Gertrude Michael
Lillian Gertrude Michael, sometimes nicknamed Beck Michael, was an American film, stage and television actress.
Biography
Lillian Gertrude Michael was born in Talladega, Alabama to Mr. and Mrs. Carl H. Michael. She graduated from Talladega High school at the age of 14. In her youth, she played piano and organ, and she began Little Theatres in two communities. 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. In 1929 in Cincinnati, she made her stage debut in the Stuart Walker stock theater company. She appeared on Broadway in Rachel Crothers' Caught Wet. She entered the movies playing Richard Arlen's fiancée in Wayward, but her best-remembered role is probably either as Rita Ross in Murder at the Vanities, one of the last pre-Code films, in which she sang an ode to marijuana, or as Alicia Hatton, the snooty society girl in the Mae West comedy I'm No Angel. In 1937, Michael returned to the stage at the Cape Play House in Dennis, Massachusetts, with the lead in Damn Deborah. 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. After the relationship ended, Cain, in his novel Fast One, based the character of the alcoholic lover on Michael.
Michael died on December 31, 1964, aged 53, in her Hollywood home.
Filmography
Film
Wayward - Mary MortonUnashamed - MarjorieSailor Be Good - Kay WhitneyA Bedtime Story - LouiseNight of Terror - Sarah RinehartAnn Vickers - Mona DolphinI'm No Angel - Alicia HattonCradle Song - Sister MarcellaSearch for Beauty - Jean StrangeBolero - Lady D'ArgonGeorge White's Scandals - Miss LeeHold That Girl - Dorothy LamontI Believed in You - Pamela BanksThe Witching Hour - Margaret PriceMurder at the Vanities - Rita RossMurder on the Blackboard - Jane DavisThe Notorious Sophie Lang - Sophie LangCleopatra - CalpurniaMenace - Helen ChalmersFather Brown, Detective - Evelyn FischerIt Happened in New York - Vania NardiFour Hours to Kill! - Mrs. Sylvia TempleThe Last Outpost - RosemaryWoman Trap - Barbara 'Buff' AndrewsTill We Meet Again - Elsa DuranyiForgotten Faces - Cleo AshtonThe Return of Sophie Lang - Sophie Lang aka Ethel ThomasSecond Wife - Virginia HowardMake Way for a Lady - Miss Eleanor EmersonMr. Dodd Takes the Air - Jessica StaffordSophie Lang Goes West - Sophie LangJust like a Woman - Ann HestonStar of the Circus - YesterHidden Power - Virginia GarfieldParole Fixer - Collette MentheThe Farmer's Daughter - Clarice SheldonI Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby - Magda DelysSlightly Tempted - DuchessPrisoner of Japan - Toni ChaseBehind Prison Walls - Elinor CantwellWomen in Bondage - District Director SchneiderFaces in the Fog - Nora BrooksThree's a Crowd - Sophie WhippleAllotment Wives - Gladys SmithClub Havana - Hetty - Powder Room AttendantThat Wonderful Urge - Mrs. Whitson Flamingo Road - MillieCaged - Georgia HarrisonDarling, How Could You! - Mrs. RossiterBugles in the Afternoon - MayNo Escape - Olga Valerie LewisWomen's Prison - Chief Matron SturgessThe Continental Twist - Letitia ClunkerThe Outsider - Clubwoman
Television
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars - the DuchessCrown Theatre with Gloria Swanson - Lisa JenssenCavalcade of America - Major Pauline CushmanMeet Corliss Archer - Mrs. WilsonThe Pepsi-Cola Playhouse - CoraleePrivate Secretary - Hollywood StarThe Ford Television Theatre - BelleFour Star Playhouse - FannyCameo Theatre The New Adventures of Charlie Chan - Joyce FentonThe 20th Century-Fox Hour - KatePerry Mason - Helen RuckerSea Hunt - Mrs. Friedrich