Ruth Nelson

Ruth Gloria Nelson (August 2, 1905 – September 12, 1992) was an American stage and film actress. She is known for her roles in films such as Wilson, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Humoresque, 3 Women, The Late Show and Awakenings. She was the wife of John Cromwell, with whom she acted on multiple occasions.

Early life

Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Nelson was the daughter of Sanford Leroy Nelson and vaudeville actress Eva Mudge. She attended Immaculate Heart Convent School in Los Angeles, studying first with Daniel Frohman and then with Richard Boleslawski at the American Laboratory Theatre in New York City during the early 1920s.

Personal life

Nelson was married twice. She wed actor William Challee on August 2, 1931. They divorced in 1937. In 1947, Nelson married actor/director John Cromwell, whom she had first met two years before on the set of Anna and the King of Siam. The marriage lasted 32 years until Cromwell's death in 1979 from a pulmonary embolism.

She was the stepmother of actor James Cromwell.

Nelson died on September 12, 1992 at her home in New York City from brain cancer complicated by a stroke and pneumonia.