Gertrude Astor
Acting
Born 1887-11-09
Died 1977-11-09
Lakewood, Ohio, USA
225 credits
Read biography
Gertrude Astor (Born Gertrude Eyster November 9, 1887 – November 9, 1977) was an American motion picture character actress, who began her career playing trombone on a riverboat.
Born in Lakewood, Ohio, Astor at the age of 12 ran off and joined a woman's band as a trombone player and toured the states. In New York she left the band to obtain film work and got a job as an extra before her career took off. Astor was a prolific performer, between 1915 and 1962 she appeared in over 250 movies. Her first known credit is in a Biograph short in 1915. She then became a contract player at Universal. A tall, angular and beautiful woman, Astor frequently towered over the leading men of the era; thus, she was most frequently utilized in comedy roles as aristocrats, golddiggers and "heroine's best pal".
Her best-known silent appearances were as the visiting stage star in Stage Struck (1925) with Gloria Swanson, as the vamp who plants stolen money on Harry Langdon in The Strong Man (1926), and as Laura LaPlante's wisecracking travelling companion in The Cat and the Canary (1927).
Astor worked prolifically at Hal Roach studios with such headliners as Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang, and especially Charley Chase. She was also kept busy at Columbia Pictures' short subjects unit.
She continued to play bits in feature films throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. She was briefly glimpsed as the first murder victim in the Sherlock Holmes adventure The Scarlet Claw and was among the ranks of dress extras in 1956's Around the World in Eighty Days. Her last appearance was in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
In her later years, Astor was a welcome guest at several Sons of the Desert gatherings, and became an honorary member of the Way Out West tent.
She died in Woodland Hills, California from a stroke. She is interred in the Abbey of Psalms in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, CA.
Not enough member ratings yet.
Sign in to rate.
Filmography
— top 60 of 225
Acting
57 credits
I Love Lucy
The Sound of Music
Sunset Boulevard
Around the World in 80 Days
All About Eve
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Wolf Man
3 Godfathers
The Best Years of Our Lives
A Star Is Born
Monsieur Verdoux
The Women
A Place in the Sun
The Horse Soldiers
Dragonwyck
Angel Face
Daddy Long Legs
Easy Living
Two Rode Together
Wells Fargo
When Worlds Collide
Reap the Wild Wind
Caged
Leave Her to Heaven
Sergeant Rutledge
San Francisco
Wichita
Polly Redhead
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
The Merry Widow
Scared Stiff
The Tingler
My Man Godfrey
Montana
Dick Tracy
Moontide
Paula
Scandal Sheet
Sister Kenny
Deep in My Heart
The Verdict
The File on Thelma Jordon
All in a Night's Work
Sin Cargo
The Best of Everything
Hold Back the Dawn
The Climax
Calcutta
Bondage
My Dear Secretary
Sitting Pretty
Pretty Smooth
Kiki
Apache Drums
The Virgin Queen
Woman in Hiding
The Female Animal
Other credits
3 credits
Track what you watch
DuckTrack members see which of these they have already watched,
right here on this page.
Create a free account
Comments
0 commentsNo comments yet. Sign in to be the first.