Ruth Etting (1897 - 1978)

Ruth Etting (November 23, 1897 – September 24, 1978) was an American singing star and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. She is known as “America’s sweetheart of song”. Her signature tunes were “Shine On, Harvest Moon”, “Ten Cents a Dance” and […]

Ruth Fertel (1927 - 2002)

Founder of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. (bio by: Joel Berry)

Ruth First (1925 - 1982)

Ruth First’s parents, Julius First and Matilda Levetan, immigrated to South Africa from Latvia as Jewish immigrants in 1906 and became founder members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the forerunner of the South African Communist Party (SACP). Ruth First was born in 1925 and brought up in Johannesburg. She too joined the […]

Ruth Ford (1911 - 2009)

Actress. She appeared in feature films, on stage and television from the late-1930’s until the mid-1980’s. Her parents were proprietors of a string of hotels in the south, so she spent her childhood moving from one town to another. After attending the University of Mississippi, she moved to New York and enjoyed a successful modeling […]

Ruth Foster (1920 - 2012)

Actress. Best known for her portrayal in the reoccurring role of Mrs. Foster on the television series “Little House on the Prairie.” She first broke into show business at the age of 12 when the Shubert Theater sponsored a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance contest. She competed and won first place. This exposure lead […]

Ruth Gordon (1896 - 1985)

Writer, screen and stage actress.  After graduating from Quincy High School she enrolled in the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York city.  Her career saw her working in both films and the stage, making her Broadway debut in 1915 in Peter Pan.  In 1921 she married actor Gregory Kelly, who died of […]

Ruth Gordon (1896 - 1985)

Writer, screen and stage actress.  After graduating from Quincy High School she enrolled in the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York city.  Her career saw her working in both films and the stage, making her Broadway debut in 1915 in Peter Pan.  In 1921 she married actor Gregory Kelly, who died of […]

Ruth Hall (1910 - 2003)

Actress. She appeared in 37 films during the Hollywood Golden Era, in movies like “Ride Him Cowboy” opposite John Wayne, “The Heart of New York,” “The Kid from Spain,” “The Three Musketeers,” and “How to Marry a Millionaire” with Marilyn Monroe. But she is best remebered as ‘Mary Helton’ in the 1931 Marx Brother’s classic […]

Ruth Hampton (1931 - 2005)

Former Beauty Queen, Actress. Born Regina Ruth Jane Hampton in Throop, Pennsylvania, she became a dancer and performed with the Philadelphia Civic Ballet and New York’s Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. She gained national attention as a beauty queen when crowned “Miss New Jersey” and was the runner up in the “Miss USA” pageant of […]

Ruth Hiatt (1906 - 1994)

Ruth Hiatt was born in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Hiatt made her film debut at the age of nine with the Western Lubin Company in San Diego, California. She made two two-reel comedies The Inner Chamber (1915) and The Vigilantes (1918). Afterward she reuturned to high school which she completed around 1922. As teenager she was discovered […]

Ruth Hussey (1911 - 2005)

Hussey was born in Providence, Rhode Island, October 30, 1911. She was also known as Ruth Carol O’Rourke Her father, George R. Hussey, died of the Spanish flu in 1918 when she was seven years old. Ten years later, her mother married a family friend, William O’Rourke, who had worked at the family’s mail-order silver […]

Ruth Kligman (1930 - 2010)

Artist. Though a significant abstract painter in her own right, she is perhaps better remembered as the lover and muse of several notables of the genre. Raised in northern New Jersey, she was attracted to the art world at age seven by reading a book on Beethoven. In 1956 she began a romance with painter […]

Ruth Kobart (1924 - 2002)

Actress. She appeared in motion pictures and on television, woth roles including voices in animated cartoons. Some of her appearences where in films such as “Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit” (1993), “The Hindenburg” (1975), “Dirty Harry” (1971), “Petulia” (1968) and “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying” (1967). On televison she appeared […]

Ruth Leuwerik (1924 - 2016)

Actress.   She starred in over 40 films and television series in a career that spanned from the 1950s to the early 1980s.   She started on the theatrical stage, but went into films soon after with her first movie role coming in the 1950 film “Dreizehn unter einem Hut”.    Her glamorous film roles […]

Ruth Maleczech (1939 - 2013)

Maleczech was born in Cleveland, Ohio as Ruth Sophia Reinprecht to Yugoslavian immigrant parents, a steel worker and a seamstress and raised in Phoenix, Arizona.  Maleczech was the first in her family to attend college, beginning theater studies at UCLA at 16. From there she went to San Francisco to work, first, with Herbert Blau […]

Ruth McDevitt (1895 - 1976)

Actress.  Popular in ‘Little Old Lady’ roles. Ruth McDevitt was born Ruth Thane Shoecraft in Coldwater, Michigan on September 13, 1895. She appeared in nearly every branch of the entertainment media starting on stage and then radio, graduating to the movies and then TV. She was perfect for the LOL roles with her sweet demeanor, […]

Ruth Mix Hill (1912 - 1977)

Actress. Born in Oklahoma. The daughter of Tom and Olive Stokes Mix. Ruth was educated at Maysville College. Her father was the legendary cowboy Tom Mix. She started her acting career following in her father’s footsteps. In the mid 1920s she starred in several silent films. She made a total of twelve westerns, particularly The […]

Ruth Mosko Handler (1916 - 2002)

Businesswoman, Inventor. She is remembered for her role in creating and marketing the Barbie doll. Born Ruth Marianna Mosko in Denver, Colorado, the youngest of 10 children, her Jewish parents immigrated to the US from Poland prior to 1910. After marrying her high school boyfriend, Elliot Handler, they moved to Los Angeles, California in 1938 […]

Ruth Nelson (1905 - 1992)

Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Nelson was the daughter of vaudeville actress Eva Mudge. She attended Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles and went on to study at the American Laboratory Theatre in New York City during the early 1920s. Nelson made her New York City stage debut as a member of the theatre collective […]

Ruth Neudeck (1920 - 1948)

Ruth Closius was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland). She later married and was known as Ruth Neudeck or Ruth Closius-Neudeck. In July 1944, she arrived at the Ravensbrück concentration camp to begin her training to be a camp guard. Ruth Neudeck soon began impressing her superiors with her unbending brutality towards the women prisoners, […]

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927 - 2013)

Ruth Prawer was born in Cologne, Germany to Jewish parents Marcus and Eleanora (Cohn) Prawer. Marcus was a lawyer who moved to Germany from Poland to escape conscription and Eleanora’s father was cantor of Cologne’s largest synagogue. Her father was accused of communist links, arrested and then released and she witnessed the violence unleashed against […]

Ruth Renick (1893 - 1984)

American stage and motion picture actress of the 1910s, 20s, and 30s. (bio by: A.J. Marik)

Ruth Robinson (1887 - 1966)

Actress. Robinson appeared in some 80 film roles usually playing roles such as missionaries, housekeepers, prison matrons, and society spouses. She is best remembered as ‘Mrs. Shaw’ in “The Walking Dead” and in as ‘Bridey’ in “The Search for Bridey Murphy.” (bio by: MC)

Ruth Robinson Duccini (1918 - 2014)

Ruth Robinson Duccini Ruth Duccini (July 23, 1918 – January 16, 2014) was an American actress and the penultimate surviving Munchkin from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Duccini was the last surviving female performer from the film. Her role in the film as a Munchkin villager was not credited. Her most recent appearances […]

Ruth Roland (1892 - 1937)

Born in San Francisco, California, Ruth Roland’s father managed a theatre and she became a child actress who went on to work in vaudeville. She was hired by director Sidney Olcott who had seen her on stage in New York City. She appeared in her first film for Kalem Studios in 1909 and along with […]

Ruth Roman (1922 - 1999)

Ruth Roman was born to Lithuanian-Jewish parents, Mary Pauline (née Gold) and Abraham Roman. Her mother was a dancer and her father a barker in a carnival that they owned at Revere, Massachusetts. She had two sisters, Ann and Eve. Her father died when Ruth was eight, and her mother sold the carnival. As a girl, […]

Ruth Royce (1893 - 1971)

Ruth Royce (February 6, 1893 – May 7, 1971) was an American vaudeville performer and silent film actress from Versailles, Missouri. Royce appeared in the serial, The Vanishing Dagger (1920), which starred Eddie Polo and C. Norman Hammond. In 1923, Royce, along with other Hollywood actors, participated in a vaudeville show at Universal City. Royce assisted […]

Ruth Selwyn (1905 - 1954)

American stage and screen actress. Once married to actor Edgar Selwyn. (bio by: A.J. Marik)

Ruth Sinclair Cummings (1894 - 1984)

Actress. Born in Washington D.C., she began her career in movies making her debut in the silent film “Zaza” (1915). A veteran of over 30 films as a performer and writer, her credits included “The Heart Line” (1921), “The Tower of Lies” (1925), “California” (1927), “The Adventurer” (1928), “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” (1929), […]

Ruth Sobotka (1925 - 1967)

The daughter of prominent Austrian architect and interior designer, Walter Sobotka (1888–1972) and Viennese actress, Gisela Schönau, Ruth Sobotka immigrated to the United States from Vienna with her parents in 1938. She studied set design at The University of Pennsylvania and graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology. After studying at the School of American […]