Gertrude Michael
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.
Acting
TV
Perry Mason
as Helen Rucker
1957
Movie
Cleopatra
as Calpurnia
1934
Movie
Caged
as Georgia Harrison
1950
Movie
I'm No Angel
as Alicia Hatton
1933
Movie
Flamingo Road
as Millie
1949
Movie
Night of Terror
as Sarah Rinehart
1933
Movie
Women's Prison
as Chief Matron Sturgess
1955
TV
Sea Hunt
1958
Movie
Bugles in the Afternoon
as May
1952
Movie
No Escape
as Olga Valerie Lewis
1953
Movie
Ann Vickers
as Mona Dolphin
1933
Movie
Search for Beauty
as Jean Strange
1934
Movie
Murder at the Vanities
as Rita Ross
1934
Movie
Bolero
as Lady D'Argon
1934
TV
Four Star Playhouse
as Fanny
1952
Movie
The Last Outpost
as Rosemary Haydon
1935
Movie
Murder on the Blackboard
as Jane Davis
1934
Movie
Mr. Dodd Takes the Air
as Jessica Stafford
1937
Movie
George White's Scandals
as Miss Lee
1934
TV
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
TV
The 20th Century Fox Hour
1955
Movie
Club Havana
as Hetty - Powder Room Attendant
1945
Movie
Allotment Wives
as Gladys Smith
1945
Movie
Four Hours to Kill!
as Mrs. Sylvia Temple
1935