Gus Schilling

Born: 1908-06-20

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.


Placeholder

Citizen Kane

as John
Released: 1941-04-17

Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a...

Movie page

Rebel Without a Cause

as Attendant (uncredited)
Released: 1955-10-27

After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate,...

Movie page

Touch of Evil

as Eddie Farnham (uncredited)
Released: 1958-03-30

When a car bomb explodes on the American side of the U.S./Mexico border, Mexican drug...

Movie page

Bigger Than Life

as Druggist (uncredited)
Released: 1956-11-20

A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone,...

Movie page

The Lady from Shanghai

as Goldfish
Released: 1947-12-24

A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.

Movie page

The Magnificent Ambersons

as Drug Clerk (uncredited)
Released: 1942-07-10

The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the...

Movie page

You Were Never Lovelier

as Fernando
Released: 1942-11-19

An Argentine heiress thinks a penniless American dancer is her secret admirer.

Movie page

Hellzapoppin'

as Orchestra Conductor
Released: 1941-12-25

Olsen and Johnson, a pair of stage comedians, try to turn their play into a movie and bring...

Movie page

On Dangerous Ground

as Lucky
Released: 1951-12-13

A big-city cop is reassigned to the country after his superiors find him too angry to be an...

Movie page

Macbeth

as A Porter
Released: 1948-10-01

A Scottish warlord and his wife murder their way to a pair of crowns.

Movie page

Run for Cover

as Doc Ridgeway
Released: 1955-04-29

An ex-convict drifter and his flawed young partner are made sheriff and deputy of a Western town.

Movie page

A Thousand and One Nights

as Jafar
Released: 1945-07-20

On the run after being found sweet-talking the Sultan's daughter, Aladdin comes upon a lamp...

Movie page

Bride for Sale

as Timothy
Released: 1949-11-12

Nora Shelley is a tax expert for the accounting company which is led by Paul Martin. She thinks...

Movie page

The Return of October

as Benny
Released: 1948-10-26

A wholesome girl believes her new racehorse, October, is the reincarnation of her favorite...

Movie page

There's One Born Every Minute

as Professor Asa Quisenberry
Released: 1942-06-26

A nine-year-old Elizabeth Taylor made her film debut in this lively comedy. She plays the...

Movie page

Dr. Kildare's Victory

as Leo Cobb
Released: 1942-02-04

Dr. Gillespie supports Kildare's crusade against their hospital's deal with a rival hospital.

Movie page

Appointment for Love

as Gus
Released: 1941-10-31

Charming Andre Cassil woos physician Jane Alexander and the two impulsively get married. The...

Movie page

See My Lawyer

as J. Ambrose Winkler aka Winky
Released: 1945-03-09

Ole and Chic are comedians employed in a nightclub, but seeking to be released from their...

Movie page

Hers to Hold

as Rosey Blake
Released: 1943-07-16

Deanna Durbin is all grown up in Hers to Hold, the unofficial sequel to her "Three Smart Girls"...

Movie page

Broadway

as Joe
Released: 1942-05-08

Gangsters, nightclubs and the Roaring '20s.

Movie page

Angel on the Amazon

as Dean Hartley
Released: 1948-11-01

An expedition exploring the Amazon jungle comes across a jungle goddess who lives among the...

Movie page

It Started with Eve

as Raven
Released: 1941-09-26

A young man asks a hat check girl to pose as his fiancée in order to make his dying father's...

Movie page

The Penalty

as Bank Teller (uncredited)
Released: 1941-03-13

In this crime drama, a ruthless gangster's son is soon following in his father's footsteps. When...

Movie page

Presenting Lily Mars

as Scotty - Stage Manager
Released: 1943-04-29

Starstruck Indiana small-town girl Lily is pestering theatrical producer John Thornway for a...

Movie page

Calendar Girl

as Eddie Gaskin
Released: 1947-01-31

Around the turn of the century, two young men, Johnnie Bennett, a composer and Steve Adams, an...

Movie page

The Amazing Mrs. Holliday

as uncredited
Released: 1943-02-19

A missionary tries to outwit the U.S. government and smuggle Chinese orphans into the country.

Movie page

She Couldn't Say No

as Ed Gruman
Released: 1954-02-15

An heiress decides to pass out anonymous gifts in a small town.

Movie page

Glory

as Joe Page
Released: 1956-01-11

A lovesick girl and her grandfather groom their filly for the Kentucky Derby.

Movie page

Dr. Kildare's Crisis

as Orderly Cleaning Window
Released: 1940-11-29

Jimmy Kildare's impending nuptials are jeopardized by a diagnosis of possible epilepsy in his...

Movie page

Pop Always Pays

as City Dump Watchman
Released: 1940-06-21

A businessman boasts he'll give his daughter a large amount of cash for her wedding, and then...

Movie page

It's a Pleasure

as Bill Evans
Released: 1945-03-03

A star hockey player with the Wildcats is barred from Hockey for hitting a referee. Through the...

Movie page

Ice-Capades

as Dave
Released: 1941-08-19

Bob Clemens is a cameraman for newsreels. Assigned to shoot the Swiss ice skater Karen Vadja, he...

Movie page

One Big Affair

as Mr. Rush
Released: 1952-02-22

Lawyer Jimmy Donovan thinks a bicycle tour through Mexico is just the thing to keep him out of...

Movie page

Stork Bites Man

as Hubert Butterfield
Released: 1947-06-21

A man engages in a boycott of a no children allowed apartment house, with the help of an...

Movie page

Honeychile

as Window Washer
Released: 1951-10-20

A music publishing company tries to swindle a song from a country girl that they inadvertently...

Movie page

Dangerous Business

as Alexander Pough
Released: 1946-06-20

Two young lawyers open an office together. They are hired to defend a utilities magnate who...

Movie page

Mexican Spitfire Out West

as Hotel Desk Clark
Released: 1940-10-29

Dennis heads west to work on an important business deal minus the Mexican Spitfire, Carmelita....

Movie page

Gasoline Alley

as Joe Allen
Released: 1951-01-02

A young man tries to get rich by opening a diner. Comedy based on the popular comic strip.

Movie page

Sing a Jingle

as Bucky
Released: 1944-01-07

In Sing a Jingle, Allan Jones plays popular radio crooner Roy King, who goes to work in a war...

Movie page

River Gang

as Dopey Charlie
Released: 1945-09-21

An orphan girl lives with apparently kind uncle who turns out to be a murderer.

Movie page

Our Very Own

as Frank
Released: 1950-07-27

During a heated argument with her sister Joan, Gail discovers the shocking news that she is...

Movie page

Lady Bodyguard

as Bughouse Sweeney
Released: 1943-01-02

A.C.Baker, advertising executive for an insurance company, approaches test pilot Terry Moore...

Movie page

Hit Parade of 1951

as Studio Guide
Released: 1950-10-15

While raising cash to pay a debt, a Vegas gambler tricks a night club crooner there who looks...

Movie page

Ain't Love Cuckoo?

as Gus Schilling
Released: 1946-06-06

Gus Schilling and Richard Lane are two GIs serving overseas during World War II, and they get...

Movie page

Larceny with Music

as Austin J. Caldwell
Released: 1943-09-10

A former bootlegger is now the prosperous owner of a popular nightclub. A hustling promoter...

Movie page

Pardon My Terror

as Gus
Released: 1946-09-12

Private detectives Gus and Dick take a murder case where nearly everyone is trying to kill them.

Movie page

Lucky Devils

as Aloysius Grimshaw
Released: 1941-01-03

Lucky Devils casts the mismatched duo as a pair of intrepid newsreel cameramen. When they're not...

Movie page

Chatterbox

as Gillie
Released: 1943-04-27

While shooting a western on location, a Hollywood "cowboy" star--whose offscreen image is...

Movie page