Ruth Gordon

Acting

Ruth Gordon

Born 1896-10-30 · Quincy, Massachusetts, USA

Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985) was an American actress, screenwriter and playwright. Gordon began her career performing on Broadway at age nineteen. Known for her nasal voice and distinctive personality, she gained international recognition and critical acclaim for film roles that continued into her seventies and eighties. Her later work included performances in Rosemary's Baby (1968), Where's Poppa? (1970), Harold and Maude (1971), Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980). In addition to her acting career, Gordon wrote numerous plays, film scripts, and books, most notably co-writing the screenplay for the 1949 film Adam's Rib. Gordon won an Oscar, an Emmy, and two Golden Globe Awards for her acting, as well as received three Academy Award nominations for her writing.

Acting credits

Rosemary's Baby poster
7.8

A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.

Rosemary's Baby

1968

Every Which Way but Loose poster
6.1

Philo Beddoe is your regular, easygoing, truck-driving guy. He's also the best bar-room brawler west of the Rockies. And he lives with a 165-pound orangutan named Clyde. Like other guys, Philo finally falls in love - with a flighty singer who leads him on a screwball chase across the American Southwest. Nothing's in the way except a motorcycle gang, some cops, and legendary brawler Tank Murdock.

Every Which Way but Loose

1978

Harold and Maude poster
7.6

A deadpan young man obsessed with death meets an eccentric septuagenarian who teaches him to live life to the fullest.

Harold and Maude

1971

Where’s Poppa? poster
6.0

When New York attorney Gordon Hocheiser meets Louise Callan, the girl of his dreams, he schemes to eliminate his aging, senile mother, even though he promised his late father that he'd always take care of her. He fears that his batty mom's eccentricities will shortly lead to Louise's departure.

Where’s Poppa?

1970

Any Which Way You Can poster
5.8

Philo takes part in a bare knuckle fight – as he does – to make more money than he can earn from his car repair business. He decides to retire, but when the Mafia come along and arrange another fight, he's pushed into it. A motorcycle gang and an orangutan called Clyde all add to the 'fun'.

Any Which Way You Can

1980

My Bodyguard poster
6.4

Clifford Peache, an easygoing teenager, is finding less than easy to fit in at his new high school, where a tough-talking bully terrorizes his classmates and extorts their lunch money. Refusing to pay up, Clifford enlist the aid of an overgrown misfit whose mere presence intimidates students and teachers alike. But their "business relationship" soon turns personal as Clifford and the troubled loner forge a winning alliance against their intimidators - and a very special friendship with each other.

My Bodyguard

1980

Two-Faced Woman poster
6.4

A woman pretends to be her own twin sister to win back her straying husband.

Two-Faced Woman

1941

The Big Bus poster
5.3

A nuclear-powered bus is making its maiden non-stop trip from New York to Denver. The journey is plagued by disasters due to the machinations of a mysterious group allied with the oil lobby. Will the down-on-his-luck driver, with a reputation for eating his passengers, be able to complete the journey?

The Big Bus

1976

Don't Go to Sleep poster
6.5

One year after a young girl dies in a car accident, her sister begins seeing visions of her, while the family home is plagued by strange happenings.

Don't Go to Sleep

1982

Scavenger Hunt poster
5.6

An eccentric games inventor dies and leaves behind an inheritance worth hundreds of millions of dollars - which will only be given to the person or team, amongst his family and hired help, who wins a madcap scavenger hunt.

Scavenger Hunt

1979

Action in the North Atlantic poster
7.1

Merchant Marine sailors Joe Rossi (Humphrey Bogart) and Steve Jarvis (Raymond Massey) are charged with getting a supply vessel to Russian allies as part of a sea convoy. When the group of ships comes under attack from a German U-boat, Rossi and Jarvis navigate through dangerous waters to evade Nazi naval forces. Though their mission across the Atlantic is extremely treacherous, they are motivated by the opportunity to strike back at the Germans, who sank one of their earlier ships.

Action in the North Atlantic

1943

Voyage of the Rock Aliens poster
4.8

Aliens land in the mythical town of "Speelburgh, U.S.A" searching for the source of rock & roll. What they find is a gang of teenagers, led by Dee Dee and Frankie, along with Frankie's posse/rock band, the Pack. The leader of the aliens takes a shine to Dee Dee and all sorts of trouble breaks out.

Voyage of the Rock Aliens

1984

Night of 100 Stars poster
5.8

The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and costume changes, tape rewinding, and the like. Executive producer Alexander Cohen estimated that the 5,800 Radio City Music Hall seats sold out at prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. The show itself cost about $4 million to produce and was expected to yield around $2 million for the new addition to the Actors Fund retirement home in Englewood, N. J. ABC is reputed to have paid more than $5 million for the television rights.

Night of 100 Stars

1982

Inside Daisy Clover poster
5.6

A girl on the road to stardom fights the dehumanizing effects of Hollywood life.

Inside Daisy Clover

1966

The Ten-Year Lunch poster
6.5

The story of the legendary wits who lunched daily at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during the 1920s. The core of the so-called Round Table group included short story and poetry writer Dorothy Parker; comic actor and writer Robert Benchley; The New Yorker founder Harold Ross; columnist and social reformer Heywood Broun; critic Alexander Woollcott; and playwrights George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber and Robert Sherwood.

The Ten-Year Lunch

1987

Edge of Darkness poster
6.3

The film pivots around the local Norwegian doctor and his family. The doctor's wife (Ruth Gordon) wants to hold on to the pretence of gracious living and ignore their German occupiers. The doctor, Martin Stensgard (Walter Huston), would also prefer to stay neutral, but is torn. His brother-in-law, the wealthy owner of the local fish cannery, collaborates with the Nazis. The doctor's daughter, Karen (Ann Sheridan), is involved with the resistance and with its leader Gunnar Brogge (Errol Flynn). The doctor's son has just returned to town, having been sent down from the university, and is soon influenced by his Nazi-sympathizer uncle. Captain Koenig (Helmut Dantine), the young German commandant of the occupying garrison, whose fanatic determination to do everything by the book and spoutings about the invincibility of the Reich hides a growing fear of a local uprising.

Edge of Darkness

1943

Boardwalk poster
7.5

In this drama, David Rosen and his wife Becky have lived in the same Coney Island neighborhood for nearly all their married life. But the area is not what it used to be, and a gang leader named Strut has decided to make Coney Island his new turf. Strut begins shaking down the merchants in the area, demanding payment for "protection" and using violence to deal with anyone who gets in his way. David refuses to give Strut protection money for the restaurant he owns, and as a result his diner is soon firebombed, while many of his neighbors are attacked and his synagogue is desecrated.

Boardwalk

1979

Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet poster
6.5

True story of the doctor who considered it was not immoral to search for a drug that would cure syphilis.

Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet

1940

Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby poster
3.6

Baby Adrian is now all grown up and separated from his mother, wrestling with the occult influences that plague him, and trying to outrun Satan himself.

Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby

1976

What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? poster
6.2

An aging widow hides a deadly secret which she will do anything to keep buried.

What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?

1969

Delta Pi poster
4.0

A sorority house mother enters her girls in a mud-wrestling contest.

Delta Pi

1984

Natalie - A Tribute to a Very Special Lady poster
6.0

An all-star tribute to Natalie Wood by some of her friends and co-workers.

Natalie - A Tribute to a Very Special Lady

1982

The Trouble with Spies poster
4.7

George Trent, a British spy, has gone incommunicado in Ibiza. Appleton Porter (Donald Sutherland) is sent to find out what happened to Trent. Porter settles into a small hotel with several busybody guests. He probes them for information about Trent, their former neighbor. Meanwhile, the spy survives several attempts on his life as he attempts to solve the mystery.

The Trouble with Spies

1987

The Secret World of the Very Young poster
NR

The world of pre-school youngsters is explored through songs and skits.

The Secret World of the Very Young

1984

Behind the camera