Ruth Matteson

Ruth Matteson (December 10, 1910 – February 5, 1975) was an American actress born in San Jose, California, whose Broadway career spanned more than three decades, from 1934 to 1965, encompassing over twenty productions. She also maintained an active presence in film, radio, and television throughout her professional life.

Matteson launched her acting career with the Henry Duffy Players in San Francisco before making her Broadway debut in Geraniums in My Window in 1934. She followed that with several productions in quick succession, including Symphony, Parnell, and Triumph in 1935. In 1936 she stepped into the lead role of Night of January 16th, replacing Doris Nolan, and that same year appeared in The Wingless Victory and Spring Dance. Her work in George Abbott's production of What a Life in 1938 brought her to radio audiences as well, earning her a recurring role on The Aldrich Family, the radio program adapted from that play. Also in 1938, she appeared in her only feature film, The Birth of a Baby, directed by Al Christie. In 1940 she took the principal female role in The Male Animal, and the early 1940s saw her in a string of Broadway productions including The Merry Widow and Tomorrow the World in 1943, followed by In Bed We Cry in 1944 and Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston in 1945.

The latter half of the 1940s and the 1950s kept Matteson consistently active on stage. She appeared in Antigone and Park Avenue in 1946, Clutterbuck in 1949, and The Relapse in 1950. After Dragon's Mouth in 1955, she starred in the comedy The Happiest Millionaire in 1956 and took the lead in There Was a Little Girl in 1960. Her final Broadway appearance came in 1965 in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park.

Beginning in 1948, Matteson extended her work to television, appearing on programs including Actors Studio, the Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse, Kraft Theatre, Armstrong Circle Theatre, and The Ed Sullivan Show, among others. Her last television role was a recurring part on the daytime drama The Edge of Night from 1962 to 1963.

In her personal life, Matteson married actor Arthur Pierson in 1937; the two later divorced. She subsequently married Curt Peterson, an executive at the McCann Erickson advertising agency. She and Peterson resided in Westport, Connecticut, where she died on February 5, 1975, at the age of 64.