Ruth Gordon

Ruth Gordon Jones, born October 30, 1896, in the Wollaston section of Quincy, Massachusetts, was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, and novelist whose career extended across seven decades. She died on August 28, 1985. The daughter of Annie Tapley and Clinton Jones, she had one half-sibling, an older sister named Claire from her father's first marriage. Gordon was baptized Episcopalian and attended Quincy High School, where a personal reply from actress Hazel Dawn — whom she had seen in a stage production of The Pink Lady — inspired her to pursue acting. Her father, though skeptical, accompanied her to New York in 1914 and enrolled her at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Gordon made her Broadway debut in 1915 in a revival of Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, playing Nibs alongside Maude Adams. Critic Alexander Woollcott responded favorably to her performance, describing her as "ever so gay," and subsequently became her friend and mentor. That same year she appeared as an extra in silent films shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey, including as a dancer in The Whirl of Life, a film based on the lives of Vernon and Irene Castle. In 1918, she appeared opposite actor Gregory Kelly in the Broadway adaptation of Booth Tarkington's Seventeen, and the two continued performing together in North American tours of Frank Craven's The First Year and Tarkington's Clarence and Tweedles. Gordon and Kelly married in 1921. In December 1920, Gordon had her legs broken and straightened in a Chicago hospital to treat lifelong bow-leggedness, and after a three-month recovery she relocated to Indianapolis, where she and Kelly established a repertory company. Kelly died of heart disease in 1927 at age 35.

Throughout the 1930s, Gordon remained active on stage, taking on roles including Mattie in Ethan Frome, Margery Pinchwife in William Wycherley's The Country Wife at London's Old Vic and on Broadway, and Nora Helmer in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, performed in Central City, Colorado, and on Broadway. In 1929, while starring in the hit play Serena Blandish, she became pregnant by the show's producer, Jed Harris. Their son, Jones Harris, was born in Paris that year. Gordon and Harris never married but raised their son together, and Jones Harris later married actress and heiress Heidi Vanderbilt.

Gordon signed briefly with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the early 1930s but did not appear in an MGM production until Greta Garbo's final film, Two-Faced Woman, in 1941. She also appeared in supporting roles at other studios during the early 1940s, including Abe Lincoln in Illinois as Mary Todd Lincoln and Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet as Mrs. Ehrlich. Her Broadway work in the 1940s included Iris in Paul Vincent Carroll's The Strings, My Lord, Are False, Natasha in Katharine Cornell and Guthrie McClintic's revival of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, and leading roles in her own plays Over 21 and The Leading Lady. In 1942, Gordon married writer Garson Kanin. The two collaborated on screenplays for the Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy films Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952), both directed by George Cukor, and received Academy Award nominations for both scripts as well as for A Double Life (1947), also directed by Cukor.

Gordon's Broadway career spanned from 1915 to 1976 and encompassed a wide range of productions. In the 1950s she continued performing on stage, and her portrayal of Dolly Levi in Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker — a role she also played in London, Edinburgh, and Berlin — earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play in 1956. Her autobiographical play Years Ago served as the basis for the 1953 MGM film The Actress, in which Jean Simmons portrayed a young woman from Quincy, Massachusetts, who persuades her sea captain father to allow her to pursue acting in New York. Gordon also appeared in A Very Rich Woman on Broadway, and her final Broadway credit was the title role in George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession, produced by Joseph Papp at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in 1976.

Gordon's film work brought her significant recognition later in her career. She received an Academy Award nomination and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for Inside Daisy Clover (1966), opposite Natalie Wood — her first acting nomination. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Rosemary's Baby (1968), a film adaptation of Ira Levin's novel about a satanic cult in a Manhattan apartment building. Accepting the award at the 41st Academy Awards, Gordon told the audience, "I can't tell you how encouraging a thing like this is," and added, "And thank all of you who voted for me, and to everyone who didn't: please, excuse me." She was 72 years old at the time and had been working in the profession for 50 years. She won a second Golden Globe for Rosemary's Baby and received another Golden Globe nomination in 1971 for her role as Maude in Harold and Maude, opposite Bud Cort. Her additional film credits included What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969), Where's Poppa? (1970), Every Which Way but Loose (1978), Any Which Way You Can (1980), and My Bodyguard (1980).

Gordon's television work was equally prolific. She earned an Emmy nomination for her recurring role on Rhoda and won a Primetime Emmy Award for her appearance in the 1979 Taxi episode "Sugar Mama," in which her character attempts to hire a taxi driver played by Judd Hirsch as a male escort. She also appeared on Newhart, portrayed a murderous author in the 1977 Columbo episode "Try and Catch Me," and hosted Saturday Night Live in 1977. In addition to her acting work, Gordon wrote three volumes of memoirs in the 1970s — My Side, Myself Among Others, and An Open Book — and authored the novel Shady Lady in 1982.