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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
June 1, 1911
Died
December 31, 1964
Place of Birth
Talladega, Alabama, USA
Also Known As
- Lillian Gertrude Michael
- Beck Michael
Gertrude Michael
0.2 Popularity
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
4.7
Letitia Clunker
The Continental Twist
1961
0.0
Kay Salisbury
The Case of the Dangerous Robin
1960
6.6
Sea Hunt
1958
7.7
Helen Rucker
Perry Mason
1957
5.4
The 20th Century Fox Hour
1955
5.7
Chief Matron Sturgess
Women's Prison
1955
4.5
Olga Valerie Lewis
No Escape
1953
3.5
Major Pauline Cushman
Cavalcade of America
1952
🎬
6.7
Fanny
Four Star Playhouse
1952
5.2
May
Bugles in the Afternoon
1952
Credits
The Continental Twist
as Letitia Clunker
1961
4.7
The Case of the Dangerous Robin
as Kay Salisbury
1960
0.0
Sea Hunt
1958
6.6
Perry Mason
as Helen Rucker
1957
7.7
The 20th Century Fox Hour
1955
5.4
Women's Prison
as Chief Matron Sturgess
1955
5.7
No Escape
as Olga Valerie Lewis
1953
4.5
Cavalcade of America
as Major Pauline Cushman
1952
3.5
🎬
Four Star Playhouse
as Fanny
1952
6.7
Bugles in the Afternoon
as May
1952
5.2
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
8.6
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
as The Duchess
1951
7.2
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951
7.2
Darling, How Could You!
as Mrs. Rossiter
1951
6.0
Caged
as Georgia Harrison
1950
7.1
Flamingo Road
as Millie
1949
7.0
Club Havana
as Hetty - Powder Room Attendant
1945
5.7
Allotment Wives
as Gladys Smith
1945
6.0
🎬
Three's a Crowd
as Sophie Whipple
1945
0.0
Faces in the Fog
as Nora Brooks
1944
3.0
Women in Bondage
as District Director Schneider
1943
5.7
Where Are Your Children?
as Nell Wilson
1943
4.0
🎬
Behind Prison Walls
as Elinor Cantwell
1943
0.0
Prisoner of Japan
as Toni Chase
1942
4.3
Slightly Tempted
as Duchess
1940
0.0
I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby
as Magda Delys
1940
6.0
The Farmer's Daughter
as Clarice Sheldon
1940
4.6
Parole Fixer
as Collette Menthe
1940
6.0
Pound Foolish
as Mrs. Irene Reynolds
1940
7.0
🎬
Just like a Woman
as Ann Heston
1939
0.0
Hidden Power
as Virginia Garfield
1939
0.0
🎬
Star of the Circus
as Yester
1938
2.0
Sophie Lang Goes West
as Sophie Lang
1937
6.0
Mr. Dodd Takes the Air
as Jessica Stafford
1937
5.4
Make Way for a Lady
as Miss Eleanor Emerson
1936
5.0
Second Wife
as Virginia Howard
1936
0.0
The Return of Sophie Lang
as Sophie Lang
1936
6.0
Forgotten Faces
as Cleo / Harry's wife
1936
1.0
Till We Meet Again
as Elsa Duranyi
1936
4.5
Woman Trap
as Barbara 'Buff' Andrews
1936
0.0
The Last Outpost
as Rosemary Haydon
1935
6.1
Four Hours to Kill!
as Mrs. Sylvia Temple
1935
5.0
It Happened in New York
as Vania Nardi
1935
0.0
Father Brown, Detective
as Evelyn Fischer
1934
6.4
Menace
as Helen Chalmers
1934
6.3
Cleopatra
as Calpurnia
1934
6.0
The Notorious Sophie Lang
as Sophie Lang
1934
6.0
Murder on the Blackboard
as Jane Davis
1934
5.8
Murder at the Vanities
as Rita Ross
1934
5.5
The Witching Hour
as Margaret Price
1934
5.3
I Believed in You
as Pamela Banks
1934
0.0
Hold That Girl
as Dorothy Lamont
1934
0.0
George White's Scandals
as Miss Lee
1934
5.0
Bolero
as Lady D'Argon
1934
6.3
Search for Beauty
as Jean Strange
1934
5.3
Cradle Song
as Marcella
1933
0.0
I'm No Angel
as Alicia Hatton
1933
6.3
Ann Vickers
as Mona Dolphin
1933
5.5
Night of Terror
as Sarah Rinehart
1933
5.3
A Bedtime Story
as Louise
1933
4.5
Sailor Be Good
as Kay Whitney
1933
0.0
Unashamed
as Marjorie
1932
6.3
Wayward
as Mary Morton
1932
6.0