Gus Schilling
Acting
Born 1908-06-20
Died 1957-06-16
New York City, New York, USA
57 credits
Read 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.
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Filmography
Acting
56 credits
Citizen Kane
Rebel Without a Cause
Touch of Evil
Run for Cover
The Lady from Shanghai
Macbeth
The Magnificent Ambersons
On Dangerous Ground
Bigger Than Life
You Were Never Lovelier
Hellzapoppin'
Executive Suite
A Thousand and One Nights
Appointment for Love
Wedding Belle
Pardon My Lamb Chop
It Started with Eve
Hot Water
Presenting Lily Mars
Lady Bodyguard
Our Very Own
She Couldn't Say No
There's One Born Every Minute
See My Lawyer
One Big Affair
Broadway
Larceny with Music
River Gang
Bride for Sale
Pardon My Terror
Dr. Kildare's Crisis
Hers to Hold
Angel on the Amazon
Honeychile
Mexican Spitfire Out West
He's in Again
The Return of October
Ain't Love Cuckoo?
Ice-Capades
Gasoline Alley
It's a Pleasure
Glory
Calendar Girl
Pop Always Pays
Hit Parade of 1951
The Penalty
High Blood Pleasure
Dr. Kildare's Victory
Dangerous Business
Lucky Devils
Sing a Jingle
Two Nuts in a Rut
Stork Bites Man
Training for Trouble
Flung by a Fling
Chatterbox
Other credits
1 credit
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