Tootle

The Thrill of It All

The Thrill of It All · 1963

The Thrill of It All

MovieComedyRomance

A housewife's sudden rise to fame as a soap spokesperson leads to chaos in her home life.

Olivia

Shopworn

Shopworn · 1932

MovieDramaRomance

A waitress falls for a wealthy young man but has to fight his mother to find happiness.

Aunt Dot

Professional Sweetheart

Professional Sweetheart · 1933

Professional Sweetheart

MovieComedyRomance

Radio singer Glory Eden is publicized as the ideal of American womanhood in order to sell the sponsor's product Ippsie-Wippsie Washcloths. In reality, Glory would like to at least sample booze, jazz, gambling, and men. When the strain of representing "purity" brings her to rebellion, the sponsor and his nutty henchmen pick her a public-relations "sweetheart" from fan mail, who turns out to be a hayseed.

Elmerada

Passion Flower

Passion Flower · 1930

A bored society woman invites scandal and heartache when she falls in love with her low-born chauffeur.

Mrs. Harney

Life with Father

Life with Father · 1947

Life with Father

MovieComedyFamily

A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.

Cousin Cora Cartwright

Mr. Skitch

Mr. Skitch · 1933

MovieRomanceComedy

After losing their Missouri home during the Great Depression, the Skitch family pulls up stakes and heads west to California to begin life anew. Comedy, released in 1933.

Maddie Skitch

Hello, Sister!

Hello, Sister! · 1933

MovieDramaRomance

While Peggy deeply falls in love with Jimmy, her best friend Millie becomes increasingly frustrated with men and very jealous with Peggy, so she tries everything to destroy the new love.

Millie

Ruggles of Red Gap

Ruggles of Red Gap · 1935

Ruggles of Red Gap

In this comedy of an Englishman stranded in a sea of barbaric Americans, Marmaduke Ruggles - a gentleman's gentleman and butler to an Earl - is lost in a poker game to an uncouth American cattle baron. Ruggles' life is turned upside down as he's taken to the USA, is gradually assimilated into American life, accidentally becomes a local celebrity, and falls in love along the way.

Mrs. Judson

Broken Lullaby

Broken Lullaby · 1932

A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each having attended the same musical conservatory in France. The fact that the incident occurred in war does not assuage his guilt. He travels to Germany to meet the man's family.

Anna, Holderlin's Maid

Francis

Francis · 1950

MovieComedyFamily

During World War II, a junior American Army officer, Lt. Peter Stirling, gets sent to the psychiatric ward whenever he insists that an Army mule named Francis speaks to him.

Valerie Humpert

Wife Savers

Wife Savers · 1928

Stationed in Switzerland after the Great War, soldiers Louis Hozenozzle and Rodney Ramsbottom both fall in love with local damsel Colette, much to the dismay of Colette's self-appointed boyfriend, General Lavoris. When Lavoris issues a fake order that all unmarried women must immediately take husbands, Hozenozzle weds Colette, at her request, to "save" her for the absent Ramsbottom. A lost film.

Germaine

Private Scandal

Private Scandal · 1934

Private Scandal

"Private Scandal" is a 1934 American Pre-Code comedy film directed by Ralph Murphy and written by Vera Caspary, Garrett Fort and Bruce Manning. The film stars ZaSu Pitts, Phillips Holmes, Mary Brian, Ned Sparks, Lew Cody, June Brewster, and Harold Waldridge. The film was released on May 11, 1934 by Paramount Pictures.

Miss Coates

Blondie of the Follies

Blondie of the Follies · 1932

Blondie of the Follies

MovieDramaComedy

New York City tenement dwelling neighbors Blondie and Lottie are longtime best friends. When Lottie makes the cast of the Follies and moves up in the world, she arranges for Blondie, as well, to join the cast and gain the advantages. But the friendship goes awry when Lottie's sweetheart, wealthy Larry Belmont, falls for Blondie and she for him.

Gertie

Hot Tip

Hot Tip · 1935

An amateur handicapper must help his future son-in-law recoup the money he lost while playing the ponies.

Belle McGill

The Big Parade of Comedy

The Big Parade of Comedy · 1964

The Big Parade of Comedy

MovieComedyDocumentary

Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.

Mirabelle in 'The Gay Bride' (archive footage)

Denver and Rio Grande

Denver and Rio Grande · 1952

Denver and Rio Grande

Jim Vesser and his team of railroading men try to build a rail line through a mountain pass, while a group of less scrupulous construction workers sabotages the entire operation in the hopes that they can get their tracks laid first and get the money from the railroad.

Jane Dwyer

Buck Privates

Buck Privates · 1928

Pvt. Smith, an American soldier stationed in a German town during the occupation of Germany after World War I, falls in love with the daughter of the town's leading citizen. The problem is that his sworn enemy, Sgt. Butts, also has designs on the girl. Butts comes up with a plan to get rid of his competition and get the girl for himself, but things don't go quite the way he planned.

Hulda

The Bad Sister

The Bad Sister · 1931

Marianne falls in love with con man Valentine who uses their relation to get her father's endorsement on a money-raising scheme. He runs off with the money and Marianne, later dumping her. Her sister Laura loves Dr. Lindley although she knows he loves Marianne. Marianne returns and marries a wealthy young man, and Lindley turns his love toward Laura.

Minnie

Nurse Edith Cavell

Nurse Edith Cavell · 1939

Nurse Edith Cavell

British nurse Edith Cavell is stationed at a hospital in Brussels during World War I. When the son of a former patient escapes from a German prisoner-of-war camp, she helps him flee to Holland. Outraged at the number of soldiers detained in the camps, Edith, along with a group of sympathizers, devises a plan to help the prisoners escape. As the group works to free the soldiers, Edith must keep her activities secret from the Germans

Mme. Moulin

Oh, Yeah!

Oh, Yeah! · 1929

MovieComedyDrama

A couple of roving vagabonds hitch a freight to the railroad town of Linda, and between bouts with the freight-yard bulls and other drifters, find romance in the persons of two waitresses at the camp restaurant. Meanwhile, two crooks are at-large, and the boys fall under suspicion.

The Elk

Perry Mason

Perry Mason · 1957

SeriesMysteryDrama

The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.

Daphne Whilom

The Philco Television Playhouse

The Philco Television Playhouse · 1948

The Philco Television Playhouse

The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.

Belinda Pryde

Burke's Law

Burke's Law · 1963

Burke's Law is an American detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II.

Mrs. Bowie

The 20th Century Fox Hour

The 20th Century Fox Hour · 1955

The 20th Century Fox Hour

The 20th Century Fox Hour is an American drama anthology series televised in the United States on CBS from 1955 to 1957. Some of the shows in this series were restored, remastered and shown on the Fox Movie Channel in 2002 under the title Hour of Stars. The season one episode Overnight Haul, starring Richard Conte and Lizabeth Scott, was released in Australia as a feature film.

The Gale Storm Show

The Gale Storm Show · 1956

The Gale Storm Show

The Gale Storm Show is an American sitcom starring Gale Storm. The series premiered on September 29, 1956, and ran until 1960 for 143 half-hour black-and-white episodes, initially on CBS and in its last year on ABC. The Gale Storm Show was co-produced by Independent Television Corporation and Hal Roach Studios. The series was aired under the title Oh, Susanna in syndication.

Screen Director's Playhouse

Screen Director's Playhouse · 1955

Screen Director's Playhouse

SeriesComedyDrama

Presented by Eastman Kodak, this show was a series of original scripts directed by acclaimed directors and featuring well-known performers. The stories ranged from musicals to comedies and dramas.

Selma

Private Secretary

Private Secretary · 1953

Private Secretary

Private Secretary is an American sitcom that aired from February 1, 1953 to September 10, 1957 on CBS, alternating with The Jack Benny Program on Sundays at 7:30pm EST. The series stars Ann Sothern as Susan Camille "Susie" MacNamara, devoted secretary to handsome talent agent Peter Sands, played by Don Porter.

Guestward, Ho!

Guestward, Ho! · 1960

Guestward, Ho! is an American situation comedy which aired on the ABC network in the 1960-1961 television season, based on the 1956 book of the same title by Patrick Dennis, author of Auntie Mame.

General Electric Theater

General Electric Theater · 1953

General Electric Theater

SeriesComedyDrama

General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.

Aunt Laura

The Dennis O'Keefe Show

The Dennis O'Keefe Show · 1959

The Dennis O'Keefe Show

The Dennis O'Keefe Show is a 1959-1960 sitcom produced by United Artists Television which aired on CBS for sponsor General Motors' Oldsmobile division. It was not a ratings success during its original run, and was largely forgotten until a "Best Of" DVD release by Alpha Video during 2004. Certain episodes of the show can also be seen at the Internet Archive. It appears the series has entered the public domain.