Gertrude Michael

Known For

Acting

Born

Jun 01, 1911

Died

Dec 31, 1964

Place of Birth

Talladega, Alabama, USA

Credits

62 titles

Gertrude Michael

Biography

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. 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

Filmography

1961

The Continental Twist

Letitia Clunker

Movie
1960

The Case of the Dangerous Robin

Kay Salisbury

Tv
1958

Sea Hunt

Tv
1957

Perry Mason

Helen Rucker

Tv
1955

The 20th Century Fox Hour

Tv
1955

Women's Prison

Chief Matron Sturgess

Movie
1953

No Escape

Olga Valerie Lewis

Movie
1952

Cavalcade of America

Major Pauline Cushman

Tv
1952

Four Star Playhouse

Fanny

Tv
1952

Bugles in the Afternoon

May

Movie
1951

Hallmark Hall of Fame

Tv
1951

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

The Duchess

Tv
1951

Darling, How Could You!

Mrs. Rossiter

Movie
1950

Caged

Georgia Harrison

Movie
1949

Flamingo Road

Millie

Movie
1945

Club Havana

Hetty - Powder Room Attendant

Movie
1945

Allotment Wives

Gladys Smith

Movie
1945

Three's a Crowd

Sophie Whipple

Movie
1944

Faces in the Fog

Nora Brooks

Movie
1943

Women in Bondage

District Director Schneider

Movie
1943

Where Are Your Children?

Nell Wilson

Movie
1943

Behind Prison Walls

Elinor Cantwell

Movie
1942

Prisoner of Japan

Toni Chase

Movie
1940

Slightly Tempted

Duchess

Movie
1940

I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby

Magda Delys

Movie
1940

The Farmer's Daughter

Clarice Sheldon

Movie
1940

Parole Fixer

Collette Menthe

Movie
1940

Pound Foolish

Mrs. Irene Reynolds

Movie
1939

Just like a Woman

Ann Heston

Movie
1939

Hidden Power

Virginia Garfield

Movie
1938

Star of the Circus

Yester

Movie
1937

Sophie Lang Goes West

Sophie Lang

Movie
1937

Mr. Dodd Takes the Air

Jessica Stafford

Movie
1936

Make Way for a Lady

Miss Eleanor Emerson

Movie
1936

Second Wife

Virginia Howard

Movie
1936

The Return of Sophie Lang

Sophie Lang

Movie
1936

Forgotten Faces

Cleo / Harry's wife

Movie
1936

Till We Meet Again

Elsa Duranyi

Movie
1936

Woman Trap

Barbara 'Buff' Andrews

Movie
1935

The Last Outpost

Rosemary Haydon

Movie
1935

Four Hours to Kill!

Mrs. Sylvia Temple

Movie
1935

It Happened in New York

Vania Nardi

Movie
1934

Father Brown, Detective

Evelyn Fischer

Movie
1934

Menace

Helen Chalmers

Movie
1934

Cleopatra

Calpurnia

Movie
1934

The Notorious Sophie Lang

Sophie Lang

Movie
1934

Murder on the Blackboard

Jane Davis

Movie
1934

Murder at the Vanities

Rita Ross

Movie
1934

The Witching Hour

Margaret Price

Movie
1934

I Believed in You

Pamela Banks

Movie