
Ruth Hussey
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Female
Birthday
1911-10-30
Day of Death
2005-04-19 (93 years old)
Place of Birth
Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Ruth Hussey
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ruth Carol Hussey (October 30, 1911 – April 19, 2005) was an American actress best known for her Academy Award-nominated role as photographer Elizabeth Imbrie in The Philadelphia Story.
After working as an actress in summer stock, she returned to Providence and worked as a radio fashion commentator on a local station. She wrote the ad copy for a Providence clothing store and read it on the radio each afternoon. She was encouraged by a friend to try out for acting roles at the Providence Playhouse. The theater director there turned her down, saying the roles were cast only out of New York City. Later that week, she journeyed to New York City and on her first day there, she signed with a talent agent who booked her for a role in a play starting the next day back at the Providence Playhouse.
In New York City, she also worked for a time as a model. She then landed a number of stage roles with touring companies. Dead End toured the country in 1937 and the last theater on the road trip was at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, where she was spotted on opening night by MGM talent scout Billy Grady. MGM signed her to a players contract and she made her film debut in 1937. She quickly became a leading lady in MGM's "B" unit, usually playing sophisticated, worldly roles. For a 1940 "A" picture role, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her turn as Elizabeth Imbrie, the cynical magazine photographer and almost-girlfriend of James Stewart's character Macaulay Connor in The Philadelphia Story. In 1941, exhibitors voted her the third-most popular new star in Hollywood.
Hussey also worked with Robert Taylor in Flight Command (1940), Robert Young in Northwest Passage (1940) and H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), Van Heflin in Tennessee Johnson (1942), Ray Milland in The Uninvited (1944), and Alan Ladd in The Great Gatsby (1949).
In 1946, she starred on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play State of the Union. Her 1949 role in Goodbye, My Fancy on Broadway caused a Billboard reviewer to write: "Miss Hussey brings a splendid aliveness and warmth to the lovely congresswoman...."
She filled in for Jean Arthur in the 1955 Lux Radio Theater presentation of Shane, playing Miriam Start, alongside original film stars Alan Ladd and Van Heflin.
In 1960, she co-starred in The Facts of Life with Bob Hope. Hussey was also active in early television drama.
Known For
Acting
(1973)
My Darling Daughters' Anniversary
as Maggie Cartwright
(1970)
The Resurrection of Broncho Billy
as Voice Over
(1960)
The Facts of Life
as Mary Gilbert
(1953)
The Lady Wants Mink
as Nora Connors
(1952)
Woman of the North Country
as Christine Powell
(1952)
Stars and Stripes Forever
as Jennie Sousa
(1951)
That's My Boy
as Ann Jackson
(1951)
(1950)
Louisa
as Meg Norton
(1950)
Mr. Music
as Lorna Marvis
(1949)
The Great Gatsby
as Jordan Baker
(1948)
I, Jane Doe
as Eve Meredith Curtis
(1945)
Her Favorite Patient
as Dr. Hedy Fredericks, MD
(1944)
The Uninvited
as Pamela Fitzgerald
(1944)
Tender Comrade
as Barbara Thomas
(1944)
Marine Raiders
as Lt. Ellen Foster
(1942)
Tennessee Johnson
as Eliza McCardle Johnson
(1942)
Pierre of the Plains
as Daisy Denton
(1942)
Soaring Stars
as Herself
(1941)
H.M. Pulham, Esq.
as Cordelia 'Kay' Motford Pulham
(1941)
Married Bachelor
as Norma Haven
(1941)
Our Wife
as Professor Susan Drake
(1941)
Free and Easy
as Martha Gray
(1940)
The Philadelphia Story
as Elizabeth 'Liz' Imbrie
(1940)
Flight Command
as Lorna Gray
(1940)
Northwest Passage
as Elizabeth Browne
(1940)
Susan and God
as Charlotte
(1940)
(1939)
The Women
as Miss Wattson
(1939)
Another Thin Man
as Dorothy Waters
(1939)
Maisie
as Sybil Ames
(1939)
Fast and Furious
as Lily Cole
(1939)
Blackmail
as Helen Ingram
(1939)
Honolulu
as Eve
(1939)
Within the Law
as Mary Turner
(1938)
Marie Antoinette
as Duchess de Polignac (uncredited)
(1938)
Spring Madness
as Kate McKim
(1938)
Hold That Kiss
as Nadine Piermont
(1938)
Time Out for Murder
as Peggy Norton, victim
(1938)
Judge Hardy's Children
as Margaret Lee
(1938)
Rich Man, Poor Girl
as Joan Thayer
(1938)
Man-Proof
as Jane (dialogue scenes deleted)
(1937)
Madame X
as Annette
(1937)
Big City
as Mayor's Secretary (uncredited)