Gertrude Astor
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.
Filmography (224 Appearances)
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter
My Mother the Car
The Sound of Music
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Devil's Hand
Two Rode Together
All in a Night's Work
Sergeant Rutledge
The Best of Everything
The Tingler
The Horse Soldiers
The Female Animal
My Man Godfrey
Around the World in 80 Days
The Virgin Queen
Wichita
Daddy Long Legs
Deep in My Heart
A Star Is Born
Scared Stiff
Angel Face
The Old West
The Merry Widow
Paula
Fort Osage
Scandal Sheet
Thunder on the Hill
I Love Lucy
When Worlds Collide
A Place in the Sun
Apache Drums
All About Eve
Again Pioneers
Bunco Squad
Sunset Boulevard
Caged
Woman in Hiding
The File on Thelma Jordon
The Doolins of Oklahoma
3 Godfathers
My Dear Secretary
Joe Palooka in Winner Take All
Music Man
Here Comes Trouble
Sitting Pretty
Monsieur Verdoux
Fun on a Weekend
The Best Years of Our Lives
Calcutta
Sister Kenny
Crack-Up
Dragonwyck
Leave Her to Heaven
Dick Tracy
An Angel Comes To Brooklyn
Girls of the Big House
Swingin' on a Rainbow
The Climax
The Scarlet Claw
Weird Woman
The Kansan
The Avenging Rider
Idaho
Lost Canyon
Moontide
Reap the Wild Wind
Frisco Lil
The Wolf Man
Hold Back the Dawn
Misbehaving Husbands
The Doctor Takes a Wife
The Llano Kid
$1,000 a Touchdown
Dust Be My Destiny
The Women
Tassels in the Air
The Big Broadcast of 1938
Wells Fargo
All Over Town
Easy Living
Rich Relations
Empty Saddles
Great Guy
Wives Never Know
Postal Inspector
San Francisco
I Don't Remember
Manhattan Monkey Business
Bad Boy
It's in the Air
Cappy Ricks Returns
Here Comes the Band
Honeymoon Limited
No More Ladies
Border Brigands
The Drunkard
Northern Frontier
The Chases of Pimple Street
Washee Ironee
Wedding Belles
I'll Take Vanilla
Guilty Parents
Carnival Lady
Crook's Tour
Ship of Wanted Men
I Have Lived
The Plumber and the Lady
Wine, Women and Song
Flaming Gold
Western Limited
High Hats and Low Brows
They Never Come Back
While Paris Sleeps
In Walked Charley
Running Hollywood
Poker Widows
Come Clean
Hell Bound
Live and Learn
Dames Ahoy
Be Yourself!
Untamed
Frozen Justice
Twin Beds
The Fall of Eve
Two Weeks Off
The Fatal Warning
Synthetic Sin
Chasing Husbands
A Woman of Affairs
The Butter and Egg Man
Stocks and Blondes
Hit of the Show
Five and Ten Cent Annie
The Family Group
Rose-Marie
The Cohens and the Kellys in Paris
Oh, What a Man!
Ginsberg the Great
The Small Bachelor
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The Irresistible Lover
The Cat and the Canary
The Taxi Dancer
Lightning Lariats
The Cheerful Fraud
The Strong Man
Sin Cargo
The Country Beyond
Tell 'Em Nothing
The Old Soak
Don Juan's 3 Nights
The Boy Friend
Kiki
Wife Tamers
Dizzy Daddies
Behind the Front
Ship of Souls
Stage Struck
Satan in Sables
Borrowed Finery
The Wife Who Wasn't Wanted
Kentucky Pride
Pursued
The Charmer
The Verdict
Folly of Youth
The Reckless Sex
Laughing Ladies
Robes of Sin
The Ridin' Kid from Powder River
The Silent Watcher
All's Swell on the Ocean
The Torrent
Fight and Win
Broadway or Bust
Secrets
The Wanters
Flaming Youth
The Six-Fifty
Hollywood
Rupert of Hentzau
The Ne'er-Do-Well
Alice Adams
The Ninety and Nine
You Never Know
The Kentucky Derby
The Impossible Mrs. Bellew
Lorna Doone
Skin Deep
Hurricane's Gal
Beyond the Rocks
Seeing's Believing
The Wall Flower
Her Mad Bargain
Through the Back Door
The Concert
The Branding Iron
Occasionally Yours
Burning Daylight
The Lion Man
The Wicked Darling
Loot
Pretty Smooth
The Delicious Little Devil
What Am I Bid?
The Brazen Beauty
The Girl Who Wouldn't Quit
Vamping the Vamp
Bucking Broadway
The Lash of Power
The Price of a Good Time
Bondage
The Girl Who Won Out
Cheyenne's Pal
The Rescue
The Gray Ghost
The Little Orphan
Polly Redhead
The Scarlet Crystal
The Devil's Pay Day
Bombs and Banknotes
Under Two Flags