- Ruth Gordon
Infobox Actor
name = Ruth Gordon
imagesize =
birthname = Ruth Gordon Jones
birthdate = birth date|1896|10|30|mf=y
birthplace =Quincy, Massachusetts ,United States
deathdate = death date and age|1985|8|28|1896|10|30|mf=y
deathplace =Edgartown, Massachusetts ,United States
spouse = Gregory Kelly (1921-1927)
Garson Kanin (1942-1985)
academyawards =Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1968 "Rosemary's Baby"
emmyawards =Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series
1979 "Taxi"
goldenglobeawards =Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1966 "Inside Daisy Clover "
1969 "Rosemary's Baby"Ruth Gordon Jones (
October 30 ,1896 –August 28 ,1985 ), better known as Ruth Gordon, was anAcademy Award -,Golden Globe -, andEmmy Award -winning American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her films roles such as the oversolicitous neighbor in "Rosemary's Baby" and the eccentric life-loving Maude in "Harold and Maude ". In addition to her acting career, Gordon wrote numerous well-known plays, film scripts and books.Early life
Gordon was born at 41 Winthrop Avenue in
Quincy, Massachusetts ."Current Biography 1943". pp.238-41.] She was the only child of Annie Ziegler Jones and Clinton Jones, a factory foreman who had been a ship's captain. Prior to graduating from Quincy High School, she wrote to several of her favorite actresses for an autographed picture. A personal reply she received fromHazel Dawn (whom she had seen in a stage production of "The Pink Lady") inspired her to go into acting. Although her father was skeptical of her chances of success in a difficult profession, he took his daughter to New York in 1914, where he enrolled her in theAmerican Academy of Dramatic Arts .Early career
In 1915, Gordon appeared as an extra in silent films that were shot in
Fort Lee, New Jersey , including as a dancer in "The Whirl of Life", a film based on the lives ofVernon and Irene Castle . [imdb|0002106]That same year, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of "
Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up ", in the role of Nibs (one of the Lost Boys), appearing onstage withMaude Adams and earning a favorable mention from the powerful criticAlexander Woollcott . Woollcott, who described her favorably as "ever so gay," would become her friend and mentor. In 1918, Gordon played Lola Pratt in the Broadway adaptation ofBooth Tarkington 's "Seventeen" opposite actor Gregory Kelly, who later acted with her in North American tours ofFrank Craven 's "The First Year" and Tarkington's "Clarence" and "Tweedles". Kelly became her first husband in 1921. Gordon had been enjoying a comeback, appearing on Broadway as Bobby inMaxwell Anderson 's "Saturday's Children", performing in a serious role after having been typecast for years as a "beautiful, but dumb" character.Gordon continued to act on the stage throughout the 1930s, including notable runs as Mattie in "
Ethan Frome ", Margery Pinchwife inWilliam Wycherley 's Restoration comedy "The Country Wife " at London's Old Vic and on Broadway, and Nora Helmer inIbsen 's "A Doll's House " at Central City, Colorado, and on Broadway.Career
Gordon was signed to an
M-G-M film contract for a brief period in the early 1930s but did not make a movie for the company until she acted oppositeGreta Garbo in "Two-Faced Woman" in 1941. She had better luck at other studios inHollywood , appearing in supporting roles in a string of films, including "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (asMary Todd Lincoln ), "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet " (as Mrs. Ehrlich) and "Action in the North Atlantic", in the early 1940s. Gordon's Broadway acting appearances in the 1940s included Iris in Paul Vincent Carroll's "The Strings, My Lord, Are False" and Natasha inKatharine Cornell andGuthrie McClintic 's revival of Chekhov's "Three Sisters", as well as leading roles in her own plays, "Over Twenty-One" and "The Leading Lady".Gordon and husband
Garson Kanin collaborated on thescreenplays for theKatharine Hepburn –Spencer Tracy films "Adam's Rib " (1949) and "Pat and Mike " (1952). Both films were directed byGeorge Cukor . The onscreen relationship of Hepburn and Tracy, seen in those films, was modelled on Gordon and Kanin's own marriage. Gordon and Kanin receivedAcademy Awards nominations for both of those screenplays, as well as for that of a prior film, "A Double Life " (1947), which was also directed by Cukor.In 1953's "
The Actress ," Gordon's film adaptation of her own autobiographical play, "Years Ago", became a Hollywood production, withJean Simmons portraying the girl from Quincy, Massachusetts, who convinced her sea captain father to let her go to New York to become an actress. Gordon would go on to write three volumes of memoirs in the 1970s: "My Side", "Myself Among Others" and "An Open Book".Gordon continued her on-stage acting career in the 1950s, and was nominated for a 1956 Tony, for
Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play , for her portrayal of Dolly Levi inThornton Wilder 's "The Matchmaker ", a role she also played in London, Edinburgh and Berlin.In 1966, Gordon was nominated for an Oscar and won a
Golden Globe award as Best Supporting Actress for "Inside Daisy Clover " oppositeNatalie Wood . It was her first nomination for acting. She won anAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress for "Rosemary's Baby", a film adaptation ofIra Levin 's bestselling horror novel about a satanic cult residing in an Upper West Side apartment building inManhattan . In accepting the award, Gordon thanked the Academy by saying "I can't tell you how encouraging a thing like this is." That drew laughs because of her long career in the theater.Gordon won another Golden Globe for "Rosemary's Baby", and was nominated again, in 1971, for her role as Maude in the cult classic "
Harold and Maude " (withBud Cort as her love interest).Gordon won an
Emmy Award for a guest appearance on the sitcom "Taxi", for a 1978 episode called "Sugar Mama," in which her character tries to solicit the services of a taxi driver, played by series starJudd Hirsch , as a male escort.She went on to appear in twenty-two more films and at least that many television appearances through her seventies and eighties, including such successful sitcoms as "
Rhoda " (which earned her another Emmy nomination) and "Newhart ". She also guest-starred on the late episode "". She made countless talk show appearances, enjoying a legendary star status few had ever before attained.Her last Broadway appearance was as Mrs. Warren in
George Bernard Shaw 's "Mrs. Warren's Profession ", produced byJoseph Papp at theVivian Beaumont Theatre in 1976. In the summer of 1976, Gordon starred in the leading role of her own play, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" at the Cape Playhouse inDennis, Massachusetts . She had a minor but memorable role as the mother of Orville Boggs (Geoffrey Lewis) in theClint Eastwood films "Every Which Way But Loose" and "Any Which Way You Can "."Harold and Maude" and "Adam's Rib" have both been selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry of the United StatesLibrary of Congress .Personal life
Gordon married her co-star, Gregory Kelly in 1921, but he died of heart disease in 1927, at the age of 36. Gordon's only child, a son born in 1929, Jones Harris, was born out of wedlock from a relationship with acclaimed Broadway producer
Jed Harris . Gordon married second husband, writerGarson Kanin , who was 16 years her junior, in 1942.Gordon died from a
stroke inEdgartown, Massachusetts , aged 88, in 1985. A small theater inWestboro, Massachusetts was named in her honor, as was an outdoor amphitheater inQuincy, Massachusetts [http://ci.quincy.ma.us/ParkWard5Page83.html ParkWard5 ] ] .Body of work
Filmography
References
External links
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*###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
years=1965
for "Inside Daisy Clover "
before=Agnes Moorehead
for "Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte "
after=Jocelyne LaGarde
for "Hawaii"succession box
title=Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
years=1968
for "Rosemary's Baby"
before=Estelle Parsons
for "Bonnie and Clyde"
after=Goldie Hawn
for "Cactus Flower"succession box
title=Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
years=1968
for "Rosemary's Baby"
before=Carol Channing
for "Thoroughly Modern Millie "
after=Goldie Hawn
for "Cactus Flower"Persondata
NAME= Gordon, Ruth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Jones, Ruth Gordon
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actress
DATE OF BIRTH=October 30 ,1896
PLACE OF BIRTH=Quincy, Massachusetts ,U.S.
DATE OF DEATH=August 28 ,1985
PLACE OF DEATH=Edgartown, Massachusetts ,U.S.
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