Ruth Kobart

Ruth Kobart (April 24, 1924 – December 14, 2002) was an American performer born Ruth Maxine Kahn in Des Moines, Iowa, whose career spanned opera, Broadway, regional theatre, film, and television across six decades. She trained in opera at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago and made her professional debut as the Witch in an off-Broadway production of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel. She subsequently toured with both the NBC Opera Theatre and the New York City Opera.

Kobart's operatic work produced several notable world premieres. With the NBC Opera Theatre, she created the role of Agata in Gian Carlo Menotti's Maria Golovin, which had its world premiere at Expo '58 in Brussels on August 20, 1958; she then brought the role to Broadway later that same year. Also for NBC, she originated the role of Arina in the premiere of Bohuslav Martinů's The Marriage. At the New York City Opera in 1959, she played Madame Pace in the world premiere of Hugo Weisgall's Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Her Broadway debut came in 1955 in the chorus of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pipe Dream, during which she understudied leading lady Helen Traubel and performed the role forty-two times. Her subsequent Broadway appearances included How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, A Flea in Her Ear, The Three Sisters, and Maria Golovin, with her Broadway activity spanning from 1955 to 1978. Her performance in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum earned her a 1963 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Kobart joined San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater beginning with its inaugural season in 1967, and her association with the company continued through 1994. Her ACT credits included The House of Bernarda Alba, Sunday in the Park with George, Arsenic and Old Lace, A Little Night Music, and Home. During the 1970s she stepped away from ACT for an extended period to play Nurse Ratched in an eighteen-month San Francisco production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Her national tour work included Forty Carats, The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, and Annie, in which she portrayed Miss Hannigan on the first national tour and in a long Chicago run, succeeding original cast member Dorothy Loudon in the role.

On screen, Kobart appeared in the film adaptation of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, as well as Petulia, Dirty Harry — in which she played the hijacked school bus driver — The Hindenburg, Sister Act, and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. Her television work included a regular role on Bob, starring Bob Newhart, and guest appearances on The Streets of San Francisco, CHiPs, Archie Bunker's Place, St. Elsewhere, Matt Houston, Remington Steele, Midnight Caller, and Murphy Brown. In 1994 she provided the voice of the main villain, Malicia, in the video game King's Quest VII.

Kobart was Jewish and a member of the Temple Israel of Hollywood. She died of pancreatic cancer at her home in San Francisco, California, on December 14, 2002, at the age of 78, seven months after her diagnosis. She was survived by her brother, Howard S. Kahn, and various nieces and nephews.