Ruth Roman

 Ruth Roman (December 22, 1922 – September 9, 1999)

She played an important supporting role in the film, Champion (1949), as the (shotgun-wedded) wife of a boxer played by Oscar-nominated Kirk Douglas. In one of her most memorable roles, Roman co-starred with Farley Granger and Robert Walker in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Strangers on a Train (1951). In the film Three Secrets (1950), she played a distraught mother waiting to learn whether or not her child survived an airplane crash. Roman was a love interest to James Stewart in the Anthony Mann-directed western The Far Country (1955). She was the leading lady in other westerns, including Colt .45 (1950) with Randolph Scott and Dallas (1950) with Gary Cooper. The May 1, 1950, issue of Life magazine featured Roman in a cover story, "The Rapid Rise of Ruth Roman". The actress had top billing in a pair of dramas, Tomorrow Is Another Day and Lightning Strikes Twice (both 1951). She was featured prominently in the adventure stories Mara Maru (1952) with Errol Flynn, Tanganyika and The Shanghai Story (both 1954), co-starred with Van Johnson in the films Invitation (1952) and The Bottom of the Bottle (1956) and had top billing again in 5 Steps to Danger (1957), a spy film, opposite Sterling Hayden. She appeared in the early 1960s in the medical dramas The Eleventh Hour and Breaking Point.

She also starred in a season 3 episode of Mission: Impossible (1968) titled "The Elixir" as Riva Santel as well as a Season 2 episode of Naked City. Many other series featured guest appearances by Roman, including Route 66, Mannix, Marcus Welby, M.D., The Mod Squad, The FBI, Tarzan, and The Outer Limits. Roman died at the age of 76 in her sleep of natural causes at her Laguna Beach, California, home on September 9, 1999.