[ and was heard as Miss Pitts on '' The New Lum and Abner Show''.]
In 1944, Pitts tackled Broadway, making her debut in the mystery '' Ramshackle Inn''. The play, written expressly for her, did well, and she took the show on the road in later years. She was also a familiar attraction in summer-stock theaters, playing annually in the Norma Mitchell play ''Post Road.''
Postwar movies and television
Postwar films continued to give her the chance to play comic snoops and flighty relatives in such fare as '' Life with Father'' (1947), but in the 1950s, she started focusing on television. This culminated in her best-known series role, playing second banana to Gale Storm
Josephine Owaissa Cottle (April 5, 1922 – June 27, 2009), known professionally as Gale Storm, was an American actress and singer. After a film career from 1940 to 1952, she starred in two popular television programs of the 1950s, '' My Litt ...
in ABC's '' The Gale Storm Show'' (1956) (also known as ''Oh, Susanna''), in the role of Elvira Nugent ("Nugie"), the shipboard beautician
Cosmetology (from Greek , ''kosmētikos'', "beautifying"; and , ''-logia'') is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty include hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/pedicures, non-permanent hair removal such a ...
. In 1961, Pitts was cast opposite Earle Hodgins in the episode "Lonesome's Gal" of the ABC sitcom '' Guestward, Ho!'', set on a dude ranch in New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. In 1962, she appeared in an episode of CBS's '' Perry Mason'', "The Case of the Absent Artist". Her final role was as Gertie, the switchboard operator in the Stanley Kramer
Stanley Earl Kramer (September 29, 1913February 19, 2001) was an American film director and producer, responsible for making many of Hollywood's most famous " message films" (he called his movies ''heavy dramas'') and a liberal movie icon. comedy epic ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' is a 1963 American Technicolor epic comedy film in Ultra Panavision 70 produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, from a screenplay by William and Tania Rose. The film, starring Spencer Tracy with an all ...
'' (1963).
Personal life
Pitts was married to actor Thomas Sarsfield Gallery from 1920 until their 1933 divorce. Gallery became a Los Angeles boxing promoter and later a TV executive. The couple had two children:
* ZaSu Ann Gallery
* Donald Michael "Sonny" Gallery (born Marvin Carville La Marr), whom they adopted and renamed after the 1926 death of Donald's biological mother (and Pitts's friend), actress Barbara La Marr.
In 1933, Pitts married John Edward "Eddie" Woodall, with whom she remained until her death.
Declining health dominated Pitts's later years, particularly after she was diagnosed with cancer in the mid-1950s. She continued to work, appearing on TV and making brief appearances in the films '' The Thrill of It All'' and ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' is a 1963 American Technicolor epic comedy film in Ultra Panavision 70 produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, from a screenplay by William and Tania Rose. The film, starring Spencer Tracy with an all ...
''.
She died in Hollywood on June 7, 1963, aged 69, and was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Holy Cross Cemetery is a Catholic Church, Catholic cemetery at 5835 West Slauson Avenue in Culver City, California, operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Archdiocese.
It is partially in the Culver City city limi ...
.[ Pitts wrote a book of candy recipes, ''Candy Hits'', which was published posthumously in 1963.]
Legacy
ZaSu Pitts was inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...
on February 8, 1960, for her contribution to motion pictures.[ Her star is on the south side of the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard.][
In 1994, she was honored with her image on a United States postage stamp along with fellow actors ]Rudolph Valentino
Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor who starred in several well-known sile ...
, Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow (; July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the ...
and Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
as part of The Silent Screen Stars stamp set, designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld
Albert Hirschfeld (June 21, 1903 – January 20, 2003) was an American caricaturist best known for his black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars.
Early life and career
Al Hirschfeld was born in 1903 in a two-story duplex apa ...
.[ Her birthplace of Parsons, Kansas, has a star tile at the entrance to the Parsons Theatre to commemorate her.][
In the film '' Never Give a Sucker an Even Break'' (1941), W.C. Fields asks his niece, played by Gloria Jean, "Don't you want to go to school? You want to grow up and be dumb like ZaSu Pitts?" Gloria Jean replied "She only acts like that in pictures. I like her."]
Actress Mae Questel, who performed character voices in Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 11, 1972) was an American animator and studio owner. Born in Kraków, in Austrian Poland, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became a pioneer in the development ...
's Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.[Betty Boop
Betty Boop is a cartoon character designed by Grim Natwick at the request of Max Fleischer. She originally appeared in the '' Talkartoon'' and ''Betty Boop'' film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pic ...](_blank)
cartoons, reportedly based the fluttering utterances of Olive Oyl
Olive Oyl is a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar in 1919 for his comic strip ''Thimble Theatre''. The strip was later renamed ''Popeye'' after the sailor character that became the most popular member of the cast; however, Olive Oyl was a ...
on Pitts.[
]
Filmography
Television credits
See also
* Pitts and Todd
Notes
References
Sources
#
#
External links
*
*
*
*
Photographs and literature
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitts, ZaSu
1894 births
1963 deaths
20th-century American actresses
Actresses from Kansas
Actresses from Santa Cruz, California
Catholics from California
Catholics from Kansas
American women comedians
American film actresses
American silent film actresses
American stage actresses
American television actresses
American voice actresses
Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
California Republicans
Comedians from California
Comedians from Kansas
John Birch Society members
Deaths from cancer in California
Hal Roach Studios actors
Kansas Republicans
People from Parsons, Kansas
Universal Pictures contract players
American vaudeville performers
Writers from Santa Cruz, California
Writers from Kansas
Santa Cruz High School alumni
RKO Pictures contract players
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
Silent film comedians