Ruth Gordon Biography

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. After the usual deprivations and barnstorming (and a few extra roles in such films as Camille [1916]), she got her first positive newspaper notice for her Broadway debut in a 1915 production of Peter Pan. "Ruth Gordon was ever so gay as Nibs," wrote influential critic Alexander Woollcott, who became a valued and powerful friend to Gordon, and did what he could to encourage her and promote her career. 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. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

• 1. Dr. Martin Stensgard: This man is in no condition to talk.
  2. Gunnar Brogge: I could kill you for this. [to the doctor]
  3. Dr. Martin Stensgard: God help us, God help us all.
  4. Anna Stensgard: How many mornings are we going to say goodbye?
  5. Gunnar Brogge: If we are going to fight, we must be like steel.
  From Edge of Darkness. Submitted by rick b (2 months ago)

• 1. Mrs. Hocheiser: I'd know that tush anywhere!
  From Where's Poppa?. Submitted by Rufus Q (4 months ago)

• 1. Maude: Harold, everyone has the right to make an arse of themselves. You can't let the world judge you too much.
  From Harold and Maude. Submitted by Letitia L (5 months ago)

• 1. Maude: You know, at one time, I used to break into pet shops to liberate the canaries. But I decided that was an idea way before its time. Zoos are full, prisons are overflowing... oh my, how the world still *dearly* loves a *cage.*
  From Harold and Maude. Submitted by Chad E (9 months ago)

• 1. Maude: L-I-V-E! Live! Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room.
  From Harold and Maude. Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)