Ruth Gillmore

Ruth Emily Gillmore (26 October 1899 – 12 February 1976) was an English-born American stage actress whose Broadway career spanned from 1921 to 1934. She came from a distinguished theatrical family: her father, Frank Gillmore, served as president of Actors' Equity, and her mother, Laura MacGillivray, was also an actress. Her sister Margalo Gillmore pursued a parallel career on the stage. On her father's side, Gillmore was a fourth-generation actor, and her family connections extended to the British stage through her great-aunt, the actor-manager Sarah Thorne, and her great-uncles, actors Thomas Thorne and George Thorne.

Gillmore made her first professional appearance in 1918, playing an unborn child in Maurice Maeterlinck's The Betrothal in New York City. Her Broadway work began in 1921 with The Robbery, in which she played Edie Upton. She went on to appear as Jeanne in The Nest in 1922, the same year she took part in The '49ers and No Sirree! Additional Broadway credits included the musical The Love Girl and the play The Love Nest. In 1931 she played Gail Carlton in No More Frontier, and in 1934 she appeared as Mrs. Howard in The Farmer Takes a Wife.

In 1926, Gillmore married theatrical producer Max Sonino in Florence, Italy. Sonino produced No More Frontier, the 1931 production in which she performed. The couple collaborated as translators, producing English versions of Luigi Pirandello's Finding Oneself in 1933, as well as Giovacchino Forzano's Gutlibi and The Bells of San Lucio. They had one daughter, Mildred Sonino.

Beyond her performing career, Gillmore taught speech and drama at the Buckley School. She and her sister Margalo were both members of the Algonquin Round Table. Gillmore died in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on 12 February 1976, at the age of 76.