poster movie

Gus Schilling

1908-06-20

The 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 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.

Gus Schilling in

Movies

poster movie

Citizen Kane

8.008 average rating
poster movie

Touch of Evil

7.8 average rating
poster movie

Rebel Without a Cause

7.519 average rating
poster movie

Bigger Than Life

7.1 average rating
poster movie

On Dangerous Ground

6.5 average rating
poster movie

Macbeth

7.3 average rating
poster movie

The Magnificent Ambersons

7.3 average rating
poster movie

The Lady from Shanghai

7.4 average rating
poster movie

Hellzapoppin'

7.1 average rating
poster movie

It Started with Eve

7.1 average rating
poster movie

Run for Cover

6.7 average rating
poster movie

Angel on the Amazon

4.8 average rating
poster movie

Glory

5 average rating
poster movie

You Were Never Lovelier

7.1 average rating
poster movie

Presenting Lily Mars

6.1 average rating
poster movie

A Thousand and One Nights

5.6 average rating
poster movie

There's One Born Every Minute

7.2 average rating
poster movie

The Penalty

6 average rating
poster movie

Dangerous Business

0 average rating
poster movie

She Couldn't Say No

5.5 average rating