First a silent-screen heroine, then a daft-headed character actress in US films from the 20s through the 50s.



Named "ZaSu" because her mother's two sisters, Eliza and Susan, both wanted her named after them. Her mother didn't want to disappoint either of them, so she formed the name from the last two letters of Eliza and the first two letters of Susan. Her marriage to John Woodall was not revealed to the public until 12 February 1934 when they went on their honeymoon. When the "Thimble Theatre" comic strip became the "Popeye" animated cartoon series, the producers used ZaSu's hand-wringing and nervous speech pattern to characterize the on-screen persona of "Olive Oyl." Pitts was originally cast to play Lew Ayres' mother in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). However, preview audiences laughed when they saw her, and her scenes were reshot by actress Beryl Mercer. Her best friend during the Twenties was ill-fated actress Barbara La Marr; the two worked in three films together during 1923. Pitts and her husband Tom Gallery adopted La Marr's son Marvin when she died in 1926. The little boy was renamed Don Gallery. Pictured on one of ten 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating stars of the silent screen, issued 27 April 1994. Designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, this set of stamps also honored Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, Charles Chaplin, Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Harold Lloyd, Theda Bara, Buster Keaton, and the Keystone Kops. Was an excellent cook and a collector of candy recipes, which culminated into a cook book entitled "Candy Hits by ZaSu Pitts", which was published posthumously in 1963. A close friend from her high school days was actress Lois Neilson (aka Lois Nelson). They shared a Hollywood apartment while both were fledgling actors. The 1930 Census shows her still living with husband, though reportedly legally separated. It also shows them as the adoptive parents of a boy named Don Mike, who is listed as "child actor."