Philip Van Zandt

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In this Dutch name, the surname is Van Zandt, not Zandt.
Philip Van Zandt
Los Angeles, California
, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1927–1958

Philip Van Zandt (October 4, 1904 – February 15, 1958), sometimes billed as Phil Van Zandt, was a Dutch-American actor of stage, film, and television. He made nearly 250 film and television appearances between 1939 and 1958.

Life and career

Born Philip Pinheiro in Amsterdam, he was brought to the United States when he was five months old in March 1905.[1] Van Zandt made his stage debut in 1925, as an assistant to magician Howard Thurston. He began playing dramatic roles in 1927 and eventually landed on Broadway, appearing in 10 different productions between 1931 and 1938, none of which were hits.[2]

Van Zandt made his Hollywood debut in 1939 and, in the two decades that followed, appeared in over 140 films. The actor auditioned for director John Cromwell's film Flotsam (ultimately released as So Ends Our Night). Cromwell explained that the role called for expert card manipulation. Van Zandt hadn't done this since his apprenticeship with Thurston but, as columnist Duncan Underhill reported, "was game to try. 'All right,' Cromwell said, cutting and shuffling a new deck of cards and passing it over. 'Deal me a royal flush.' Van Zandt flipped out the ace, king, queen, jack, and ten of diamonds. 'Now deal me a contract,' he countered."[3]

Curiously, Van Zandt was under contract to a studio only once (for

the Devil in these fast-paced shorts. He also made several appearances in the Joe McDoakes shorts at Warner Bros.

Van Zandt, like many freelance actors, also found work in the new medium of television, appearing in

Gang Busters, and I Married Joan
, among other programs.

Later years

In the mid-1950s Van Zandt, sensing that his screen career was flagging, supplemented his income by establishing an acting school. By this time he suffered bouts of depression and was spending practically all of his income on

compulsive gambling.[4] This led to his committing suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. His last film appearance was in the Three Stooges comedy Fifi Blows Her Top
, released nearly two months after his death.

Van Zandt was cremated; his ashes were placed in the vault at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles. As of June 2023, his ashes were removed from Vault 2, possibly to be moved to the different areas or scattered.

Partial filmography

References

  1. ^ Immigration Passenger Record - Pinheiro, Philip, S/S Rijndam, arrived Port of New York, 29 March 1905. https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid=7488&h=4031778079&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=7884
  2. ^ "Philip Van Zandt" at the Internet Broadway Database
  3. ^ Duncan Underhill, "Hollywood Newsreel," Hollywood, Dec. 1940, p. 8.
  4. OCLC 13218219
    . page 242

External links
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