Pat Ast Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Pat Ast
Acting
Biography
Pat Ast was an American actress and model. She was best known for starring in Andy Warhol films and being a Halston model and muse in the 1970s. Ast enjoyed partying in her twenties on Fire Island, and her boisterous personality allowed her to meet and befriend influential people. She had aspirations to become an actress, singer and model despite her day job as a receptionist at a box factory. She made her screen debut after meeting director John Schlesinger on Fire Island, who cast her as a party guest in his film Midnight Cowboy (1969). Around that time, she caught the attention of fashion designer Halston, who gave her a job at his boutique and made her one of his models, despite her weighing 210 pounds, in a time when most models were extremely thin. In the early 1970s, with Pat Cleveland, Connie Cook, Alva Chinn, Anjelica Huston, Karen Bjornson, among others, Ast became one of Halston's favored troupe of models, nicknamed the Halstonettes. She also appeared in runway shows for Halston and Yves St. Laurent, closing the 1972 Coty Awards runway show for Halston by popping out of a giant cake. She later became associated with Andy Warhol, who gave her the role of landlady Lydia in his film Heat (1972) alongside Joe Dallesandro. In 1975, Ast moved to Hollywood to pursue her acting career. She has appeared in films such as The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976), Foul Play (1978), The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981), and Reform School Girls (1986). She became resentful of Los Angeles as her film career stalled. She went to New York to do Nine, a Broadway musical based on Federico Fellini’s movie 8 1/2, but was dismissed after three months.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Reform School Girls
Jenny is sent to a women's reform school. It is run by evil warden Sutter and her henchwoman Edna. Jenny will stop at nothing to escape but she also has to deal with Charlie the bully.
The Possession of Joel Delaney
An upper-class Manhattan divorcee comes to believe that her brother is possessed by the spirit of a serial killer who beheaded young women in Spanish Harlem.
The World's Greatest Lover
When frustrated movie studio mogul Adolph Zitz announces a talent search for a romantic leading man to rival the great Rudolph Valentino, thousands of hopefuls decend upon Hollywood. Rudy Valentine, a neurotic baker from Milwaukee, knows little about romance or acting. But when his wife leaves him for the real Valentino, Rudy goes to outrageous lengths to win the role of a lifetime and win back the love of his life.
The Donna Summer Special
A variety special that showcased the musical talents of singer and actress Donna Summer.
The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper
A speculation on the fate of the famous hijacker who parachuted with his ransom and disappeared in the mountains. Has Cooper succeeded in following a meticulous plan to disappear into anonymity despite the best efforts of a dogged cop?
Warhol
David Bailey, self-taught photographer and one of the prime architects of the Swinging Sixties, broadened his horizons in the early 1970s by making high-profile documentaries for ATV. With his standing among the artistic community, Bailey was given unprecedented access to Pop Art legend Andy Warhol and his followers, in an attempt to penetrate behind the expressionless exterior of a man who was one of the most controversial figures of his generation.
Heat
Former child star Joe Davis, reduced to living in a cheap Hollywood motel while struggling for acting jobs, is lusted after by nearly every woman he meets, including Jessica Todd, a tightly wound feminist who has recently come out as a lesbian. When Jessica's mother, Sally, an emotionally needy has-been actress, meets Joe, she moves him into her enormous, tacky mansion as her new boy toy and attempts to get him acting work.
Six Characters in Search of An Author
A rehearsal is disrupted when six figures mysteriously appear on the stage, claiming to be fictional characters from an unfinished play searching for an author to tell their tragic story. An adaptation of the classic Luigi Pirandello play, updated to take place in a 1970s television studio.
The Princess and the Pea
A bored prince realizes he would like a wife. His mother searches through all the kingdoms far and wide for a "suitable" princess. In the meantime, a charming and witty young lady, who claims to be a princess, shows up at the castle doorstep with a sprained ankle and is shown hospitality by the prince and his best friend the Fool.
Club Life
A young man from a small town goes to Hollywood to make his fortune. He gets hired as a bouncer at a disco club, but soon finds himself caught up in drugs, gangsters and eventually has to flee when his boss and another bouncer are murdered by drug dealers, who are soon after him.
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