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.
9
3
5
9
3
6
9
3
7
9
3
8
9
3
9
9
4
0
9
4
1
Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich ...
More info
Olsen and Johnson, a pair of stage comedians, try to turn their play into a movie and bring together...
More info9
4
2
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man...
More info9
4
3
Starstruck Indiana small-town girl Lily is pestering theatrical producer John Thornway for a role bu...
More info9
4
4
9
4
5
9
4
6
9
4
7
9
4
8
9
4
9
9
5
0
9
5
1
9
5
2
9
5
3
9
5
4
When the head of a large manufacturing firm dies suddenly from a stroke, his vice-presidents vie to ...
More info9
5
5
After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although...
More info9
5
6
A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resultin...
More info9
5
7
9
5
8
A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police inves...
More info9
5
9
9
6
0
9
6
1
9
6
2
9
6
3
9
6
4
Recent movies
| # | Name | Character | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Touch of Evil (1958) | Eddie Farnham (uncredited) | 7.2 | |
| 2 | Bigger Than Life (1956) | Druggist (uncredited) | 7.7 | |
| 3 | Rebel Without a Cause (1955) | Attendant (uncredited) | 7.3 | |
| 4 | Executive Suite (1954) | Newsstand Vendor (uncredited) | 3 | |
| 5 | Macbeth (1948) | A Porter | 5 | |
| 6 | The Lady from Shanghai (1947) | Goldfish | 7.5 | |
| 7 | Presenting Lily Mars (1943) | Scotty - Stage Manager | - | - |
| 8 | The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) | Drug Clerk (uncredited) | 5.5 | |
| 9 | Citizen Kane (1941) | John | 7.8 | |
| 10 | Hellzapoppin' (1941) | Orchestra Conductor | 6 |
