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August "Gus" Schilling (June 20, 1908 – June 16, 1957) was an American film actor. A former burlesque comedian, the New York-born Schilling usually played nervous comic roles, often unbilled. Schilling's rubber face and flustered gestures made him a natural comedian, and he began his career understudying comedy stars Bert Lahr and Joe Penner on Broadway. He soon became a favorite among burlesque comedians, who welcomed him into the burlesque profession. Schilling married burlesque star Betty Rowland and the couple toured in the Minsky burlesque troupe. Orson Welles saw Schilling in New... MORE

August "Gus" Schilling (June 20, 1908 – June 16, 1957) was an American film actor. A former burlesque comedian, the New York-born Schilling usually played nervous comic roles, often unbilled. Schilling's rubber face and flustered gestures made him a natural comedian, and he began his career understudying comedy stars Bert Lahr and Joe Penner on Broadway. He soon became a favorite among burlesque comedians, who welcomed him into the burlesque profession. Schilling married burlesque star Betty Rowland and the couple toured in the Minsky burlesque troupe. Orson Welles saw Schilling in New York and followed him to Florida. There Welles hired Schilling to appear in a stage production featuring several Shakespearean scenes. "I learned my part by taking the script to Welles and having him translate the lines to everyday English," Schilling recalled in 1939. Welles promised Schilling a part in Welles's first motion picture, and kept his promise: Schilling is featured in Citizen Kane (1941). This established Schilling in Hollywood movies as a "nervous" comedian (he plays a jittery symphony conductor in Olsen and Johnson's Hellzapoppin' , for example). He also co-starred with character LESS