ZaSu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts
Born: Jan 3, 1900
Parsons, KS
Career: 1917-1963
Countries: USA
Genre/Type: Comedy
Drama
Romance
Biography by Hal Erickson
According to her own account, actress ZaSu Pitts was given her curious cognomen because she was named for two aunts, Eliza and Susan. Born in Kansas, Pitts moved with her family to California, where at age 19 she began her film career. Her first starring role was as an ugly duckling who finds true love in 1919's Better Times. Her calculated vagueness and fluttery hand gestures earned Pitts comedy roles from the outset, but director Erich Von Stroheim saw dramatic potential in the young actress. He cast her as the grasping, money-mad wife in his masterpiece Greed (1924), and she rose to the occasion with a searing performance. Except for a couple of later collaborations with Von Stroheim, Pitts returned to predominately comic assignments after Greed. One exception was her portrayal of Lew Ayres' ailing mother in the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), a brilliant piece of work that unfortunately fell victim to the editors' scissors when a preview audience, conditioned to Pitts' comedy roles, broke out in loud laughter when she came onscreen (she was replaced by Beryl Mercer in the domestic version of All Quiet, though reportedly her scenes were retained for some European versions). Established as a top character comedian by the '30s (her oft-imitated catchphrase was "Oh, dear, oh my!"), Pitts co-starred with Thelma Todd in a series of Hal Roach two-reelers, was top-billed in such feature programmers as Out All Night (1933) and The Plot Thickens (1935), and showed up in select character roles in A-pictures. During the '40s and '50s, she toured in Ramshackle Inn, a play written especially for her by George Batson. From 1956 through 1960, Pitts played Elvira "Nugey" Nugent on the popular Gale Storm TV sitcom Oh, Susanna. ZaSu Pitts died in 1963, shortly after completing her final film appearance in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and just a few days after her last TV guest assignment on Burke's Law.

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Filmography

Movie/Film Released Rating Role Buy
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 1963 Actor [Starring]
The Thrill of It All! 1963 Actor [Starring]
Perry Mason: The Case of the Absent Artist 1962 Actor [Starring]
Teenage Millionaire 1961 Actor [Starring]
The Gazebo 1959 Actor [Starring]
Hour of Stars: The Genius 1958 Actor [Starring]
TV Hour of Stars 1958 Actor [Starring]
This Could Be the Night 1957 Actor [Starring]
Screen Directors' Playhouse: The Silent Partner 1955 Actor [Starring]
Francis Joins the Wacs 1954 Actor [Starring]
Spike Jones: The Best of Spike Jones, Vol. 3 1952 Actor [Starring]
The Denver and Rio Grande 1951 Actor [Starring]
Francis 1949 Actor [Starring]
Lum and Abner 1949 Actor [Starring]
Life With Father 1947 Actor [Starring]
Breakfast in Hollywood 1946 Actor [Starring]
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Zasu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas, USA
Zasu Pitts died on on June 7, 1963
Zasu Pitts died in Hollywood, California, USA

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