Gertrude Astor
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.
Personal info
Gender
Female
Birthday
1887-11-09
Place of birth
Lakewood, Ohio, USA
Images
Cast
Deep in My Heart
1954
6.80
Easy Living
1937
7.00
The Virgin Queen
1955
7.10
Frozen Justice
1929
1.00
Her Mad Bargain
1921
0.00
The Fatal Warning
1929
3.00
The Scarlet Crystal
1917
0.00
Hollywood
1923
7.00
The Price of a Good Time
1917
0.00
Under Two Flags
1915
0.00
The Lash of Power
1917
0.00
What Am I Bid?
1919
0.00
The Wolf Man
1941
7.00
The Girl Who Won Out
1917
0.00
The Old Soak
1926
0.00
The Ninety and Nine
1922
0.00
Bombs and Banknotes
1917
0.00
The Butter and Egg Man
1928
0.00
The Family Group
1928
0.00
Chasing Husbands
1928
0.00
Skin Deep
1922
0.00
The Wanters
1923
0.00
The Chases of Pimple Street
1934
6.00
The Devil's Hand
1961
4.40
Come Clean
1931
7.13
The Strong Man
1926
6.30
My Man Godfrey
1957
6.30
Wine, Women and Song
1933
0.00
The Plumber and the Lady
1933
0.00
Loot
1919
0.00
Uncle Tom's Cabin
1927
6.90
Rupert of Hentzau
1923
0.00
Fort Osage
1952
6.00
The Old West
1952
5.00
Through The Back Door
1921
6.00
Don Juan's 3 Nights
1926
1.00
Here Comes Trouble
1948
4.60
You Never Know
1922
0.00
The Wicked Darling
1919
5.20
Reap the Wild Wind
1942
6.39
The Drunkard
1935
0.00
Bucking Broadway
1917
5.50
Stage Struck
1925
6.20
Broadway or Bust
1924
0.00
The Ridin' Kid from Powder River
1924
0.00
Wife Tamers
1926
6.00
Be Yourself!
1930
5.00
All Over Town
1937
7.20
Lorna Doone
1922
6.30
The Best Years of Our Lives
1946
7.79
High Hats and Low Brows
1932
0.00
The Kentucky Derby
1922
5.00
Live and Learn
1930
1.00
Carnival Lady
1933
5.00
Rich Relations
1937
0.00
Running Hollywood
1932
0.00
Wedding Belles
1934
0.00
Kiki
1926
7.00
Dizzy Daddies
1926
3.50
All in a Night's Work
1961
5.90
They Never Come Back
1932
5.50
Dames Ahoy
1930
0.00
Untamed
1929
5.80
The Best of Everything
1959
6.40
I Have Lived
1933
0.00
I Don't Remember
1935
2.00
The Small Bachelor
1927
0.00
Frisco Lil
1942
8.00
Kentucky Pride
1925
5.90
Secrets
1924
5.50
Synthetic Sin
1929
0.00
The Boy Friend
1926
0.00
Dragonwyck
1946
6.66
In Walked Charley
1932
0.00
The Cat and the Canary
1927
6.84
While Paris Sleeps
1932
5.80
Calcutta
1946
6.32
The Branding Iron
1920
0.00
Beyond the Rocks
1922
6.20
Behind the Front
1926
6.00
Wells Fargo
1937
5.15
The Llano Kid
1939
0.00
Sergeant Rutledge
1960
7.08
A Star Is Born
1954
7.10
Poker Widows
1931
0.00
Here Comes the Band
1935
5.00
All About Eve
1950
8.10
Northern Frontier
1935
0.00
The Women
1939
7.13
Sitting Pretty
1948
7.20
Empty Saddles
1936
0.00
Dust Be My Destiny
1939
6.20
Oh, What a Man!
1927
0.00
Ship of Wanted Men
1933
2.00
Sister Kenny
1946
6.50
My Dear Secretary
1948
5.90
Again Pioneers
1950
3.50
An Angel Comes To Brooklyn
1945
0.00
Postal Inspector
1936
6.20
Woman in Hiding
1950
6.20
Monsieur Verdoux
1947
7.71
The Torrent
1924
0.00
Hold Back the Dawn
1941
6.60
Guilty Parents
1934
4.80
Cappy Ricks Returns
1935
4.50
Western Limited
1932
0.00
Tell 'Em Nothing
1926
4.20
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1962
7.80
Ginsberg the Great
1927
0.00
Five and Ten Cent Annie
1928
0.00
Twin Beds
1929
0.00
The Scarlet Claw
1944
6.94
The Charmer
1925
0.00
Angel Face
1953
7.10
Misbehaving Husbands
1940
5.00
Sunset Boulevard
1950
8.29
The Doctor Takes a Wife
1940
6.50
Scared Stiff
1953
6.40
It's in the Air
1935
5.00
The Big Broadcast of 1938
1938
6.13
The Tingler
1959
6.37
Cheyenne's Pal
1917
4.50
Two Rode Together
1961
6.38
Scandal Sheet
1952
7.00
Around the World in Eighty Days
1956
6.65
The Reckless Sex
1925
0.00
Daddy Long Legs
1955
6.33
Girls of the Big House
1945
6.00
Border Brigands
1935
0.00
3 Godfathers
1948
6.74
Lost Canyon
1942
5.00
Tassels in the Air
1938
6.50
Idaho
1943
5.70
Honeymoon Limited
1935
6.00
The Avenging Rider
1943
0.00
The Kansan
1943
5.33
Paula
1952
6.50
San Francisco
1936
6.58
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
1964
5.60
Two Weeks Off
1929
0.00
The Taxi Dancer
1927
6.50
Polly Redhead
1917
0.00
When Worlds Collide
1951
6.34
Flaming Gold
1932
5.50
A Place in the Sun
1951
7.29
The Sound of Music
1965
7.73
The Fall of Eve
1929
0.00
The Ne'er-Do-Well
1923
0.00
Music Man
1948
6.00
The Cheerful Fraud
1926
4.00
$1,000 a Touchdown
1939
2.00
A Woman of Affairs
1928
6.67
Fun on a Weekend
1947
7.00
Leave Her to Heaven
1945
7.39
Bondage
1917
0.00
The Devil's Pay Day
1917
0.00
The Brazen Beauty
1918
0.00
The Rescue
1917
0.00
The Little Orphan
1917
0.00
Bunco Squad
1950
5.90
Joe Palooka in Winner Take All
1948
6.00
Hurricane's Gal
1922
0.00
Robes of Sin
1924
6.00
Swingin' on a Rainbow
1945
0.00
The Concert
1921
0.00
Moontide
1942
6.40
No More Ladies
1935
5.10
Seeing's Believing
1922
0.00
The File on Thelma Jordon
1949
6.60
Rose-Marie
1928
5.00
Hell Bound
1931
0.00
Wichita
1955
6.30
Thunder on the Hill
1951
6.50
Great Guy
1936
6.20
The Wall Flower
1922
0.00
The Climax
1944
5.40
The Silent Watcher
1924
0.00
The Impossible Mrs. Bellew
1922
0.00
Crook's Tour
1933
0.00
Weird Woman
1944
6.00
Satan in Sables
1925
0.00
The Female Animal
1958
5.60
Caged
1950
7.10
The Horse Soldiers
1959
6.90
Crack-Up
1946
5.60
The Country Beyond
1926
0.00
I'll Take Vanilla
1934
0.00
Manhattan Monkey Business
1935
0.00
Laughing Ladies
1925
0.00
Washee Ironee
1934
6.83
Borrowed Finery
1925
0.00
The Doolins of Oklahoma
1949
6.80
Dick Tracy
1945
5.10
The Merry Widow
1952
5.80
Lightning Lariats
1927
0.00
Alice Adams
0.00
Bad Boy
1935
5.00
All's Swell on the Ocean
1924
0.00
Wives Never Know
1936
0.00
Ship of Souls
1925
0.00
Occasionally Yours
1920
0.00
The Delicious Little Devil
1919
5.60