Ruth Ford

Ruth Ford (July 7, 1911 – August 12, 2009) was an American actress, model, and book writer born in Brookhaven, Mississippi. Her parents, Charles and Gertrude Cato Ford, operated hotels across four towns in the American South, and the family relocated frequently as a result. Her brother was the bohemian surrealist writer and artist Charles Henri Ford. She graduated from the University of Mississippi before pursuing careers in modeling and performance.

As a model, Ford worked with photographers Cecil Beaton, Man Ray, and Carl Van Vechten. Prior to her move to Hollywood, she became a member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre and appeared in his 1938 film Too Much Johnson, footage from which was considered lost until its rediscovery in 2013. Welles's support helped Ford secure contracts with Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros.

Ford made her Broadway debut in The Shoemaker's Holiday in 1938 and remained active on Broadway through 1980. Her stage credits included The Ninety Day Mistress, Harold and Maude, Requiem for a Nun, The Grass Harp, and Poor Murderer, in which she starred in 1976. In addition to performing, she worked as a book writer for Broadway productions.

In 1940, Ford married actor Peter Van Eyck. The marriage ended unsuccessfully, though Van Eyck fathered her daughter, Shelley, born in 1941. Ford later married film star Zachary Scott, who adopted Shelley, giving her the name Shelley Scott. Ford and Scott remained together until his death in 1965. Scott reportedly died with no significant assets beyond a $100,000 insurance policy left to Ford. During the 1970s, Ford was involved in a relationship with writer Dotson Rader.

Ford was residing at The Dakota apartments in Manhattan when, on December 8, 1980, she became the first person to call 911 to report gunshots fired outside the building, which proved to be the murder of John Lennon. She had been writing Christmas cards by her courtyard window at the time.

Ford died in New York City on August 12, 2009, at the age of 98. Her estate was subsequently reported by The Wall Street Journal in May 2010 to have been valued at approximately $8.4 million, the bulk of which consisted of two Dakota apartments she owned. One of those apartments had previously belonged to her brother Charles, who predeceased her. Ford bequeathed both apartments to her cook and butler, Indra Tamang, a Nepalese-American whom Charles Henri Ford had brought to New York. Her daughter and grandchildren were reportedly disinherited. Tamang sold the larger of the two apartments in 2011 for less than $4.5 million.