Zasu Pitts

Encyclopedia : Z : ZA : ZAS : Zasu Pitts

Zazu Pitts (1894-1963) sporting her famous bob hairstyle

ZaSu Pitts (January 3, 1894–June 7, 1963) was a United States movie actress. In many of her film credits and contemporary articles, her name is rendered as Zazu Pitts or Zasu Pitts.

Contents

1 Birth
2 Hollywood
3 Marriage
4 Death
5 Trivia
6 See also
7 External links

Birth

ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas and grew up in Santa Cruz, California. Her unusual first name was coined from parts of the names "Eliza" and "Susan", female relatives who both wanted ZaSu's mother to name the child after them.

Hollywood

Pitts debuted in silent film in 1917, in a number of roles including that of Becky in The Little Princess. With the tenderness of her acting and the melancholy of her eyes, she was a wonderful leading lady in Erich von Stroheim's masterpiece Greed (1924), for which performance, von Stroheim labelled Pitts "the greatest dramatic actress". Von Stroheim also featured her in his films The Wedding March (1928)(with Fay Wray) and Walking Down Broadway (1933) (also known as Hello Sister). Pitts later appeared in many comedies, like Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) and two film adaptations of No, No, Nanette - one in 1930 and another in 1940. Her last role, shortly before her death was as a voice actress (switchboard operator) in the 1963 Stanley Kramer directed comedy, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Marriage

Pitts was married to actor Tom Gallery from 1920 to 1932. They had two children: a daughter, Ann Gallery, and a son, Don Gallery (né Marvin Carville La Marr), whom they adopted after the 1926 death of his mother, silent film actress Barbara La Marr.

Death

ZaSu Pitts died of cancer in Hollywood, California at age 69. She was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery although she was not known to be a Roman Catholic.

Trivia

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1994, she was honored with her image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.
When Hollywood switched to talkies Pitts, who had a distinctive nasal voice with a wavering vibrato, switched to comedy character actor roles.
When Mae Questel was called on to create the screen voice of the character "Olive Oyl" for the Fleischer Studios animated cartoon version of the comic strip "Popeye", Questel created a caricature of ZaSu Pitts' voice.
From the 1940s through the early 1960s, ZaSu Pitts also made numerous television appearances, including her role in Oh! Susanna (1956-1960), with Gale Storm as her niece.
She was on radio, appearing several times on the earliest Fibber McGee and Molly show. Her character was a somewhat dipsy dame who was constantly looking for a husband.
Referred to sadistic gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as a "ferret".
Conservative in politics and with her money; she left her lucrative job with Thelma Todd over a money dispute with Hal Roach, and often complained about taxes.

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.