Gertrude Astor
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.
224 acting credits
Acting · 224
I Love Lucy
1951
The Sound of Music
1965
Sunset Boulevard
1950
The Best Years of Our Lives
1946
Around the World in 80 Days
1956
All About Eve
1950
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1962
My Mother the Car
1965
The Horse Soldiers
1959
The Wolf Man
1941
A Place in the Sun
1951
3 Godfathers
1948
The Women
1939
Apache Drums
1951
A Star Is Born
1954
Leave Her to Heaven
1945
Reap the Wild Wind
1942
Monsieur Verdoux
1947
My Man Godfrey
1957
Angel Face
1953
When Worlds Collide
1951
Two Rode Together
1961
Caged
1950
All in a Night's Work
1961
San Francisco
1936
Wichita
1955
The Climax
1944
Dragonwyck
1946
Dust Be My Destiny
1939
The Tingler
1959
Daddy Long Legs
1955
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter
1966
Sister Kenny
1946
Easy Living
1937
Sergeant Rutledge
1960
Dick Tracy
1945
The Merry Widow
1952
Come Clean
1931
Wells Fargo
1937
Idaho
1943
Crack-Up
1946
Moontide
1942
Deep in My Heart
1954
The File on Thelma Jordon
1949
The Cat and the Canary
1927
The Best of Everything
1959
Woman in Hiding
1950
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
1964
The Scarlet Claw
1944
The Doolins of Oklahoma
1949
Sitting Pretty
1948
Fun on a Weekend
1947
Scandal Sheet
1952
The Female Animal
1958
The Virgin Queen
1955
Hollywood
1923
Lost Canyon
1942
Hold Back the Dawn
1941
Bucking Broadway
1917
Weird Woman
1944
My Dear Secretary
1948
Wives Never Know
1936
Secrets
1924
Here Comes the Band
1935
Calcutta
1946
Dames Ahoy
1930
Scared Stiff
1953
Bunco Squad
1950
Bad Boy
1935
Fort Osage
1952
Beyond the Rocks
1922
The Devil's Hand
1961
The Delicious Little Devil
1919
Great Guy
1936
Thunder on the Hill
1951
A Woman of Affairs
1928
They Never Come Back
1932
The Doctor Takes a Wife
1940
The Kansan
1943
Laughing Ladies
1925
Girls of the Big House
1945
Skin Deep
1922
Frisco Lil
1942
The Old West
1952
Frozen Justice
1929
Kiki
1926
The Big Broadcast of 1938
1938
It's in the Air
1935
Stage Struck
1925
Untamed
1929
Borrowed Finery
1925
Uncle Tom's Cabin
1927
Running Hollywood
1932
Poker Widows
1931
The Kentucky Derby
1922
No More Ladies
1935
While Paris Sleeps
1932
Five and Ten Cent Annie
1928
The Strong Man
1926
Be Yourself!
1930
Carnival Lady
1933
Rupert of Hentzau
1923
Paula
1952
All's Swell on the Ocean
1924
Broadway or Bust
1924
The Little Orphan
1917
The Price of a Good Time
1917
Lightning Lariats
1927
Cheyenne's Pal
1917
Flaming Gold
1932
Tassels in the Air
1938
Here Comes Trouble
1948
Northern Frontier
1935
Swingin' on a Rainbow
1945
Postal Inspector
1936
The Brazen Beauty
1918
The Old Soak
1926
Honeymoon Limited
1935
The Impossible Mrs. Bellew
1922
Western Limited
1932
Hell Bound
1931
The Avenging Rider
1943
Under Two Flags
1915
Joe Palooka in Winner Take All
1948
Synthetic Sin
1929
An Angel Comes To Brooklyn
1945
Through the Back Door
1921
Music Man
1948
The Wall Flower
1922
Polly Redhead
1917
Alice Adams
1923
Rose-Marie
1928
The Wanters
1923
$1,000 a Touchdown
1939
Satan in Sables
1925
The Butter and Egg Man
1928
Again Pioneers
1950
The Rescue
1917
The Small Bachelor
1927
Crook's Tour
1933
Wine, Women and Song
1933
Lorna Doone
1922
The Silent Watcher
1924
The Cohens and the Kellys in Paris
1928
The Devil's Pay Day
1917
The Boy Friend
1926
The Torrent
1924
Cappy Ricks Returns
1935
All Over Town
1937
Behind the Front
1926
Hit of the Show
1928
Seeing's Believing
1922
The Family Group
1928
Pursued
1925
Border Brigands
1935
Misbehaving Husbands
1940
The Country Beyond
1926
The Branding Iron
1920
The Verdict
1925
Empty Saddles
1936
Guilty Parents
1934
The Ridin' Kid from Powder River
1924
Ship of Wanted Men
1933
Washee Ironee
1934
Kentucky Pride
1925
Pretty Smooth
1919
The Reckless Sex
1925
The Ninety and Nine
1922
Flaming Youth
1923
The Drunkard
1935
Two Weeks Off
1929
The Taxi Dancer
1927
I Don't Remember
1935
Her Mad Bargain
1921
Wife Tamers
1926
Loot
1919
Ginsberg the Great
1927
Chasing Husbands
1928
The Concert
1921
The Plumber and the Lady
1933
The Fatal Warning
1929
The Girl Who Won Out
1917
I Have Lived
1933
Bombs and Banknotes
1917
Bondage
1917
The Wicked Darling
1919
The Six-Fifty
1923
The Charmer
1925
Manhattan Monkey Business
1935
The Llano Kid
1939
The Fall of Eve
1929
Occasionally Yours
1920
The Wife Who Wasn't Wanted
1925
Sin Cargo
1926
Tell 'Em Nothing
1926
The Chases of Pimple Street
1934
Wedding Belles
1934
Burning Daylight
1920
I'll Take Vanilla
1934
The Irresistible Lover
1927
Folly of Youth
1925
Dizzy Daddies
1926
The Scarlet Crystal
1917
What Am I Bid?
1919
The Cheerful Fraud
1926
High Hats and Low Brows
1932
The Girl Who Wouldn't Quit
1918
In Walked Charley
1932
Twin Beds
1929
Rich Relations
1937
Hurricane's Gal
1922
Oh, What a Man!
1927
Ship of Souls
1925
Live and Learn
1930
The Lash of Power
1917
Stocks and Blondes
1928
Fight and Win
1924
The Gray Ghost
1917
Robes of Sin
1924
The Lion Man
1919
Don Juan's 3 Nights
1926
You Never Know
1922
The Ne'er-Do-Well
1923
Vamping the Vamp
1918