Oscar Profile #116: Ruth Gordon

Born October 30, 1896 to a New England sea captain and his wife, Ruth Gordon Jones was enrolled the American Academy of Dramatic Arts upon graduating high school. A fast study, by 1915 she made her Broadway debut as Nibs in a revival of Peter Pan starring Maude Adams. That same year she made three un-credited appearances in films including Clara Kimball Young’s version of Camille in which she played a party guest. She did not make another film for twenty-five years. In the interim she was a constant presence on stage.

Gordon (she had dropped the Jones professionally) married actor Gregory Kelly, brother of playwright George Kelly in 1918. After his death in 1927 she had an affair with producer Jed Harris and gave birth to a son in 1929, the same year her niece by marriage, Grace Kelly, was born.

Turning to film, Gordon had two outstanding roles in 1940 films as Mary Todd Lincoln in Abe Lincoln in Illinois opposite Raymond Massey and as the doctor’s wife in Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet opposite Edward G. Robinson.

Gordon married writer-director Garson Kanin in 1942 and after a handful of screen roles returned to Broadway in 1944 as the writer-star of the hit comedy Over 21 filmed the following year as a vehicle for Irene Dunne. Gordon’s 1946 play Years Ago was an autobiographical comedy about her early aspirations to become an actress. Fredric March and Florence Eldredge played her parents. Pat Kirkland played Gordon.

Gordon and Kanin wrote the screenplays for four films directed by George Cukor between 1947 and 1952: A Double Life; Adam’s Rib; The Marrying Kind and Pat and Mike, earning Oscar nominations for all but The Marrying Kind. In 1953 Years Ago was filmed as The Actress with Jean Simmons as Gordon and Spencer Tracy and Teresa Wright as her parents.

The actress herself received her only Tony nomination for Thornton Wilder’s 1956 comedy The Matchmaker which was filmed in 1956 with Shirley Booth and would be later immortalized as the 1964 musical, Hello, Dolly! . Writer Gordon’s last produced Broadway play would be 1965’s A Very Rich Woman in which the actress would also star. It was turned into a film with Rosalind Russell in 1967 called Rosie!.

In 1965 Gordon thought she would have a whole new career as a Hollywood star, but to her dismay her scenes in Tony Richardson’s The Loved One ended up on the cutting room floor. The now 69 year-old legend rebounded with her quirky portrayal of Natalie Wood’s mother in that same year’s Inside Daisy Clover for which she received her fourth Oscar nomination, her first as an actress. Three years later she won the Oscar for her portrayal of Minnie Castevet, the witch next door in Rosemary’s Baby.

Hardly resting on her laurels, Gordon continued to act on Broadway, TV and on film for the remainder of her life. She was unforgettable in such films as What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?; Where’s Poppa?; Harold and Maude; Every Which Way But Loose and The Bodyguard and on TV most memorably as the murderer in perhaps the best Columbo of them all, Try and Catch Me.

Ruth Gordon died of a stroke on August 28, 1985 at the age of 88.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (1940), directed by John Cromwell

During the Broadway run of the play Raymond Massey was so wound up in his portrayal of the 16th President that he was known to absent-mindedly sign autographs as Abraham Lincoln. Ruth Gordon wasn’t as identified with the role of Mary Todd Lincoln, having played her just once in the screen version, but for many years hers was the definitive interpretation of the First Lady. It was also the role most filmgoers identified her with for the next quarter century. Hers was the sixth of fifty-nine portrayals of the character on screens large and small from 1930 to the present but the last to play her until Betty Field in a TV drama ten years later.

ADAM’S RIB (1949), directed by George Cukor

Gordon and her husband Garson Kanin wrote the screenplay for Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy based on their own wacky marriage. The classic comedy of manners was ahead of its time in portraying a marriage in which both the husband and wife had successful careers and were often at odds with each another. The locale here is not the theatre, but the courtroom as Hepburn defends Judy Holliday on murder charges while Tracy plays the prosecutor. The couple is also poked fun at in their domestic situation in the best of the four brilliant screenplays the couple wrote between 1947 and 1952.

THE ACTRESS (1953), directed by George Cukor

Gordon’s delightful take on her teenage ambition to leave her sleepy Massachusetts town and make it in the world of show business was a great success when it was presented on Broadway as Years Ago in 1946 with Fredric March in the central role of her father and his wife Florence Eldredge as her mother. Pat Kirkland played young Ruth. For the film version, her favorite actor, Spencer Tracy essayed the role of her father, Teresa Wright played her mother and Jean Simmons was young Ruth. Anthony Perkins made his film debut as the actress’ first boyfriend.

ROSEMARY’S BABY (1960), directed by Roman Polanski

Mia Farrow is terrific in her breakout role as the impressionable young bride in the film version of Ira Levin’s terrifying novel. Polanski surround her with an unforgettable cast that includes John Cassavetes as her struggling actor husband and a cast of superb character actors including Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Ralph Bellamy, Maurice Evans, Patsy Kelly and Elisha Cook, Jr. Even with such a sterling cast Gordon is easily the standout playing the slightly off-balance neighbor who takes charge of the pregnant Farrow’s diet. Oscar, after having nominated her three times for writing and once for acting finally gave her a little gold man to take home..

HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971), directed by Hal Ashby

Gordon suffered an embarrassment when director Robert Mulligan was so unhappy with her work in the previous year’s Period of Adjustment that he had her scenes re-filmed with Ruth White. Gordon needed another high profile role to restore her reputation and got it when both Gladys Cooper and Edith Evans turned down the role of the 80 year-old eccentric who falls in love with a suicidal 20 year-old played by Bud Cort. Originally planned as an English film, the locale was switched to California to accommodate Gordon. A box office disappointment when first released, the film has since become a beloved cult classic.