Ruth Gordon (Ruth Gordon)

Ruth Gordon

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 heart disease in 1927.  Her only child, Jones Harris, was born in 1929, the product of a relationship with Broadway producer Jed Harris.  In 1942 she married famed playwright and director Garson Kanin.  Her film work in the forties included appearing opposite Greta Garbo in Two-Faced Woman, Edge of Darkness and Abe Lincoln in Illinois, but it wasn’t until her 1969 character role in Rosemary’s Baby, for which she won an Academy Award, that she started receiving regular film work.  She had principal roles in Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice, Where’s Poppa, Inside Daisy Glover, for which she won a Golden Globe, Harold and Maude, Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can, among others.  She collaborated with her husband, Garson, on a number of screenplays, including A Double Life, Adam’s Rib, and Pat and Mike, with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, for which they received Academy Award nominations.  In her seventies and eighties she made over twenty appearances in successful TV sitcoms such as Rhoda, Newhart, Taxi, for which she won an Emmy in 1979, and Columbo. In addition, she hosted Saturday Night Live in 1977.  She died of a stroke at the age of 89.  A theatre in Westboro, Massachusetts and an amphitheater in Quincy, Massachusetts were named in her honor.  Adam’s Rib and Harold and Maude have both been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of The United States Library of Congress. (bio by: Ron Moody)  Family links:  Parents:  Clinton Jones (1859 – 1934)  Annie Tapley Zeigler Jones (1860 – 1915)  Sibling:  Clara Louise Jones Webb (1886 – 1970)**  Ruth Gordon (1896 – 1985) *Calculated relationship**Half-siblingCause of death: Stroke

Born

  • October, 30, 1896
  • USA

Died

  • August, 08, 1985
  • USA

Cause of Death

  • Stroke

Other

  • Cremated

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