ZaSu Pitts Biography

ZaSu Pitts grew up in Santa Cruz, California and started working as an actress in silent movies in 1917. She appeared with Mary Pickford in The Little Princess (1917) and by 1919 had a starring role in King Vidor’s Better Times. These days she’s most likely to be seen in Erich von Stroheim’s Greed (1923). Her pale complexion, angular features and large eyes — not to mention her unusual name — caught the public’s eye and she went on to appear in hundreds of movies. She also appeared on stage and radio, and later in life she often played comic little old lady roles, as in Francis, The Talking Mule (1950) and It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963).