Cast

Gertrude Astor

Acting

Cast

Gertrude Astor

Known for

Acting

Born

1887-11-09

From

Lakewood, Ohio, USA

Died

1977-11-09

Also known as Gertrude Aster, Gertrude Irene Eyster

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.

Gertrude Astor

Gertrude Astor

Biography

Sunset Boulevard

The Sound of Music

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Around the World in 80 Days

All About Eve

3 Godfathers

Daddy Long Legs

Polly Redhead

The Best Years of Our Lives

The Horse Soldiers

The Wolf Man

The Verdict

Monsieur Verdoux

Reap the Wild Wind

A Star Is Born

When Worlds Collide

Chasing Husbands

The Women

A Place in the Sun

Dragonwyck

Pretty Smooth

Two Rode Together

Twin Beds

Paula

Kiki

Dick Tracy

Through the Back Door

My Man Godfrey

Sergeant Rutledge

Tassels in the Air

The Tingler

The Female Animal

Here Comes Trouble

Angel Face

Sister Kenny

All in a Night's Work

Caged

Wichita

Pursued

Bondage

The Merry Widow

Empty Saddles

Cheyenne's Pal

Loot

San Francisco

The Devil's Pay Day

The Best of Everything

Scared Stiff

Sitting Pretty

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

The Cat and the Canary

Thunder on the Hill

Wife Tamers

I'll Take Vanilla

Woman in Hiding

The Virgin Queen

Sin Cargo

The Big Broadcast of 1938

Burning Daylight

Poker Widows

Easy Living

Wells Fargo

Hold Back the Dawn

The Cheerful Fraud

My Dear Secretary

The File on Thelma Jordon

Deep in My Heart

The Scarlet Claw

The Little Orphan

The Climax

The Fatal Warning

In Walked Charley

Leave Her to Heaven

The Gray Ghost

Moontide

The Girl Who Won Out

Hit of the Show