Ruth White | |
|---|---|
| Years active | 1946-1971 |
Ruth Patricia White (April 24, 1914–December 3, 1969) was an American Emmy Award-winning and movie actress.
A lifelong resident of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, White graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Literature from Rutgers University in 1935. While pursuing her acting career in nearby New York City, she taught acting and drama at Seton Hall University. During this period, she also vigorously studied acting with Maria Ouspenskaya.[1]
White's career was put on hold in the late 1950s while she nursed her ailing mother. The effects of her mother's illness took their toll on White, who had gained weight and looked older than her age. Surprisingly, she managed to bounce back with vigor and appeared in off-Broadway plays of Samuel Beckett ("Happy Days") and Edward Albee ("Malcolm" and "Box"). White also earned a Tony Award nomination in 1968 for her role in Harold Pinter's "The Birthday Party."[1]
In 1964, she won an Emmy Award for her role in the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV Movie Little Moon of Alban.[2] By the end of the 1960s, she had become one of New York's most highly praised and in demand character actresses, and memorably appeared in films as Midnight Cowboy, Hang 'Em High and No Way To Treat A Lady.[1]
White died suddenly of cancer on December 3, 1969. She is interred with her brothers Charles White and Richard White in the White Family Plot at Saint Mary's Cemetery in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.[1]
Her final film role was in The Pursuit of Happiness, released two years after her death.