Gertrude Michael

Gertrude Michael
Gertrude Michael in July 1935
Born	Lillian Gertrude Michael (1911-06-01)June 1, 1911 Talladega, Alabama, U.S.
Died	December 31, 1964(1964-12-31) (aged 53) Hollywood, California, U.S.
Other names	Beck Michael^[1]
Occupation	actress
Years active	1932–1961

Lillian Gertrude Michael (June 1, 1911 – December 31, 1964), sometimes nicknamed Beck Michael, was an American film, stage and television actress.

YouTube Encyclopedic

1/5
Views:
853
45 119
72 867
4 487
70 040

Transcription

Biography

Lillian Gertrude Michael was born in Talladega, Alabama to Mr. and Mrs. Carl H. Michael.^[1] She graduated from Talladega High school at the age of 14.^[2] In her youth, she played piano and organ, and she began Little Theatres in two communities.^[3] She became a singer on the radio.

Michael attended the University of Alabama, where she studied law, and Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, pursuing a study of music. Then she went to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music to continue studying music. Her work there earned her a scholarship for studying five years in Italy.^[2] In 1929 in Cincinnati, she made her stage debut in the Stuart Walker stock theater company.^[1] She appeared on Broadway in Rachel Crothers' Caught Wet (1931). She entered the movies playing Richard Arlen's fiancée in Wayward (1932), but her best-remembered role is probably either 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"), or as Alicia Hatton, the snooty society girl in the Mae West comedy I'm No Angel (1933). In 1937, Michael returned to the stage at the Cape Play House in Dennis, Massachusetts, with the lead in Damn Deborah.^[4] Among her television appearances, Michael was seen on Fireside Theater 11 times from 1950 to 1955 and three times on Schlitz Playhouse. She also made a guest appearance on Perry Mason in 1958 as Helen Rucker in "The Case of the Sun Bather's Diary".

Personal life

Michael had an affair with writer Paul Cain (aka Peter Ruric). After the relationship ended, Cain, in his novel Fast One, based the character of the alcoholic lover on Michael.^[5]

Michael died on December 31, 1964, aged 53, in her Hollywood home.^[6]

Filmography

Film

Wayward (1932) - Mary Morton
Unashamed (1932) - Marjorie
Sailor Be Good (1933) - Kay Whitney
A Bedtime Story (1933) - Louise
Night of Terror (1933) - Sarah Rinehart
Ann Vickers (1933) - Mona Dolphin
I'm No Angel (1933) - Alicia Hatton
Cradle Song (1933) - Sister Marcella
Search for Beauty (1934) - Jean Strange
Bolero (1934) - Lady D'Argon
George White's Scandals (1934) - Miss Lee
Hold That Girl (1934) - Dorothy Lamont
I Believed in You (1934) - Pamela Banks
The Witching Hour (1934) - Margaret Price
Murder at the Vanities (1934) - Rita Ross
Murder on the Blackboard (1934) - Jane Davis
The Notorious Sophie Lang (1934) - Sophie Lang
Cleopatra (1934) - Calpurnia
Menace (1934) - Helen Chalmers
Father Brown, Detective (1934) - Evelyn Fischer
It Happened in New York (1935) - Vania Nardi
Four Hours to Kill! (1935) - Mrs. Sylvia Temple
The Last Outpost (1935) - Rosemary
Woman Trap (1936) - Barbara 'Buff' Andrews
Till We Meet Again (1936) - Elsa Duranyi
Forgotten Faces (1936) - Cleo Ashton
The Return of Sophie Lang (1936) - Sophie Lang aka Ethel Thomas
Second Wife (1936) - Virginia Howard
Make Way for a Lady (1936) - Miss Eleanor Emerson
Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937) - Jessica Stafford
Sophie Lang Goes West (1937) - Sophie Lang
Just like a Woman (1938) - Ann Heston
Star of the Circus (1938) - Yester
Hidden Power (1939) - Virginia Garfield
Parole Fixer (1940) - Collette Menthe
The Farmer's Daughter (1940) - Clarice Sheldon
I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby (1940) - Magda Delys
Slightly Tempted (1940) - Duchess
Prisoner of Japan (1942) - Toni Chase
Behind Prison Walls (1943) - Elinor Cantwell
Women in Bondage (1943) - District Director Schneider
Faces in the Fog (1944) - Nora Brooks
Three's a Crowd (1945) - Sophie Whipple
Allotment Wives (1945) - Gladys Smith
Club Havana (1945) - Hetty - Powder Room Attendant
That Wonderful Urge (1948) - Mrs. Whitson (uncredited)
Flamingo Road (1949) - Millie
Caged (1950) - Georgia Harrison
Darling, How Could You! (1951) - Mrs. Rossiter
Bugles in the Afternoon (1952) - May
No Escape (1953) - Olga Valerie Lewis
Women's Prison (1955) - Chief Matron Sturgess
The Continental Twist (1961) - Letitia Clunker
The Outsider (1961) - Clubwoman (uncredited) (final film role)

Television

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (3 episodes, 1952–1957) - the Duchess
Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson (1 episode, 1954) - Lisa Jenssen
Cavalcade of America (1 episode, 1953) - Major Pauline Cushman
Meet Corliss Archer (1 episode, 1954) - Mrs. Wilson
The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (1 episode, 1954) - Coralee
Private Secretary (1 episode, 1954) - Hollywood Star
The Ford Television Theatre (1 episode, 1954) - Belle
Four Star Playhouse (1 episode, 1955) - Fanny
Cameo Theatre (1 episode, 1955)
The New Adventures of Charlie Chan (1 episode, 1957) - Joyce Fenton
The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1 episode, 1957) - Kate
Perry Mason (1 episode, 1958) - Helen Rucker
Sea Hunt (1 episode, 1961) - Mrs. Friedrich

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Smith, Hugh Frank (February 19, 1933). "Beck Michael Makes Advance in Screen Work". The Anniston Star. Alabama, Anniston. p. 7. Retrieved June 18, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
^ ^a ^b Williams, Whitney (December 16, 1934). "A New Queen Rules Movie Melodrama". Oakland Tribune. California, Oakland. p. 63. Retrieved June 18, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Wales, Clarke (October 18, 1936). "Talledega, Hollywood". Detroit Free Press. Michigan, Detroit. p. Screen & Radio Weekly 5. Retrieved January 12, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Play at Dennis, Mass". The New York Times. August 17, 1937. p. 23. Retrieved May 14, 2022.
^ Cain, Paul; Dralyuk, Boris; Deutsch, Keith Alan (December 17, 2013). The Paul Cain Omnibus: Every Crime Story and the Novel Fast One as Originally Published. Overamstel Uitgevers. ISBN 9789049980689.
^ "Gertrude Michael, Film Actress Who Starred in 1930's, Is Dead". The New York Times. Associated Press. January 2, 1965. p. 19. Retrieved May 14, 2022.