Ruth Gordon (pictured with Bud Cort from Harold and Maude).
October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985
"The kiss. There are all sorts of kisses, lad, from the sticky confection to the kiss of death. Of them all, the kiss of an actress is the most unnerving. How can we tell if she means it or if she's just practicing?" - Ruth Gordon
Born Ruth Gordon Jones in Wollaston, Massachusetts, (the daughter of a sea captain) she would train at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Ruth would make her (silent) film debut in 1915. She would also make her Broadway debut in "Peter Pan" as Nibs the same year. She would spend the next twenty years performing on stage, and had appeared in the successful run of "The Country Wife" in 1936. She would return to her film career in the early 40's.. Her most memorable role during that period was that of Mary Todd in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940).
Ruth would leave Hollywood and return to the Broadway theater in 1942. She would also marry Garson Kanin also in 1942 (after the death of her first husband Gregory Kelly). There in New York she'd begin writing plays, and later she and her husband would work together composing screenplays for Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (Adam's Rib and Pat And Mike). Gordon was also a member of the infamous Algonquin Round Table.
When Ruth returned to the big screen in the 1960s, she would finally receive recognition as a movie star winning an Golden Globe, and being awarded an Oscar nomination for Inside Daisy Clover (1965). She would later win a Golden Globe ( and be nominated for Maude) for her memorable roles in two of Hollywood's biggest cult classics: Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Harold and Maude (1971). She would also write several volumes of autobiography ("Myself Among Others" and "My Side" in the mid-1970s. Ruth was just a riot when she played the part of Philo Beddoe's (Clint Eastwood's) mother in the1978 film Every Which Way But Loose, and its 1980 sequel Any Which Way You Can. Not to mention laughing so hard at that "hilarious" sad excuse for a biker gang (The Black Widows).
Ruth would guest-host and appear in many TV sitcoms, and would win an Emmy for her 1978 role on "Taxi" in 1979. She would also win the dubious award of being the oldest person to host the SNL show. Although Harold and Maude was a breakthrough for her career, Ruth Gordon had so much more to offer us as an entertainer, and I personally will always be grateful for the legacy that she left behind.
Ruth Gordon died of a stroke in Edgartown, Massachusetts at the age of 88. Harold and Maude and Adam's Rib have both been selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress' National Film Registry.
"The great have no friends. They merely know a lot of people." - Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon films:
Scavenger Hunt
Rosemary's Baby
My Bodyquard
Maxi
Lord Love a Duck
Jimmy the Kid
Inside Daisy Clover
Information Please No. 8
Information Please No. 2
Harold and Maude
Every Which Way But Loose
Edge of Darkness
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
Delta Pi
Boardwalk
Any Which Way You Can
Action in the North Atlantic
Abe Lincoln in Illinois
The Big Bus
The Ten-Year Lunch
The Trouble with Spies
The Whirl of Life
Two-Faced Woman
Voyage of the Rock Aliens
Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?
Where's Popa
*inspired by Sharecher
