Date of birth: 1894-01-02
Place of birth: Parsons, Kansas, USA
Known for: Acting
Also known as: Zazu Pitts, Eliza Susan Pitts, ZaSu Pitts, Za Su Pitts

Zasu Pitts was an American actress who starred in many silent dramas and comedies, transitioning successfully to mostly comedy films with the advent of sound films. She may be best known for her performance in Erich von Stroheim's epic silent film Greed. Based on her performance, von Stroheim labeled Pitts "the greatest dramatic actress". He also featured her in his films The Honeymoon (1928), The Wedding March (1928), War Nurse (1930) and Walking Down Broadway, released as Hello, Sister! (1933). However, for the most part, with the advent of sound Pitts was mostly relegated to comedy parts. A bitter disappointment was when she was replaced in the classic war drama All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) by Beryl Mercer after her initial appearance in previews drew unintentional laughs, despite her intense performance. She had viewers rolling in the aisles in Finn and Hattie (1931), The Guardsman (1931), Blondie of the Follies (1932), Sing and Like It (1934) and Ruggles of Red Gap (1935). In 1936 and 1937 she portrayed Hildegarde Withers in two movies, succeeding Edna May Oliver as the spinster sleuth, but they were not well received. In the 1950s she started focusing on television. This culminated in her best known series role, playing second banana to Gale Storm on CBS's The Gale Storm Show (1956) (also known as Oh, Susannah) in the role of Elvira Nugent ("Nugie"), the shipboard beautician. In 1961, Pitts was cast opposite Earle Hodgins in the episode "Lonesome's Gal" on the ABC sitcom, Guestward, Ho!, set on a dude ranch in New Mexico. In 1962, Pitts 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 comedy epic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).

1924-12-04
A lottery win of $5,000 forever changes the lives of a miner turned dentist and his wife.

1932-09-01
New York City tenement dwelling neighbors Blondie and Lottie are longtime best friends. When Lottie

1963-07-17
A housewife's sudden rise to fame as a soap spokesperson leads to chaos in her home life.

1963-11-07
A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $

1925-10-11
Sam Martin grows up in the Kentucky hills with a preacher as his closest friend and father figure. T

1928-01-28
In this comedy, a wealthy matron is terribly upset when she learns that her socialite son is plannin

1930-08-20
A gangster's wife, fearful that he is about to be murdered by his rivals, tips off the police to his

1935-03-08
In this comedy of an Englishman stranded in a sea of barbaric Americans, Marmaduke Ruggles - a gentl

1947-09-13
A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really ru

1918-09-28
Her strict upbringing is driving Genevra French (Dorothy Phillips) crazy, so when she gets her hand

1950-02-08
During World War II, a junior American Army officer, Lt. Peter Stirling, gets sent to the psychiatri

1931-09-04
A gambler, hopelessly in debt, agrees to pay off his debt by allowing his creditor to take out a lif

1937-11-19
The story of how 52nd Street became New York City's "Nightclub Row" in the 1930s.

1934-09-01
A reformer's daughter wins the lead role in a scandalous Broadway show.

1929-12-31
The honeymoon of Prince Nicki in the Alps, and the wedding of Mitzi and Schani. Mitzi still loves N

1929-03-09
The title character is office-boy Barney. Pretending to be a deaf-mute, Barney tries to trump his de
1921-02-01
Patsy is the awkward sister of the lovely Grace. She is also in love with Grace's boyfriend. Mother

1928-01-07
While stationed in Switzerland, soldiers Louis and Rodney fall in love with local damsel Colette, mu

1940-04-06
After crooked nightclub owner murders a police informant, he blackmails his piano player to allow hi

1929-11-16
On her first anniversary, Ann Reagan finds that her sister-in-law is involved with a shady character

1946-01-01
A short subject, intended as the first of a series, where Gloria Swanson plays "Miss Gloria," advice

1931-12-26
Two young women, Zasu and Thelma, complain that all of their dates take them to Coney Island. The ne

1929-10-19
A couple of roving vagabonds hitch a freight to the railroad town of Linda, and between bouts with t

1934-10-28
The Wiggs family plan to celebrate Thanksgiving in their rundown shack with leftover stew, without M

1924-06-22
A bored rich housewife wants to go on the stage, but her husband won't let her. When she meets a des

1939-10-07
Anita, engaged to solid Don Barnes, is swept off her feet by magician Arturo. Before you can say pre

1931-10-20
An acclaimed actor and his equally acclaimed actress wife, who have been married for less than a yea

1926-02-08
On the night before his wedding, a young man plays poker with friends. When the game is raided by th

1957-05-14
To earn extra money, a prim schoolteacher takes a second job as secretary to the uncouth owner of a

1936-12-11
A priceless Cellini silver cup is stolen from a local museum with both Hildegarde and Oscar on the c

1932-10-02
Story of a Hollywood studio during the transition from silents to talkies.

1932-03-25
A waitress falls for a wealthy young man but has to fight his mother to find happiness.

1923-08-19
Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She l

1930-08-27
A countess fleeing her husband mistakes a count for her hairdresser at a Monte Carlo casino.

1931-03-29
Marianne falls in love with con man Valentine who uses their relation to get her father's endorsemen

1932-05-14
Bodies start mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue. An investigator tries to determine what

1932-09-25
A group of amateur detectives sets out to expose The Crooked Circle, a secretive group of hooded occ

1937-09-24
Hildegarde Withers and Inspector Piper try to solve a murder while attending a popular Broadway show

1936-11-13
A temperamental film star's vacation turns deadly when he uncovers a murder.

1917-11-05
Little Sara Crewe is placed in a boarding school by her father when he goes off to war, but he does

1933-10-20
A charlatan posing as Baron Munchhausen is invited to be guest speaker at a girls' school.

1942-04-17
A dizzy old spinster gets involved in the boxing racket and gangland murders.

1932-07-01
A grocery clerk, longing to become a cowboy actor, goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune.

1935-07-06
A ditzy wife yearns to join "high society" when she and her husband become suddenly wealthy.

1952-05-16
Jim Vesser and his team of railroading men try to build a rail line through a mountain pass, while a

1942-03-19
Lum Edwards is annoyed with his partner in Pine Ridge's Jot-'em-Down general store, Abner Peabody, b

1941-10-17
The nosy antics of a honeymooner puts an unwed couple in the same room.

1941-06-13
A publicity stunt staged on a train known as the Broadway Limited gets out of control, as no one wan

1930-09-29
Sundered lovers meet again amid tragic irony at a mining camp in northern Norway.

1930-11-10
Dowdy Sylvia accepts her boss' marriage proposal, even though he only asked her to avoid marriage to

1932-05-27
A struggling writer divorces his wife to pursue his career without interference, but they meet in Eu

1925-09-06
Maggie, a headlining comedienne with the Follies, takes a fall off the stage into the orchestra pit

1929-05-09
A fiesty, sexy and manipulative gypsy disrupts the lives of a conservative farm family.

1930-12-06
A bored society woman invites scandal and heartache when she falls in love with her low-born chauffe

1934-04-20
While breaking into a bank safe, a gangster overhears a bank employee singing and decides to put her

1943-08-04
A soldier stationed on an army base and his fiancé, who runs a women's "fat farm" nearby, want to ge

1935-06-27
Betty Ingals walks out on her fiancé in search of adventure. She gets more than she bargained for wh

1942-03-13
An advertising executive and his temperamental wife sail to Hawaii in search of business. The fifth

1934-12-14
Mary wants to marry a gangster because that is where the money is. Unfortunately, the life expectanc

1933-06-09
Radio singer Glory Eden is publicized as the ideal of American womanhood in order to sell the sponso

1931-05-14
Bart is a clerk for a publishing company; he has written a novel. His wife Peggy and he have five ch

1961-08-01
A teenager whose father is a millionaire radio station owner secretly records a song and plays it on

1941-10-18
A pretty Chicago teenager (Gale Storm), who's being courted by an older man, is sent by her worried

1932-04-17
The story about a man framed for a crime he didn't commit, who returns to wreak havoc following his

1933-10-18
Tough Aggie gives a street guy polish and a rich kid gumption.

1941-12-12
Jim is hardly thrilled when his new bride, Ellen, invites an old friend, Randy, over for dinner. Yet

1941-11-28
An advertising executive and his temperamental wife adopt a war orphan who turns out to be a beautif

1933-12-22
After losing their Missouri home during the Great Depression, the Skitch family pulls up stakes and

1936-04-30
Womanizer and airline pilot Jack Gordon must fly the world's fastest airliner from New York to Calif

1934-01-12
A stranded actress turned manicurist affects the lives of people in a small American town.

1939-08-31
British nurse Edith Cavell is stationed at a hospital in Brussels during World War I. When the son o

1934-01-26
Mazie, a poor orphan girl, is mistreated by cruel farmer Slag and his wife for whom she works. Mazie

1930-11-01
Sgt. Conniston and his alcoholic guide O'Toole are on the trail of an escaped murderer named Keith.

1930-05-09
Beautiful manicurist Hallie Hobart sets her sights on handsome David Stone, the son of wealthy wheat

1931-02-04
The Haddocks are going on a European vacation and from their reception at the station, where the who

1932-05-01
Vivienne Ware is defended by her ex-beau when she's accused of killing her faithless fiance.

1932-06-17
William Poster writes a gossip column for the Morning Gazette. He will write about anyone and everyo

1933-04-14
Peggy and her friend Millie are strolling down Broadway while Jimmy and Mac are trolling Broadway, a

1933-08-03
A camp butcher on an Albany night boat dreams of the South Seas.

1932-07-08
A boatload of Westerners is trapped in Manchuria as bandits led by Russian renegade Voronsky ravage

1933-04-08
Comedy short with ZaSuPitts and Thelma Todd. After accidentally getting a policeman friend fired, t

1924-10-20

1932-02-06
In their first comedy two-reeler of 1932, vivacious Thelma Todd and fluttery ZaSu Pitts learn that t

1933-01-21
The girls moonlight as taxi dancers in order to earn some extra money.

1932-08-20
The girls and their pet monkey create havoc on board a train carrying a traveling Broadway troupe.

1926-10-04
A domineering mother sets out to break up the romance and possible marriage of her daughter, Cecily

1931-04-03
Four battle-weary American soldiers under fire reflect on the women they left behind.

1932-11-04
Eddie Burke is a wise-guy pugilist whose talent is unevenly matched by his ego. Despite his characte

1932-03-13
Truck driver Norman Foster has aspirations to become a prize fighter, but romantic interest June Cly

1931-08-22
Zasu falls for a wrestler, drags Thelma to his next fight.

1927-03-08
Casey is a slovenly junk man in a turn of the twentieth century hick town who has a remarkable abili

1932-03-18
Thelma and Zasu go to a Turkish bath to try to get rid of a cold.

1931-10-01
Best pals Penrod and Sam are leaders of a super-secret neighborhood society, the In-Or-In Boys Club.

1925-11-06
Steve Tuttle, the titular lazybones, takes on the responsibility of raising a fatherless girl, causi

1931-07-08
It is 1915 in Vienna and the Great War has caused many casualties. Elsa, a beautiful prostitute, wan

1942-09-17
In this comedy, the town gossip fills her time running the lives of others. Naturally, she is also a

1933-03-04
Instead of delivering some fancy dresses to a customer, the girls wear them to a party.

1935-09-01
Two people go to Coney Island to find romance and wind up in jail.

1936-12-25
A young playboy inherits a financially-troubled New York City department store. To learn the busines
1933-10-01
A lawyer devises a plan to fake a breach of contract suit against a wealthy womanizer.

1919-08-18
Social drama about a friendship that is pressurized by class differences.

1933-03-13
Its 1850 and California is under ruthless military rule. Kirby Tornell's rancho has been taken over

1918-06-29
A lost Film. Mary Pickford plays a socialite who, having lost her fortune, takes a job as a Swedish

1923-08-19
Sydney Fairchild, the daughter of a woman who was once loved by three bachelors, surprises the men w

1926-06-28
Struggling young doctor in a rural community, Dr. Lawrence Tibbits, cures Norma, a circus elephant,

1923-04-22
A young woman hits Hollywood, determined to become a star.

1917-12-30
A young man grows restless living in a small Kansas town, dreaming of the adventures of the Three Mu

1933-04-08
A "mama's boy" falls for a spinster who takes care of children at a department store nursery.
1922-01-01
When a lawsuit deprives a rich woman, Mary Fenton, of her wealth, she decides to impersonate another

1931-11-14
During WW1, the girls become spies when they spend the evening with two German officers.

1932-10-29
Zasu and Thelma are working their way through college by selling magazine subscriptions. Finding lit

1931-10-03
After running their car off the road, a society matron insists that the girls spend the evening at h

1932-06-04
Thelma and Zazu are on a leisurely excursion in a borrowed car. Thelma lets Zazu drive. When she bra

1932-04-30
Zasu inadvertently turns Thelma's vaudeville act into a shambles.

1932-12-10
Juror Zasu accidentally swallows a piece of evidence which just happens to be a time bomb.

1931-06-06
Zasu & Thelma go out with two idiots to a nightclub.

1933-05-20
Thelma wins a screen test with a Hollywood studio, but trouble ensues on the train trip out there.

1932-09-24
When Thelma is stopped by a cop for speeding, she tries to get out of it by telling him that she and

1928-10-06
A young impoverished aristocrat falls in love with an inn-keeper's daughter, but has to marry money.

1918-09-22
A wealthy society playboy falls in love with the daughter of a poor fisherman. After Valentino shot

1935-08-05
Esmeralda is a cook in a diner in a small Arkansas town. When a gang of crooks moves into town and p

1931-12-12
A wealthy, cheating husband is found murdered in his penthouse apartment. The police soon arrest a s

1939-06-23
Donald Hardwick (Dick Powell) is a stuffed-shirt, classical music professor. His family and small-to

1934-08-17
Early '30s comedy-mystery involving magicians, fake psychics and murder.

1930-01-03
A bible publisher is falling in love with a chorus girl and finds himself backing a Broadway show.

1941-11-14
A small-town spinster, who's a born romantic, takes on the strict members of the local "Purity Leagu

1930-11-22
Women from various backgrounds volunteer as nurses in France at the outbreak of World War I.

1926-03-01
Three girls from a small town win a trip to Monte Carlo. The trip was sponsored by their local newsp

1917-09-22
Behind in the mortgage on Sunnybrook Farm and barely managing to feed seven hungry mouths, mother se

1917-10-15
A judge who had taken part in the gold rush of 1849 hires an acting troupe to recreate the experienc
1920-06-20
Katie Abbott, despairing of being a wallflower, is about to attempt suicide in the village pond when

1939-07-03
A bank robber and his boy make a run for it during winter in a bus full of children.

1934-05-11
"Private Scandal" is a 1934 American Pre-Code comedy film directed by Ralph Murphy and written by Ve

1929-08-17
A multimillionaire is murdered, and his will leaves all his money to a beautiful young blonde. The m

1918-12-10
Bright young novelist Mabel Vere is engaged to Gerald Wantage, a prig who angrily objects when she a

1932-01-19
A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, lik

1946-02-26
The goings on of a few members of a radio show's audience is the premise for this feature film deriv

1931-07-12
Dorothy Mackaill stars in this old-fashioned melodrama set in the Basque country of Spain. She is Em

1932-08-04
A woman's love for and devotion to a married man results in her being relegated to the "back streets

1929-07-14
A young husband just wants to spend a quiet evening at home with his wife, but her collection of zan

1934-05-04
ZaSu Pitts and Slim Summerville meet when both are sold deeds to an abandoned ranch in the Californi

1935-08-20
An amateur handicapper must help his future son-in-law recoup the money he lost while playing the po

1954-07-30
Peter Stirling (with his old friend the talking mule) is recalled to active duty...in the WACs!

1924-11-12
At a lavish house party, bank president Robert Andrews stages his own “murder” to distract a visitin

1940-12-19
Perky young Nanette attempts to save the marriage of her uncle and aunt by untangling Uncle Jimmy fr

1933-01-01
Both the maid and the youngest daughter are after the same man who wants nothing to do with either o

1925-04-09
A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and giv

1930-03-29
A once-wealthy sister and brother rent out their Southern mansion and stay on as cook and butler.

1934-03-22
This romantic comedy takes place on an ocean liner. One of the few unattached passengers is heiress

1926-01-11
Adapted from the Fannie Hurst story of the same name, Mannequin is the story of Joan Herrick, kidnap

1930-08-03
On the day before his second wedding, a man finds out that his bride-to-be has had a baby.

1934-03-27
Students at New York's Rovina Finishing School for Girls send their photographs to the makers of Cla

1939-04-27
Good-natured gambler Marty Black falls into ownership of a booking joint but soon falls on hard time

1947-01-24
A couple celebrate their tenth anniversary by quarreling their way to divorce court.

1925-02-15
Alone and unprotected in an isolated wilderness cabin, Ruth Jordan is discovered by three drunken br

1930-12-01
A wife's psychiatrist tells her that she is being dominated by her husband. Her solution is to divor

1929-11-07
Irène Bordoni is cast as Vivienne Rolland, a Parisian chorus girl in love with Massachusetts boy And

1928-01-29
Pvt. Smith, an American soldier stationed in a German town during the occupation of Germany after Wo
1925-04-08
A widowed woman marries her husband's brother, who soon proves to be a tyrant stepfather to his adop

1922-06-04
Singer Anna Woodstock loses her voice, but a visit to a hypnotist, Dr. Joseph Kasimir, brings it bac

1964-09-02
Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.

1933-01-05
Molly Hull, a maid, and Sam Sutton, a butler, are bequeathed a million dollars, and they encounter m

1929-12-13
A romance runs into difficulties because the girl has seen a great deal of the turbulence in her sis

1937-08-23
A married couple are mistaken for jewel thieves and forced to go to a party. The husband turns on th

1929-08-25
A English aristocrat causes a scandal when she divorces her husband and runs off with a young Americ

1923-05-27
Mary's kid brother needs an operation and, in order to pay for it, Mary goes to a Hollywood studio a

1919-07-13
Ezra Scroggs is a shiftless gambler who has let his hotel, the Lakeview, fall on hard times. Finally

1923-08-26
The tale of Bonnie Day, a rambunctious young lady who is rankled when she is expelled from college f

1923-01-28
Drama of two girls who married into different layers of society.

1926-08-02
Sunny sings in the streets to obtain funds for a country outing. A theatre owner hears her and takes

1959-06-15
Walt Disney and Art Linkletter co-host a live celebration of Disneyland's 1959 expansion that consis

1924-03-30
A newly married husband and wife make an agreement that should either of them want to terminate thei

1928-12-28
A married restaurant owner is persuaded to become a bootlegger by a beautiful young girl. When he st

1932-01-03
A wealthy bachelor hires a pretty young nanny to look after his adopted daughter. Sparks quickly fly
1949-07-18
Chester Lauck and Norris Goff tried to bring their highly successful radio show to TV but it didn’t
1920-01-01
Swindled out of her small property by crooked money lender Bogrum, Betty Lawrence turns to large est

1926-04-25
Tommy and Daphne Carter, a young married couple, following the advice of a pretentious friend, decid

1925-12-15
Nell Bailey, taking a lesson from the married lives of her sister, Luella Logan, and her mother, agr
1917-06-02
Bill is the editor of the country paper and Suza his assistant. Lil and Milt arrive in town, and Suz

1917-06-19

1924-01-06
Young marrieds Guy & Bee are ostracized by their supposed friends in town when Bee discovers she is

1919-06-15
1926-10-12
Tom Barrett, a motion picture press agent, noting Frances Norcross' resemblance to film star Daphne
1917-06-23
Stuck in the desert ZaSu pratfalls her way out.
1917-06-25
Perscilla (Zasu Pitts) holds the mortgage on Milt's (Milburn Morante) home but says she will cancel

1925-02-15
To support a demanding wife, bank clerk Brian Kent embezzles a large sum of money and, overcome with
1919-11-01
Dorothy Perkins, the eldest daughter of a simple, wholesome country family, leaves for the big city

1919-02-10
Although a female, gunfighter "Colonel Billy" is feared by the men of Rattlesnake Gulch, a mining ca
1933-01-01
Fox Film’s promotional short subject for the Federal Government’s National Recovery Act, in which wo
1917-01-01
Ira, who is employed at the oil station, falls in love with Flossie, wife of Jack, as they drive by.

1924-02-02
Mabel Vandergrift moves from the country to the city and enrolls in an upscale college. She starts t

1922-04-16
Mr. and Mrs. Amos Saxby's silver wedding anniversary is interrupted by the surprise elopement of the