Gertrude Astor

Gertrude Astor

actress, soundtrack

Gertrude Astor was born on Nov 09, 1887 in USA. Gertrude Astor's big-screen debut came with The Little Orphan directed by Jack Conway in 1917. Gertrude Astor is known for The Sound of Music directed by Robert Wise, Julie Andrews stars as Maria and Christopher Plummer as Captain Georg von Trapp. The upcoming new movie Gertrude Astor plays is The Sound of Music which will be released on Apr 01, 1965.

The first actress to sign a contract with Universal in 1915, Gertrude Astor (born in Ohio as Gertrude Irene Astor) began her career playing trombone and saxophone on a riverboat. Towering over most of her leading men at 5'11", she often played golddiggers, rich socialites or a leading lady's best friend in such one-reeled films and feature length silents as Polly Redhead (1917), Le contraste (1917), The Girl Who Wouldn't Quit (1918), Le fauve de la Sierra (1919), Mary Pickford's Par l'entrée de service (1921), The Wall Flower (1922), Alice Adams (1923), L'horrible méprise (1923), Vedette (1925), The Boy Friend (1926), Kiki (1926), L'athlète incomplet (1926), Shanghaied (1927), La volonté du mort (1927) and La case de l'oncle Tom (1927) (as Little Eva's mother). The popular female stars she bolstered included Pickford, Norma Talmadge, Gloria Swanson, Patsy Ruth Miller, Colleen Moore, Shirley Mason, Olive Borden and Laura La PlanteWith the advent of sound, Astor's career continued, landing her in a number of two-reel comedies, mostly with the Hal Roach studio and occasionally with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, the "Our Gang" gang and Charley Chase. "I've never been so embarrassed in all my life!" seemed to be one of her most used lines in films. Acting until the 1960s and often in bit parts (she once played a corpse in La griffe sanglante (1944), her last movie bit was for John Ford in L'homme qui tua Liberty Valance (1962). Astor often relayed her film memories to friends, fans and historians. At one point in her career she and actress Lilyan Tashman, were known as the most elegant and best dressed women in Hollywood. Astor died following a stroke on her 90th birthday at the Motion Piture Home in Woodland Hills.

  • Birthday

    Nov 09, 1887
  • Place of Birth

    Lakewood, Ohio, USA

Known For

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