Gertrude Michael
Actor
- Born
- June 1, 1911 · Talladega, Alabama, USA
- Died
- December 31, 1964 (age 53)
Gertrude Michael (June 1, 1911, Talladega, Alabama – December 31, 1964, Beverly Hills, California) was an American film, stage and television actress.
Born as Lillian Gertrude Michael in Talladega, Alabama, she reportedly graduated from high school at the age of 14. She became a radio singer on the radio. She attended the University of Alabama and Converse College, Cincinnati. Her childhood home in Talladega, Alabama was destroyed by fire in 2007.
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In 1929 in Cincinnati she made her stage debut in a stock company. She subsequently appeared on Broadway in Rachel Crothers' Caught Wet (1931). She entered the movies playing Richard Arlen's finaceé in Wayward (1932), but her best-remembered role is probably as Rita Ross in Murder at the Vanities (1934), one of the last pre-Code films, in which she sang an ode to marijuana (Sweet Marijuana).
She had an affair with writer Paul Cain (aka Peter Ruric).After they broke up, Cain wrote the role of the alcoholic lover (based on Michael) in his only novel published during his lifetime, Fast One.
Gertrude Michael died, aged 53, from undisclosed causes, in Beverly Hills, California.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Gertrude Michael,licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Acting54
- 1961The Continental Twist as Letitia Clunker
- 1955Women's Prison as Chief Matron Sturgess
- 1953No Escape as Olga Valerie Lewis
- 1952Bugles in the Afternoon as May
- 1951Darling, How Could You! as Mrs. Rossiter
- 1950Caged as Georgia Harrison
- 1949Flamingo Road as Millie
- 1945Club Havana as Hetty - Powder Room Attendant
- 1945Allotment Wives as Gladys Smith
- 1945Three's a Crowd
