Ruth Gordon Jones was born October 30, 1896 in Quincy, Massachusetts and died on August 28, 1985. She was an Academy Award-winning American actress and writer.

The daughter of a former ship captain, Ruth Gordon knew what she wanted to do with her life after witnessing a performance by stage actress Hazel Dawn. Over the initial objections of her father, Gordon decided upon a stage career, studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

With such stage hits as Seventeen, Serena Blandish, and Ethan Frome, Gordon was one of Broadway's biggest stars of the 1920s and '30s; privately, however, her life was blotted by the premature death of her first husband, actor Gregory Kelly. She remarried in 1942 to the brilliant playwright Garson Kanin, some 16 years her junior a union that lasted more than four decades.

Combining stage work with appearances in such films as Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) and Action in the North Atlantic (1943), Gordon began to collaborate with Kanin on writing projects, with such delightful results as the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn comedies Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952), as well as the Judy Holliday feature The Marrying Kind (1952). Long absent from movies, Gordon returned to the cameras for Inside Daisy Clover in 1966, before taking on the kinky role of an elderly witch in Rosemary's Baby (1968).

Upon receiving an Oscar for her performance, the 72-year-old Gordon brought down the house by saying, "You have no idea how encouraging a thing like this can be." Although few of her subsequent film roles were as prestigious, Gordon managed to enter cult-film Valhalla with unforgettable roles in two films: Where's Poppa? (1970), in which she played the obscenely senile mother of George Segal, and Harold and Maude (1972), as the freewheeling soul mate of death-obsessed teen Bud Cort.

Gordon died of a stroke in Edgartown, Massachusetts, aged 88, in 1985.

Credits by Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmography

• Voyage of the Rock Aliens (1988)
• The Trouble with Spies (1987)
• Maxie (1985)
• Delta Pi (1985)
• "Newhart" (2 episodes, 1983-1984)
• Don't Go to Sleep (1982)
• Jimmy the Kid (1982)
• Any Which Way You Can (1980)
• My Bodyguard (1980)
• Hardhat and Legs (1980)
• Scavenger Hunt (1979)
• Boardwalk (1979)
• "Taxi" (1 episode, 1979)
• Every Which Way But Loose (1978)
• Perfect Gentlemen (1978)
• Columbo: Try and Catch Me (1977)
• "The Love Boat" (1 episode, 1977)
• The Prince of Central Park (1977)
• "Saturday Night Live" (1 episode, 1977)
• Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby (1976)
• The Great Houdini (1976)
• The Big Bus (1976)
• "Medical Story" (1 episode, 1975)
• "Rhoda" (1 episode, 1975)
• "Kojak" (1 episode, 1975)
• Isn't It Shocking? (1973)
• Harold and Maude (1971)
• Where's Poppa? (1970)
• What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969)
• Rosemary's Baby (1968)
• Blithe Spirit (1966)
• "Hallmark Hall of Fame" (1 episode, 1966)
• Lord Love a Duck (1966)
• Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
• "The Prudential Family Playhouse" (1 episode, 1950)
• Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
• Edge of Darkness (1943)
• Two-Faced Woman (1941)
• Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940)
• Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)
• The Whirl of Life (1915)

Awards

• Women in Film Crystal Award 1983
• Emmy Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (for a Continuing or Single Performance in a Regular Ser "Taxi" 1978 - 79
• Golden Globe Award Best Supporting Actress "Rosemary's Baby" 1968
• Oscar Best Supporting Actress "Rosemary's Baby" 1968
• Golden Globe Award Best Supporting Actress "Inside Daisy Clover" 1965