Zasu 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 Stroheims 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 CBSs 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 Lonesomes Gal on the ABC sitcom Guestward Ho set on a dude ranch in New Mexico In 1962 Pitts appeared in an episode of CBSs Perry Mason The Case of the Absent Artist Her final role was as Gertie the switchboard operator in the Stanley Kramer comedy epic Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World 1963