Today’s SWAN is Ruth Gordon, a criminally underrated actress who starred in movies like Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and Harold and Maude (1971), as well as a brilliant, Oscar-nominated screenwriter who created classics – including three films for Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy – that were co-written with her husband Garson Kanin and directed by the legendary Geoge Cukor. Beyond this, she was also a Tony-winning stage actress and playwright who made her Broadway debut at the age of 19. While she did not find huge commercial success until her later years, Ruth made indelible contributions to the field in every part of her career.
Ruth was born in 1896 to a working-class family in Massachusetts that placed value on a stable and respectable career. This posed a challenge when, from a young age, she decided to take a different path. “Gordon fell in love with theater while she was in high school,” chronicles The University of Oregon’s female history project. “Her family shared the belief that acting for women was synonymous with promiscuity: “’My Aunt Ada told Mama, ‘For Ruth to go to be an actress is like being a harlot.’” But as Gordon herself put it, she was “a determined woman. I’ve had to fight for what I wanted all my life. Even as a child when everybody in the family was against my going on the stage, particularly my father, I battled vigorously till I wore them all down.”
I’ve had to fight for what I wanted all my life… I battled vigorously till I wore them all down.
She eventually was able to convince her family to let her pursue an acting career by moving to New York. “After graduating from high school,” they continue, “Gordon traveled to New York City, where she visited the offices of New York Theatre managers looking for work. Her father told her that “Any profession which didn’t offer me a berth at the end of six weeks . . . I would turn my back on.” After months of being told there was “nothing at present” by “Every kind of everybody’s office boy,” Gordon’s parents urged her to enroll in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she was dropped after a single term “for not having what it took.” In 1917, Gordon began to appear in the silent films then being shot in Fort Lee (NJ). Her break came that same year, when she was cast as “Nibs” – one of the Lost Boys – in Peter Pan on Broadway. She worked steadily in theater for the remainder of her life.”
After playing “Nibs” and receiving praise in the press for her performance, Ruth was cast in the play Seventeen across from actor Gregory Kelley. They were married in 1921 until his death in 1927. Throughout the 1930s, Ruth continued to appear in notable roles on the stage, both on Broadway, The West End, and regionally. She starred in The Country Wife at The Old Vic in London and as Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House on Broadway. This was a hard time to be a woman in a male dominated field. In later years, she talked about the sexism that she experienced from casting agents and producers, who would expect sexual favors from her during auditions.
Despite this, Ruth was also vocal about her own sexual freedom. During this time, she became pregnant outside of wedlock after an affair with theater producer Jed Norris. This was extremely controversial at the time, leading her to take precautions. “It was a secret,” she said. “Nobody knew. I was going abroad. Nobody knew that, either. I was going to have the baby and I was going to have it someplace far off. Berlin? Someplace where I didn’t know anyone.” However, times were changing, and the two decided to acknowledge the child’s parentage. Ruth wrote extensively about what it was like to be a sexually active young female professional and was an early advocate for birth control.
After a stint in Hollywood where she played, among other roles, Mary Todd Lincoln in Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Ruth returned to the stage. Then, in 1942, she met Garson Kanin who became not just her second husband, but also her creative partner, writing, among other things, several screenplays for Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. These beloved comedies – including Adam’s Rib and Pat and Mike – were reportedly modeled after their own marriage, while also incorporating elements of the personalities of the two stars into the scripts. Ruth, a talented writer, also wrote an autobiographical play, Years Ago, which was adapted into the movie The Actress – starring Jean Simmons – in 1953.
In 1956, Ruth won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Dolly Levi in The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Carol Channing also won a Tony playing Dolly Levi in the musical Hello, Dolly! eight years later.
In the 1960s – already in her sixties – Ruth finally became a bona fide movie star.
In the 1960s – already in her sixties – Ruth finally became a bona fide movie star. In 1966, she won her first Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in Inside Daisy Clover. Then, in 1969, the age of 72, she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Rosemary’s Baby. “I can’t tell you how encouragin’ a thing like this is,” she said in her acceptance speech, prompting laughs from the audience (who knew she had been in show business for over 50 years at that point). “The first film that I was ever in was in 1915 and here we are and it’s 1969.”
Ruth would go on to make more movies – most memorably as Maude in Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude (1971), for example, cementing her stardom at a later age than most Hollywood actresses, and she also continued to perform on Broadway until she was almost 80 years old.
Ruth Gordon, who was born on this day in 1896, left behind a monumental career which spanning decades when she died in 1985. FF2 is delighted to highlight her career on this special day.
© FF2’s SWAN-of-the-Day Team (10/30/24) – Special for FF2 Media
LEARN MORE/DO MORE
Read Ruth’s full biography on The University of Oregon’s Project 41.
See her Academy Award acceptance speech.
Read a personal article based on her Harold and Maude character in The Guardian.
CREDITS & PERMISSIONS
Featured Photo: Ruth Gordon as Mary Todd Lincoln in ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (1940). Credit: Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo. Image ID: EF9T9N
Middle Photo: Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort in the film HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971). Credit: © Paramount Pictures / Album / Alamy Stock Photo. Image ID: 2R5P27B
Bottom Photo: Ruth Gordon and Mia Farrow in the film ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968). Credit: © Paramount Pictures / Album / Alamy Stock Photo. Image ID: RX10YF
