Patsy Ruth Miller

Patsy Ruth Miller, born Patricia Ruth Miller on January 17, 1904, in St. Louis, Missouri, was an American film actress, Broadway performer, and writer who worked across multiple decades and creative disciplines. She died on July 16, 1995, at her home in Palm Desert, California, at the age of 91.

Miller was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar W. Miller and attended Mary Institute in St. Louis. Despite an early Hollywood screen test that resulted in her mother being advised to take her home due to perceived lack of potential, she eventually broke into the film industry after being discovered by actress Alla Nazimova at a Hollywood party. Her birth name was Ruth Mae Miller, which she changed to avoid confusion with another working actress of the same name. Her first screen role came in Camille, starring Rudolph Valentino, and her profile rose steadily from there. She was named a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1922.

Her most celebrated film role came in 1923, when she portrayed Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame opposite Lon Chaney. Later in the decade, Miller appeared primarily in light romantic comedies alongside actors including Clive Brook and Edward Everett Horton. Her film credits from that period include Broken Hearts of Hollywood (1926), A Hero for a Night (1927), Hot Heels (1928), and The Aviator (1929). She retired from films in 1931. In 1933, she appeared on stage in Eve the Fifth at Harold Lloyd's Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals. She made a cameo in the 1951 film Quebec, starring John Barrymore Jr., which she described in her autobiography as a joke. She also appeared in the 1978 film Mother, directed by Brian Pinette.

Miller's Broadway career included two productions in 1936: Music in My Heart and White Man. She was also credited as a composer in connection with her Broadway work.

Beyond performing, Miller built a substantial career as a writer. She won three O. Henry Awards for her short stories and also wrote a novel, radio scripts, and plays. In 1988, MagicImage Filmbooks published her autobiography, My Hollywood: When Both of Us Were Young.

Miller was married three times. Her first husband was film director Tay Garnett and her second was screenwriter John Lee Mahin, with both marriages ending in divorce. Her third husband, businessman E. S. Deans, died in 1986. Her frequently reported romantic life earned her the nickname "the most engaged girl in Hollywood."