Birthday: 1908-06-20
Deathday: 1957-06-16
Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned
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.
Year | Title | Character | |
---|---|---|---|
1958-03-30 | Touch of Evil | Eddie Farnham (uncredited) | |
1956-11-20 | Bigger Than Life | Druggist (uncredited) | |
1956-01-11 | Glory | Joe Page | |
1955-10-27 | Rebel Without a Cause | Attendant (uncredited) | |
1955-04-29 | Run for Cover | Doc Ridgeway | |
1954-02-15 | She Couldn't Say No | Ed Gruman | |
1952-02-22 | One Big Affair | Mr. Rush | |
1951-12-13 | On Dangerous Ground | Lucky | |
1951-10-20 | Honeychile | Window Washer | |
1951-01-02 | Gasoline Alley | Joe Allen | |
1950-10-15 | Hit Parade of 1951 | Studio Guide | |
1950-07-27 | Our Very Own | Frank | |
1949-11-12 | Bride for Sale | Timothy | |
1949-05-12 | Flung by a Fling | Capt. Gus Schilling | |
1949-01-13 | He's in Again | Gus | |
1948-11-01 | Angel on the Amazon | Dean Hartley | |
1948-10-26 | The Return of October | Benny | |
1948-10-01 | Macbeth | A Porter | |
1948-06-10 | Pardon My Lamb Chop | Gus | |
1948-02-10 | Two Nuts in a Rut | Gus Schilling, Lane's assistant | |
1947-12-24 | The Lady from Shanghai | Goldfish | |
1947-08-09 | Wedding Belle | Gus Schilling | |
1947-07-03 | Training for Trouble | Gus Schilling | |
1947-06-21 | Stork Bites Man | Hubert Butterfield | |
1947-01-31 | Calendar Girl | Eddie Gaskin | |
1946-09-12 | Pardon My Terror | Gus | |
1946-07-25 | Hot Water | Gus | |
1946-06-20 | Dangerous Business | Alexander Pough | |
1946-06-06 | Ain't Love Cuckoo? | Gus Schilling | |
1945-12-06 | High Blood Pleasure | Gus | |
1945-09-21 | River Gang | Dopey Charlie | |
1945-07-20 | A Thousand and One Nights | Jafar | |
1945-03-09 | See My Lawyer | J. Ambrose Winkler aka Winky | |
1945-03-03 | It's a Pleasure | Bill Evans | |
1944-01-07 | Sing a Jingle | Bucky | |
1943-09-10 | Larceny with Music | Austin J. Caldwell | |
1943-07-16 | Hers to Hold | Rosey Blake | |
1943-04-29 | Presenting Lily Mars | Scotty - Stage Manager | |
1943-04-27 | Chatterbox | Gillie | |
1943-02-19 | The Amazing Mrs. Holliday | ||
1943-01-02 | Lady Bodyguard | Bughouse Sweeney | |
1942-11-19 | You Were Never Lovelier | Fernando | |
1942-07-10 | The Magnificent Ambersons | Drug Clerk (uncredited) | |
1942-06-26 | There's One Born Every Minute | Professor Asa Quisenberry | |
1942-05-08 | Broadway | Joe | |
1942-02-04 | Dr. Kildare's Victory | Leo Cobb | |
1941-12-25 | Hellzapoppin' | Orchestra Conductor | |
1941-10-31 | Appointment for Love | Gus | |
1941-09-26 | It Started with Eve | Raven | |
1941-08-19 | Ice-Capades | Dave | |
1941-04-17 | Citizen Kane | John | |
1941-03-13 | The Penalty | Bank Teller (uncredited) | |
1941-01-03 | Lucky Devils | Aloysius Grimshaw | |
1940-11-29 | Dr. Kildare's Crisis | Orderly Cleaning Window | |
1940-10-29 | Mexican Spitfire Out West | Hotel Desk Clark | |
1940-06-21 | Pop Always Pays | City Dump Watchman |