A wonderfully surreal running gag occurs in Gus' two-reel comedies with Richard Lane: for no reason, a young woman will walk by Gus, stop, slap him hard across the face and shout "How DARE you look like someone I hate?!"
Although Gus was usually cast as comic relief, he appears in many of Orson Welles' major films, starting with Citizen Kane (1941) through his posthumous appearance in Touch of Evil (1958).
Uncle of film director Barry Sonnenfeld.