Loving Ruth

Discussing your age is the very temple of boredom.
Ruth Gordon
There's a Million Ways to be, You Know That There Are!
Long before "Harold and Maud", I loved Ruth Gordon.  I thought her best role was in the very wicked "Rosemary's Baby", which I saw when I was pregnant!  Before that, she played Daisy Clover's mother in the largely misunderstood "Inside Daisy Clover" -- and that made me laugh as I usually did when I watched her savvy performances.  Ruth Gordon had a remarkable career.  She began as a actress, but soon realized good scripts were hard to come by--so she joined her screenwriter husband, Garson Kanin.  Together, they penned many a hit, including "Adam's Rib", which starred Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.Ruth Gordon acted in films from 1915 to her death.  She played all sorts of characters, but will probably will be best remembered in her golden years as the wacky, but tough old babe who took no prisoners.  She was unique, maybe crazy, in her portrayals.  In real life, her husband (younger than Ruth by 15 years) once said her rich personality let him enjoy "all the privileges of polygamy with none of the chaos."She cultivated eccentricity and showed me that individuality was very important when one is an artist of any sort.  "Don't be afraid," she seemed to whisper in my young ear, "Just be yourself, no matter how kooky."  Thank you for this lesson, Ruth.  October 30 is your birthday, and I will be thinking of you, you know that I will.

Kanin and Gordon