ZaSu Pitts

ZaSu Pitts was an American actress born on January 3, 1894, in Parsons, Kansas, the third of four children of Rulandus and Nelly Pitts. Her father had lost a leg while serving in the 76th New York Infantry during the Civil War before settling the family in Kansas. Her name, commonly mispronounced, was derived from the names of her father's two sisters, Eliza and Susan. In her 1963 book Candy Hits, Pitts gave the correct pronunciation as "Say Zoo," noting that Mary Pickford had predicted many would mispronounce it. When Pitts was nine years old, the family relocated to Santa Cruz, California, where she attended Santa Cruz High School and participated in school theatricals. Her childhood home at 208 Lincoln Street in Santa Cruz still stands.

Pitts made her stage debut in 1914–15 through school and local community theater in Santa Cruz. She traveled to Los Angeles in 1916 at the age of 22 and spent months seeking work as a film extra before screenwriter Frances Marion cast her as an orphan servant in the 1917 silent film A Little Princess, starring Mary Pickford. Her profile rose further through a series of Universal one-reel comedies, and she earned her first feature-length lead in King Vidor's Better Times in 1919. She married her first husband, actor Thomas Sarsfield Gallery, in 1920, and the two appeared together in several films, including Heart of Twenty, Bright Eyes, Patsy, and A Daughter of Luxury. That marriage lasted until 1933, and the couple had two children, including a son, Donald Michael Gallery, whom they adopted following the 1926 death of his biological mother, actress Barbara La Marr. In 1933, Pitts married John Edward Woodall, with whom she remained until her death.

Pitts achieved her greatest screen popularity in the early 1930s, frequently appearing in Hal Roach comedies and short films, often paired with Thelma Todd as a duo of trouble-prone working women. At Universal she co-starred in a series of feature-length comedies with Slim Summerville. Her recurring screen persona — a fretful, flustered, worried spinster — became instantly recognizable and was frequently imitated. Despite this comic typecasting, she demonstrated dramatic range in Erich von Stroheim's 1924 epic Greed, playing a tragic role in the 7.5-hour film that von Stroheim later described as proof she was the greatest dramatic actress. Von Stroheim also cast her in The Honeymoon and The Wedding March, both from 1928, as well as Walking Down Broadway, which was substantially recut and released in 1933 as Hello, Sister! Her dramatic casting in the 1930 war film All Quiet on the Western Front, in which she played the distraught mother of a soldier portrayed by Lew Ayres, was ultimately abandoned after preview audiences responded with unintentional laughter; her scenes were refilmed with Beryl Mercer. In 1936, she was chosen to succeed Helen Broderick in RKO's Hildegarde Withers mystery series, but after two films in the role the series was discontinued.

Beginning in the 1930s, Pitts worked extensively in radio. She appeared on early episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly and made guest appearances opposite Jim Jordan when Marian Jordan temporarily left the show due to illness. She also appeared on variety programs alongside Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, W.C. Fields, and Rudy Vallee, played Miss Mamie Wayne on the soap opera Big Sister, and was heard as Miss Pitts on The New Lum and Abner Show.

Pitts made her Broadway debut in 1944, starring in the mystery Ramshackle Inn, a play written expressly for her. The production performed well, and she subsequently took it on the road. Her Broadway activity continued through 1953, during which time she also appeared in the play The Bat. She was additionally a regular presence in summer stock theater, performing annually in the Norma Mitchell play Post Road.

Postwar film work included Life with Father in 1947, and in the 1950s she shifted her focus increasingly toward television. Her most prominent television role was as Elvira Nugent, a shipboard beautician nicknamed Nugie, on ABC's The Gale Storm Show from 1956, also known as Oh, Susanna. In 1961 she appeared in the ABC sitcom Guestward, Ho!, cast opposite Earle Hodgins in the episode Lonesome's Gal. The following year she appeared in the Perry Mason episode The Case of the Absent Artist on CBS. Her final screen role was as Gertie, a switchboard operator, in Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in 1963.

Pitts was diagnosed with cancer in the mid-1950s but continued working through her illness. She died in Hollywood on June 7, 1963, at the age of 69, and was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. Her book of candy recipes, Candy Hits, was published posthumously that same year. On February 8, 1960, she was inducted onto the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to motion pictures, with her star located on the south side of the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard. In 1994, her image appeared on a United States postage stamp as part of The Silent Screen Stars set, alongside Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, and Charlie Chaplin, with artwork by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. Her birthplace of Parsons, Kansas, commemorates her with a star tile at the entrance to the Parsons Theatre.