Ruth Ford (actress)
Ruth Ford | |
|---|---|
 Pierre Balmain and Ruth Ford, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1947 | |
| Born | (1911-07-07)July 7, 1911 Brookhaven, Mississippi, US |
| Died | August 12, 2009(2009-08-12) (aged 98) New York City, New York, US |
| Occupation | Model, actress |
| Years active | 1938–85 |
| Spouse(s) | Peter van Eyck 1940–19?? (divorced) Zachary Scott 1952–1965 (his death) |
Ruth Ford (July 7, 1911, Brookhaven, Mississippi[1] – August 12, 2009, New York City) was an American model and stage and film actress. Her brother was the bohemian surrealist Charles Henri Ford. Their parents managed the Tennessee Hotel in Clarksville, Tennessee.
Contents
1 Life and career
2 Posthumous
3 Partial filmography
4 References
5 External links
Life and career
As a model she posed for Harper's, Town and Country and Mademoiselle.[citation needed]
She married actor Peter Van Eyck in the 1940s, but the marriage was unsuccessful. Van Eyck was the father of her daughter, Shelley, who was born in 1941. Prior to Ford's trip west to Hollywood she was a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, and appeared in his film Too Much Johnson (1938), which was considered lost until the rediscovery of footage in 2013.[2] Welles' assistance helped her to land contracts with Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. studios.
She starred in the 1976 Broadway play Poor Murderer.
Ford married film star Zachary Scott and they remained together until Scott's death in 1965. Scott adopted Shelley, who took the name Shelley Scott. Zachary Scott reportedly died penniless except for a $100,000 insurance policy he left for his widow. Later, in the 1970s, she was involved in a relationship with a much younger man, the writer Dotson Rader.[3]
Posthumous
In May 2010 it was reported, originally in The Wall Street Journal, that Ford's estate had been worth $8.4 million, almost all of it in the value of two apartments she owned in the famous apartment building The Dakota in Manhattan, where she died at the age of 98 in 2009. One of the apartments had belonged to her brother Charles, who predeceased her. She bequeathed the apartments to her cook/butler, Indra Tamang, a Nepalese-American whom Charles Henri Ford had brought to New York. Ford's daughter and grandchildren were reportedly disinherited.[4]
Partial filmography
Chloe, Love Is Calling You (1934) - Minor Role (uncredited)
Too Much Johnson (1938) - Mrs. Billings
Roaring Frontiers (1941) - Reba Bailey
Secrets of the Lone Wolf (1941) - Helene de Leon
The Man Who Returned to Life (1942) - Beth Beebe
The Lady Is Willing (1942) - Myrtle Glossamer
Lady Gangster (1942) - Lucy Fenton
Murder in the Big House (1942) - Mrs. Irene Gordon
In This Our Life (1942) - Mother of Accident Victim (uncredited)
The Devil's Trail (1942) - Ella
Escape from Crime (1942) - Myrt
Secret Enemies (1942) - Miss Page (uncredited)
Across the Pacific (1942) - Secretary (uncredited)
The Hidden Hand (1942) - Estelle Channing
The Gorilla Man (1943) - Janet Devon
Truck Busters (1943) - Pearl
Air Force (1943) - Nurse (uncredited)
Murder on the Waterfront (1943) - Lana Shane
Adventure in Iraq (1943) - Tess Torrence
Princess O'Rourke (1943) - Clare Stillwell (uncredited)
Wilson (1944) - Margaret Wilson
The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) - Sister Clotilde
Circumstantial Evidence (1945) - Mrs. Simms
The Woman Who Came Back (1945) - Ruth Gibson
Strange Impersonation (1946) - Jane Karaski #1
Dragonwyck (1946) - Cornelia Van Borden (uncredited)
Act One (1963) - Beatrice Kaufman
The Tree (1969) - Mrs. Gagnon
7254 (1971) - Mother
Play It As It Lays (1972) - Carlotta
The Eyes of the Amaryllis (1982) - Geneva Read
Too Scared to Scream (1985) - Irma (final film role)
References
^ Hevesi, Dennis (2009-08-14). "Ruth Ford, Film and Stage Actress, Dies at 98". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-08-14..mw-parser-output cite.citationfont-style:inherit.mw-parser-output qquotes:"""""""'""'".mw-parser-output code.cs1-codecolor:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription abackground:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registrationcolor:#555.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration spanborder-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-errordisplay:none;font-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-errorfont-size:100%.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-formatfont-size:95%.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-leftpadding-left:0.2em.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-rightpadding-right:0.2em
^ Kehr, Dave (2013-08-07), "Early Film by Orson Welles Is Rediscovered", New York Times
^ https://people.com/archive/ruth-ford-dotson-rader-a-december-mistress-muse-to-may-vol-3-no-11/
^ Ruth Ford -- disposition of estate Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine.
External links
Ruth Ford on IMDb
Ruth Ford at the Internet Broadway Database
Ruth Ford at Find a Grave- Ruth Ford's obituary in The Daily Telegraph
- Ruth Ford's obituary in The Times
- "I leave it all to my butler – the dying wish of reclusive star"
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