Ruth Gordon

 When Ruth Gordon convinced her father, a sea captain, to let her leave Quincy, Massachusetts to pursue acting she came to New York and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She acted in a few silents made at Fort Lee, New Jersey, in 1915. She made her Broadway debut in "Peter Pan" as Nibs the same year. The next 20 years she spent on stage, even appearing at the Old Vic in London in the successful run of "The Country Wife" in 1936. Nearly 25 years after her film debut, she returned to movies briefly. Her most memorable role during this period in the early 1940s was as Mary Todd in "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (1940).

She left Hollywood to return to theater. Back in New York, she married Garson Kanin in 1942 (her first husband Gregory Kelly, a stage actor, died in 1927). She began writing plays, and, later, her husband and she collaborated on screenplays for Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, whose screen relationship was modeled on their own marriage.

Gordon was excited about returning to films after 22 years with a role in "The Loved One" in 1965, and looked forward to having a movie career despite her advanced age. When her role was cut from the final release print, it was a major disappointment, but she persevered and won an Oscar three years later for "Rosemary's Baby" (1968).

Her acceptance speech: "I can't tell you how encouraging a thing like this is. The first film that I was ever in was in 1915, and here we are, and it's 1969. Actually, I don't know why it took me so long, though I don't think, you know, that I'm backward. Anyway, thank you Bill (William Castle), thank you Bob (Robert Evans), thank you Roman (Polanski) and thank you Mia (Farrow), and thank all of you who voted for me. And all of you who didn't: Please excuse me."

Other late film roles include "Where's Poppa?" (1970), "Harold and Maude' (1971) and Clint Eastwood's mother in "Every Which Way but Loose" (1978) and "Any Which Way You Can" (1980).

Happy Birthday, Ruth Gordon!