Ruth Roman(1922-1999)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ruth Roman was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, the youngest of three daughters of Lithuanian-Jewish parents Mary Pauline (Gold) and Abraham Roman. Her father, a carnival barker, died when she was a small child, forcing her mother to support the family by working as a waitress and cleaning woman. Ruth grew up in the poor tenement district of Boston, Massachusetts, where she went to school. However, she left school after just two years to pursue an acting career. Her chosen path proved to be strewn with obstacles: in New York, she obtained a job posing for stills for a crime magazine, but theatrical work eluded her. She then worked as a hat check girl at a night club before calling it quits and returning to Boston. There, she made ends meet as an usherette during the day while at night performing with the New England Repertory Company, her first steady acting job. She also studied drama and eventually graduated from the Bishop-Lee Theatre School.
Trying to get into films, Ruth unsuccessfully made the rounds of agents
and producers for two years (1940-42), until a bit part as a WAVE came
her way in the film Stage Door Canteen (1943). With $200 to her name, she purchased a one-way ticket to Hollywood,
where she found shared accommodation with other aspiring starlets, naming it, optimistically, 'the House of the Seven Garbos'. After a screen test with Warner Brothers failed to result in a contract, Ruth
had another run of six hard years playing bit parts, many of them
uncredited, some ending up on the cutting room floor. A sole speaking
part of consequence was in the titular role of
Jungle Queen (1945), a Universal
serial (after subsequent acting lessons, Ruth was aghast when the
serial was rereleased in 1951).
Ruth finally got her big break when producer
Dore Schary cast her (against character, as
a murderess) in the RKO thriller
The Window (1949). That same year, she
successfully auditioned for
Stanley Kramer's boxing drama
Champion (1949) as the dependable wife
of the fighter (Kirk Douglas).
After this turning point in her life, the shapely, smoky-voiced
brunette secured a contract with Warner Brothers. During the next phase
of her career, she moved effortlessly from glamorous and seductive to
demure and wholesome in films opposite stars like
James Stewart,
Errol Flynn, and
Gary Cooper. Look Magazine billed
her as the 'Big Time Movie Personality of 1950', and by the following
year she was receiving some 500 fan letters per week.
While many of her leads were in westerns (albeit mostly A-grade ones),
Ruth was somewhat more memorable in support of
Farley Granger (as his upper-crust lover
and the raison d'etre for the planned murder of his wife) in
Alfred Hitchcock's
Strangers on a Train (1951).
Another offbeat role was as a gangster's moll in the British-made
updated adaptation of Shakespeare's Joe MacBeth (1955). As Lily, she is
the power behind angst-ridden
Paul Douglas ('Joe'), whom she
easily manipulates to do her bidding. In
The Bottom of the Bottle (1956),
she was at her dependable best as the supportive wife of lawyer
Joseph Cotten. Arguably, her last
noteworthy performance on the big screen was in
Alexander Singer's
romance/drama
Love Has Many Faces (1965).
By the 1960s, Ruth had made the transition to middle-aged character
parts and began to appear mostly on television in shows like
The Outer Limits (1963),
Mannix (1967),
Gunsmoke (1955), and (in a recurring
role) in
The Long, Hot Summer (1965).
She also toured nationally with theatrical productions of "Plaza
Suite", "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", and "Two for the Seesaw". For
the actress, who was said to disdain the trimmings of Hollywood
stardom, real-life drama came when she and her son counted among the
760 survivors of the sinking of the luxury cruise liner 'Andrea
Doria' in 1956. In September 1967, she jumped from her burning car but still managed to make her scheduled performance in "Beekman Place"
at the Ivanhoe Theatre. Ruth died in September 1999 at her home in
Laguna Beach, aged 76.
Trying to get into films, Ruth unsuccessfully made the rounds of agents
and producers for two years (1940-42), until a bit part as a WAVE came
her way in the film Stage Door Canteen (1943). With $200 to her name, she purchased a one-way ticket to Hollywood,
where she found shared accommodation with other aspiring starlets, naming it, optimistically, 'the House of the Seven Garbos'. After a screen test with Warner Brothers failed to result in a contract, Ruth
had another run of six hard years playing bit parts, many of them
uncredited, some ending up on the cutting room floor. A sole speaking
part of consequence was in the titular role of
Jungle Queen (1945), a Universal
serial (after subsequent acting lessons, Ruth was aghast when the
serial was rereleased in 1951).
Ruth finally got her big break when producer
Dore Schary cast her (against character, as
a murderess) in the RKO thriller
The Window (1949). That same year, she
successfully auditioned for
Stanley Kramer's boxing drama
Champion (1949) as the dependable wife
of the fighter (Kirk Douglas).
After this turning point in her life, the shapely, smoky-voiced
brunette secured a contract with Warner Brothers. During the next phase
of her career, she moved effortlessly from glamorous and seductive to
demure and wholesome in films opposite stars like
James Stewart,
Errol Flynn, and
Gary Cooper. Look Magazine billed
her as the 'Big Time Movie Personality of 1950', and by the following
year she was receiving some 500 fan letters per week.
While many of her leads were in westerns (albeit mostly A-grade ones),
Ruth was somewhat more memorable in support of
Farley Granger (as his upper-crust lover
and the raison d'etre for the planned murder of his wife) in
Alfred Hitchcock's
Strangers on a Train (1951).
Another offbeat role was as a gangster's moll in the British-made
updated adaptation of Shakespeare's Joe MacBeth (1955). As Lily, she is
the power behind angst-ridden
Paul Douglas ('Joe'), whom she
easily manipulates to do her bidding. In
The Bottom of the Bottle (1956),
she was at her dependable best as the supportive wife of lawyer
Joseph Cotten. Arguably, her last
noteworthy performance on the big screen was in
Alexander Singer's
romance/drama
Love Has Many Faces (1965).
By the 1960s, Ruth had made the transition to middle-aged character
parts and began to appear mostly on television in shows like
The Outer Limits (1963),
Mannix (1967),
Gunsmoke (1955), and (in a recurring
role) in
The Long, Hot Summer (1965).
She also toured nationally with theatrical productions of "Plaza
Suite", "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", and "Two for the Seesaw". For
the actress, who was said to disdain the trimmings of Hollywood
stardom, real-life drama came when she and her son counted among the
760 survivors of the sinking of the luxury cruise liner 'Andrea
Doria' in 1956. In September 1967, she jumped from her burning car but still managed to make her scheduled performance in "Beekman Place"
at the Ivanhoe Theatre. Ruth died in September 1999 at her home in
Laguna Beach, aged 76.