Pat Ast

Acting

Pat Ast

Born 1941-10-21 · Brooklyn, New York, USA

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.

Acting credits

Midnight Cowboy poster
7.5

Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.

Midnight Cowboy

1969

Foul Play poster
6.3

A shy San Francisco librarian and a bumbling cop fall in love as they solve a crime involving albinos, dwarves, and the Catholic Church.

Foul Play

1978

The World's Greatest Lover poster
5.6

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 World's Greatest Lover

1977

The Fabulous Allan Carr poster
5.0

Armed with a limitless Rolodex and a Benedict Canyon enclave with its own disco, Allan Carr threw the Hollywood parties that defined the 1970s. A producer, manager, and marketing genius, Carr built his bombastic reputation amid a series of successes including the mega-hit musical film "Grease," until it all came crashing down after he produced the 1989 Academy Awards, a notorious debacle.

The Fabulous Allan Carr

2017

The Possession of Joel Delaney poster
5.6

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 Possession of Joel Delaney

1972

Reform School Girls poster
5.7

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.

Reform School Girls

1986

Homer and Eddie poster
5.6

A mentally disabled man gets help from a sociopath when he tries to reunite with his dying father, who years earlier disowned him.

Homer and Eddie

1989

The Incredible Shrinking Woman poster
5.4

After being exposed to a bizarre mixture of household chemicals, Pat Kramer begins to shrink. This baffles scientists, makes parenting difficult, warms the hearts of Americans, and captures the attention of a group of people who want to take over the world. This evil group plots to kidnap Pat and perform experiments on her so that they can eventually shrink everyone.

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

1981

The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper poster
5.3

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?

The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper

1981

Heat poster
5.8

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.

Heat

1972

Ted & Venus poster
4.5

Ted is a 1970s Venice Beach poet who spends his days drifting along the boardwalk, reciting his poetry to anyone who will listen. His life changes when a bikini-clad beauty named Linda strolls by him. Instantly, Ted believes he's found his "Venus" and becomes obsessed with Linda. He tries to woo her with poetry, obscene phone calls and romantic overtures, all to disastrous effect.

Ted & Venus

1991

Club Life poster
4.2

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.

Club Life

1986

Pandemonium poster
4.8

A former high school student who always wanted to be a cheerleader decides to reopen the cheerleading program at her former high school after years of closure for being targeted by a serial killer.

Pandemonium

1982

The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox poster
6.1

A female hustler is chasing after rich men, but becomes repeatedly mixed up with a suave con man and card shark through a series of misadventures before falling in love with him.

The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox

1976

The Donna Summer Special poster
10.0

A variety special that showcased the musical talents of singer and actress Donna Summer.

The Donna Summer Special

1980

Warhol poster
8.0

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.

Warhol

1973

The Most Glamorous Women poster
NR

Before and after Halston's runway presentation at the 1972 Coty American Fashion Critics' Awards.

The Most Glamorous Women

1972

The Users poster
4.0

A beautiful girl from a small town with dreams of making it in Hollywood marries an actor whose career is fading, then schemes to get him back into the big time - and her with him.

The Users

1978

Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill poster
6.0

A variety of people are drawn together through their participation in an amateur talent contest in a country roadhouse.

Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill

1979

The Princess and the Pea poster
8.2

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.

The Princess and the Pea

1984

Six Characters in Search of An Author poster
6.5

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.

Six Characters in Search of An Author

1976

No artwork available
NR

Innocent Mary-Eleanor becomes a hardened criminal through her time spent sentenced in a women's prison.

Women Behind Bars

1975

No artwork available
9.0

Tragicomedy about a man who hears he has got one more week to live and who brings his two water turtles to the sea to set them free.

Beauville

1995