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Gus Schilling
Acting
Biography
August "Gus" Schilling (June 20, 1908 - June 16, 1957) was an American actor.
August "Gus" Schilling (June 20, 1908 – June 16, 1957) was an American film actor who started in burlesque comedy and usually played nervous comic roles, often unbilled. A friend of Orson Welles, he appeared in five of the director's films — Citizen Kane (first screen performance), The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth and Touch of Evil (final performance, released posthumously).
Born in New York City, Schilling had a rubber face and flustered gestures which made him a natural comedian and he began his career understudying comedy stars Bert Lahr and Joe Penner on Broadway. He soon became a fa…
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August "Gus" Schilling (June 20, 1908 - June 16, 1957) was an American actor. August "Gus" Schilling (June 20, 1908 – June 16, 1957) was an American film actor who started in burlesque comedy and usually played nervous comic roles, often unbilled. A friend of Orson Welles, he appeared in five of the director's films — Citizen Kane (first screen performance), The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth and Touch of Evil (final performance, released posthumously). Born in New York City, Schilling had a rubber face and flustered gestures which made him a natural comedian and he began his career understudying comedy stars Bert Lahr and Joe Penner on Broadway. He soon became a favorite among burlesque comedians, who welcomed him into the burlesque profession. Schilling was in a relationship with burlesque star Betty Rowland and the couple toured in the Minsky burlesque troupe. Orson Welles saw Schilling in New York and followed him to Florida. There Welles hired Schilling to appear in a stage production featuring several Shakespearean scenes. "I learned my part by taking the script to Welles and having him translate the lines to everyday English," Schilling recalled in 1939. Welles promised Schilling a part in Welles's first motion picture, and kept his promise: Schilling is featured in Citizen Kane (1941). This established Schilling in Hollywood movies as a "nervous" comedian (he plays a jittery symphony conductor in Olsen and Johnson's Hellzapoppin', for example). He also co-starred with character comedian Richard Lane in a series of 11 comedy shorts for Columbia Pictures; the series ran from 1945 to 1950.
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BODY OF WORK
Gus Schilling's Filmography
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Touch of Evil
as Eddie Farnham (uncredited)
Bigger Than Life
as Druggist (uncredited)
Glory
as Joe Page
Rebel Without a Cause
as Attendant (uncredited)
Run for Cover
as Doc Ridgeway
Executive Suite
as Newsstand Vendor (uncredited)
She Couldn't Say No
as Ed Gruman
One Big Affair
as Mr. Rush
On Dangerous Ground
as Lucky
Honeychile
as Window Washer
Gasoline Alley
as Joe Allen
Hit Parade of 1951
as Studio Guide
Our Very Own
as Frank
Bride for Sale
as Timothy
No Poster
Flung by a Fling
as Capt. Gus Schilling
No Poster
He's in Again
as Gus
Angel on the Amazon
as Dean Hartley
The Return of October
as Benny
Macbeth
as A Porter
No Poster
Pardon My Lamb Chop
as Gus
No Poster
Two Nuts in a Rut
as Gus Schilling, Lane's assistant
The Lady from Shanghai
as Goldfish
No Poster
Wedding Belle
as Gus Schilling
No Poster
Training for Trouble
as Gus Schilling
Stork Bites Man
as Hubert Butterfield
Calendar Girl
as Eddie Gaskin
Pardon My Terror
as Gus
No Poster
Hot Water
as Gus
Dangerous Business
as Alexander Pough
Ain't Love Cuckoo?
as Gus Schilling
No Poster
High Blood Pleasure
as Gus
River Gang
as Dopey Charlie
A Thousand and One Nights
as Jafar
See My Lawyer
as J. Ambrose Winkler aka Winky
It's a Pleasure
as Bill Evans
Sing a Jingle
as Bucky
Larceny with Music
as Austin J. Caldwell
Hers to Hold
as Rosey Blake
Presenting Lily Mars
as Scotty - Stage Manager
Chatterbox
as Gillie
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
Lady Bodyguard
as Bughouse Sweeney
You Were Never Lovelier
as Fernando
The Magnificent Ambersons
as Drug Clerk (uncredited)
There's One Born Every Minute
as Professor Asa Quisenberry
Broadway
as Joe
Dr. Kildare's Victory
as Leo Cobb
Hellzapoppin'
as Orchestra Conductor
Appointment for Love
as Gus
It Started with Eve
as Raven
Ice-Capades
as Dave
Citizen Kane
as John
The Penalty
as Bank Teller (uncredited)
Lucky Devils
as Aloysius Grimshaw
Dr. Kildare's Crisis
as Orderly Cleaning Window
Mexican Spitfire Out West
as Hotel Desk Clark
Pop Always Pays
as City Dump Watchman