Asta, a.k.a. Skippy: He's one dynamic, clever, rugged, mischievous, handsome dog

If you were a male movie actor in the 1930s and 1940s, and could hold your own with the likes of Cary Grant and William Powell, that would have been quite a feat. Add to that, drop-dead good looks, more than a touch of charisma, an air of supreme self-confidence with a mischievous streak, and you probably would have been a highly sought-after matinee idol, even if you were short, wiry-haired, and the studio kept you on a short leash.

That about sums up the career of Skippy, a big-time movie star, who just happened to be a dog.

Movie buffs know Skippy better by his stage name, Asta. While he gained his greatest fame from the Thin Man movies of the 1930s and '40s, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, this zany Wire-Haired Fox Terrier appeared in several other big-screen hits and still has people today naming their dogs after him-even dogs that are not terriers. When it comes to Hollywood canine stars, Skippy (whose handlers eventually changed his name to Asta officially) is still one of the marquee names in Tinseltown.

Born in 1931, Skippy started training to be an actor when he was just a pup, at the tender age of three months. His owners and trainers were Henry East and his wife, Gale Henry East. Henry East's show business career began in the special effects and props departments at MGM Studios. Gale Henry East was a silent film comedienne.

In the early days of films, animals were considered live props, so Henry East, as the studio's prop man, worked with animals whenever the studio wanted to bring them in to create a special effect. For instance, if two characters in a film were walking through a park, the audience might see a dog or two running around in the background. Henry East would find the dogs and train them for the scene.

Before Skippy got his big break in the Thin Man films, he made some of these cameo appearances. The canine superstar actually started his acting career as a dashing bit player in 1932 when he was just one year old. In these early roles, Skippy became accustomed to working with the bright lights on a movie set, which often distract animal actors. Skippy was not credited for his bit parts as a youngster, but he can be seen in some still photos released by 20th Century Fox with actresses Mae Clark and Mary Carlisle. The photos appear in an extremely rare book by Gertrude Orr, titled "Dog Stars of Hollywood." Published in 1936 after the first Thin Man movie, the book features Skippy as one of those stellar canines of the title.

Gale Henry East recognized Skippy's talent right off the bat, and always contended that he was a natural. She and her husband began training animals in 1923, so by the time Skippy came along in 1931 they knew talent. The couple became dog trainers quite by accident when Gale was trying to complete a scene for one of her movies. The scene called for a dog to lie motionless for a long period with his eyes closed as the camera focused on him. Simple as that might sound, no one could find a dog disciplined enough to do it.

As a result, the film was shelved for a while until the Easts adopted a mixed-breed dog named Buddy. He was part bulldog, part terrier and all ham, so the couple decided to see if they could train him to do the scene and finally complete the movie. Buddy carried off the role without a hitch; in fact, he did such a good job that other filmmakers who needed dogs in their movies began to ask for him.

The Easts realized that they had discovered an important niche, and began looking for other dogs who ought to be in pictures. During the 1930s and '40s, if a dog was in the movies, that canine was most likely trained at East Kennels, which was located on two acres just outside of Hollywood.

The Easts trained all types of dogs, big and small, but Skippy was a breed apart. He could play the role of a screwball effortlessly, an ideal foil for the human actors in the fast-talking, quick-witted comedies of the time. With rapid-fire dialogue, plus non-stop physical antics and pratfalls, the movie making formula at that time called for actors to scurry around, trying to solve problems (usually of their own making); yet, in the process, they only managed to further complicate the plot.

Skippy seemed to innately understand what was going on in a comedic scene, and was more than happy to add to the mayhem, whether by hiding a key piece of evidence in a Thin Man movie or burying an irreplaceable dinosaur bone in Bringing Up Baby with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. In many of the movies where Skippy appeared, if the director didn't think there was enough madcap activity going on in a scene, he would just turn Skippy loose and the canine star would always do something to kick it up a notch and make the scene even more hilarious.

However, Skippy's rise to fame in the movies was no walk in the park. He had to overcome a number of negative stereotypes. Many dog handlers felt that Wire-Haired Fox Terriers were just too wild and unpredictable to train for motion picture work. Fearing that they would have to reshoot scenes because of a temperamental canine actor, many directors refused to even consider using Wire-Haired Fox Terriers in their films. But when the casting call went out for the first Thin Man movie in 1934, the same traits that made many directors reluctant to cast dogs of his breed would land Skippy the role of a lifetime, banish forever the breed's reputation as fussy and untrainable, and keep his offspring and other Wire-Haired Fox Terriers employed in Hollywood for decades to come.

Thin Man director W. S. "Woody" Van Dyke had a very specific concept for his mystery flick, based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. Van Dyke wanted the chemistry between Nick and Nora Charles to sparkle. He wanted the movie to be a fun, lighthearted romp for moviegoers, and he was determined that no one in the cast would be a drag on the film, not even Nick and Nora's dog.

Van Dyke had no doubt about making the film his way. He fought MGM boss Louis B. Mayer when the studio head nixed William Powell for the lead role of Nick Charles. Mayer thought Powell was too old to play the part. But Van Dyke, who had worked with Powell earlier in 1934 in the movie Manhattan Melodrama, felt that he would be perfect to play the debonair detective the director envisioned for the film version of The Thin Man. Myrna Loy was also in Manhattan Melodrama, and Van Dyke loved the way Powell and Loy played off each other. He wanted Loy to play Nora Charles, but Mayer felt she wasn't sexy enough for the role. Van Dyke got his way when it came to casting both stars, but there was one other thing he insisted on.

In Hammett's book, Nick and Nora Charles had a female Schnauzer named Asta, but Van Dyke was seeking a more dapper-looking dog than a Schnauzer and a more lively breed. He also wanted a more mischievous dog romping around the set than the one described in the novel. When Henry East heard about the role of Asta, he brought Skippy to meet Van Dyke and the director fell in love with the spunky canine. Skippy added just the right burst of energy for the silver screen's version of Nick and Nora Charles' canine partner in crime detection. He also had the right look.

Everything about Skippy was perfect, so Van Dyke wasn't going to let a little thing like gender get in the way of a great character actor. Taking some broad cinematic license, the character of Asta morphed from Schnauzer to Wire-Haired Fox Terrier, and from female to male, without so much as a splice in the film.

The camera loved Skippy. He still had his puppy-ish good looks-rugged but lovable. And he photographed exceptionally well: Movie critics at the time cited the highly expressive looks on his face, noting that moviegoers could almost read his thoughts as he was plotting his next move. With his deep, soulful, black-rimmed eyes, Skippy could work without any makeup to accent his handsome face. In screen tests, his brown-and-white coat stood out when filmed in black and white. He was the perfect Asta, and by the time Skippy was finished giving the audience his take on the Hammett character, no one would ever remember that the book version of the inquisitive dog was a female Schnauzer.

When filming on The Thin Man started in 1934, Skippy still had to prove that he was up to all his advance billing, especially since shooting was being done on a very tight schedule. Unlike most of today's blockbusters, which can take months to film, The Thin Man was shot in just 14 days, meaning there was little, if any, time for run-throughs, rehearsals, mistakes or any other kind of delays. Like his human counterparts, Powell and Loy, Skippy did his scenes in one take and always hit his marks. Skippy was more than just another pretty face on the big screen. He played an important part in The Thin Man, even discovering a dead body some seasoned detectives overlooked.

The Thin Man was a big hit for MGM, grossing more than $2 million, an astronomical sum during the Great Depression. The high-energy comedy was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director, but didn't win any of them, probably because there was no category for canine hunks.

When the film was released, Skippy received four-paws-up reviews from the critics, who noted that the talented four-legged actor was a real scene stealer. Depression-era moviegoers fell in love with him and wanted to see more of his antics. The scene that many people recall when thinking about Skippy's breakthrough moment comes at the beginning of the first Thin Man movie, as Nora Charles walks into an upscale bar. Expecting to meet her husband, Nora has a pile of gift-wrapped packages in her arms and is tightly holding onto Asta's leash.

When Asta sees Nick, he goes running over to him, yanking Nora to the floor and sending the packages flying in all directions. The dog never stops, never looks back, doesn't get distracted by the packages sailing all around him, and completes the difficult scene with panache. The scene was shot in one take, including Loy's pratfall, which she did herself, with no stunt double.

Once Asta is in the bar, the headwaiter tells Nick Charles that the dog cannot stay, but the detective argues that Asta is not just any dog. "He is well trained," Nick Charles asserts. The dashing detective proceeds to order a standing Asta to lie down, and the dog remains standing. The gumshoe then tells Asta, who is still standing, to stand and he sits. Skippy is perfect in the role of canine comic foil, and Asta's comedic escapades become a running gag throughout the Thin Man film series.

In interviews shortly after The Thin Man was released, Gale Henry East talked about the techniques used to make Skippy a star. She pointed out that dogs trained by her and her husband were not taught to do tricks on film. Instead, they were trained to act on cue and to act natural. All the dogs were taught to react to hand signals given by trainers standing off screen.

When there was a break in the filming of The Thin Man, Skippy did not interact with his human co-stars. The trainers felt that cultivating a sense of familiarity between the canine and human stars might cause the furry star to lose his focus while working and get confused between when he was supposed to work (act) and when he was just playing around. East also believed that the lack of contact with the human stars helped keep the on-screen interaction between people and dog fresh and crisp. So no matter how cute Skippy looked on screen to moviegoers, his trainers took his job very seriously, knowing that a dog who doesn't do his work properly and forces a director to reshoot scenes is a dog who is costing the studio money.

Gale Henry East also noted that a script featuring a dog worked best if the screenwriter had a dog of his own. Screenwriters who were dog owners usually wrote scripts in which dogs acted naturally, doing things that dogs do, so it wasn't hard to train the canines for those roles. By contrast, writers who weren't familiar with dogs sometimes created scenarios that made dogs uncomfortable, and that made it tougher to train them for the part, Gale Henry East said. For instance, some writers would overdo things, putting too many dogs in a scene. In that case, the set became too crowded, the dogs weren't happy, they tended to get distracted, and it simply got too difficult for trainers to control the pooches.

Skippy became so well-known after the first Thin Man movie was released that people started to refer to him as Asta. He made appearances as the lovable Asta, walked the red carpet in Hollywood with the biggest stars, and was quite the dog about town. He became so popular that the demand for Wire-Haired Fox Terriers soared. Families across America wanted an Asta running around their house, and people began naming their dogs Asta, even if the dog wasn't a Wire-Haired Fox Terrier.

Soon the Easts just started calling Skippy "Asta," at least in public. However, around East Kennels, many still referred to him as Skippy because he was still the same happy-go-lucky canine they all knew before he became famous. The part of Asta is not credited at all in the first Thin Man movie. In later Thin Mans, like Another Thin Man (also known as Return of the Thin Man), Asta is credited as being played by himself. The name Skippy is nowhere to be found in the credits, but his alter ego played a big role in helping to market the Thin Man movies. His photo, together with that of his co-stars, appeared everywhere, from lobby cards to one sheets.

Skippy now was one of the top dogs at East Kennels. By the time work was ready to begin on the Thin Man sequel, After the Thin Man, he was getting hundreds of fan letters a week, many asking for photos. The letters were all addressed to Asta. So the credits on the sequel simply refer to Asta as being played by Asta.

In After the Thin Man (1936), Skippy reprised his now-famous canine role as Asta and even helped to prolong the suspense a bit. When a rock with a note attached to it is heaved through Nick and Nora's front window, Asta chases the projectile and grabs the note before Nora does. Asta swallows part of the note, snacking on an important piece of information that might have broken the case right then and there. So the investigation-and the film-must go on.

Everyone fell in love with Skippy. In fact, William Powell was said to have become so attached to his popular canine co-star that he offered Henry East a large sum of money for the dog, but East declined the offer.

People wanted to see even more of Asta, but the third Thin Man script, Another Thin Man, was not ready to film yet, so in 1937, America's most popular dog at the time was cast in a movie with another big-name duo, Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. The film, The Awful Truth, featured Grant and Dunne as a divorcing couple fighting over the custody of their beloved pet, Mr. Smith, played by Skippy. The two suave male leads, Grant and Skippy, played well off each other; in fact, in one scene Grant sits down at the piano and sings, with Skippy providing backup in the form of barks at appropriate intervals.

Skippy was so professional by now that he kept performing in one scene in The Awful Truth when Grant mistakenly calls him Skippy, instead of Mr. Smith. The scene somehow made it into the movie, and if you pay close attention you can pick up the slip.

A memorable scene in The Awful Truth comes when the couple's dog is dragged into court and ordered by the judge to choose who he wants to live with-Grant or Dunne. Both claim to have spotted him first in the pet store. Like The Thin Man, The Awful Truth was also nominated for Academy Awards (five in all), winning an Oscar for director Leo McCarey.

By now everyone in Hollywood knew Skippy could act, so if he needed to do a second take no one despaired over it. But he rarely did. Second takes were usually caused by human error, and Skippy's trainer, Gale Henry East, said that doing a second take just proved how smart this canine actor was. She recalled a time when a scene called for Skippy to take a drink of water from a bowl. First time around, he was thirsty and drank the water. Second time around, he wasn't thirsty anymore, but he still happily went through the scene like a real pro, faking thirst and pretending to drink. Looking closely at him, she noted that he was lapping at the water but not taking any in.

Continuing a beautiful friendship, Skippy and Cary Grant teamed up again in 1938 to film the madcap comedy Bringing Up Baby, with Katharine Hepburn as the female lead. The film gave Skippy a chance to work with noted director Howard Hawks. Besides Grant and Hepburn, Skippy had the most face time in the movie, playing George the dog. The dog was owned by the aunt of Katherine Hepburn's character, Susan Vance. This film gave Skippy a chance to showcase yet another of his talents, because the part called for the frisky canine to display a nasty yet funny leer.

Henry East taught Skippy how to leer by putting the canine star in front of a mirror and then lifting the dog's lips so the dog could see his own mouth with a wicked, leering expression. He then said the word leer every time he did it. Skippy learned the command and lifted his lips to make the expression every time East gave the command. Keep in mind that when Bringing Up Baby was made, special effects had not been developed to show an animal with a particular expression on his face. The animal either made the expression or it wasn't in the movie. Skippy's expressions in the film are always mentioned when critics today talk about the film. Of course, no one can forget when the mischievous canine steals and buries the intercostal clavicle, a rare dinosaur bone belonging to Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant's character), and then leads Hepburn and Grant on a massive hunt for the priceless bone.

Skippy even had scenes with a tame leopard named Baby, another animal actor in the movie, and the two got along surprisingly well. In the film, Susan's brother, Mark, sends the leopard home from Brazil. Amazingly, there was no sign of tension between the two animal actors: The scenes were filmed without a hitch and without using a stunt double for the famed canine actor. Skippy didn't use doubles in any of his early films-he did all the work himself and reportedly didn't tire on the set. Grant and Skippy even sang again in this flick, as the two of them, along with Hepburn, try to get Baby off a roof by belting out the leopard's favorite tune, "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby."

In 1939, when Cary Grant didn't return for the sequel to Topper, producers had to find a big star to draw moviegoers to the theater, so Skippy was cast in the role of Mr. Atlas in Topper Takes a Trip. Skippy actually played the role of a ghost, the pet of Marion Kerby, played by Constance Bennett. Skippy and Bennett propelled the madcap fun from the first Topper movie as they tried to spice up the life of a rather stuffy and penny-pinching banker named Cosmo Topper, played by Roland Young. Young and Bennett were also in the first movie, along with Grant, who played George Kerby, Marion's husband. The Kerbys were a sophisticated couple with expensive tastes, and used to living the good life, even in the afterlife. Mr. Atlas shares the Kerbys' taste for the finer things.

Also in 1939, Skippy returned for the next in the series of Thin Man films, Another Thin Man, in which Nick and Nora have a baby boy. The film also stars Sheldon Leonard, and Shemp Howard, one of the Three Stooges, has a bit part in that film as well. Once again, Skippy as Asta plays an important role, and the canine star's fan base continued to grow. Not surprisingly, the sassy pooch looked adorable sitting next to Nick Jr.

Many in Hollywood believe that Skippy had some smaller cameo roles in other films in the late 1930s, besides playing major roles in hit movies. However, film historians have been unable to confirm this because the popular four-legged star did not receive any mention in film credits for these appearances, if, in fact, he made them. It's not uncommon, even now, for animal stars not to get credited for their appearances in movies.

Shadow of the Thin Man, the fourth in the Thin Man series, was made in 1941. By this time Skippy was beginning to slow down. There were rumors that Skippy's son came on board to help dear old dad with some of the stunts and appeared in scenes when Skippy was too tired to complete them. East Kennels was home to Skippy's son, given the birth name of Asta Jr., so the rumors were not that far-fetched.

Asta Jr. was being trained for the silver screen, and seemed to have the same debonair good looks and acting genes as his illustrious dad. The Easts never announced when Skippy passed away, so there is no exact date when Asta Jr. officially assumed the role of Asta. Most Hollywood historians feel that he took over in The Thin Man Goes Home in 1944. He is only given official credit for his appearance in the sixth and final film, Song of the Thin Man, released in 1947, when Asta is credited as being played by Asta Jr. By the way, 12-year-old Dean Stockwell played the role of Nick Charles Jr. in Song of the Thin Man.

The exact date when the torch was passed from father to son remains a mystery, since no one connected with the films ever said a word about Skippy's passing. Asta Jr. was trained so well that no one could tell the difference between the acting styles of Skippy and Asta Jr., and they looked like twins. As with their human counterparts, there are noticeable acting styles in dogs-even those of the same breed-but Skippy and his son were two of a kind.

While preparing Skippy for his on-screen scenes, Henry East had help in training the very busy canine actor from several other notable trainers. Frank Inn, who later trained animal talent ranging from Arnold the Pig on the television show Green Acres to Benji, worked with East, as did Rudd and Frank Weatherwax, who trained Lassie for the small screen.

At the height of his popularity, Skippy was said to make $250 a week, while most other dogs in films made only a few dollars a week. Animal trainers working on the films only took home about $60 a week.

In 1957, The Thin Man came to television in the form of a weekly series on NBC, starring Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk. The series ran through 1959 and starred the great-grandson of Skippy as Asta. That dog was named Asta, too, and by that time there was a special prize, the Patsy Award, created to recognize the best animal actors in movies and television. The television Asta won the award twice for his acting in the show.

Now, 75 years after he first graced the silver screen, Skippy still has numerous fans, even though they know him only by his screen name, Asta. A website is maintained in his honor and his name (Asta) appears frequently in the New York Times crossword puzzle with clues like "Nick and Nora's pet."

When folks talk about canine stars, Skippy is still revered, some might argue unequaled, because he brought excitement to the big screen, as well as humor. Skippy has proved to have great staying power over the years, and that simply means he was a dog-gone good actor!