Volume III: Biographies

ROSE, Ruth *

Actress (date?)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Ruth Rose was an actress with Thanhouser at one time, according to a listing in the 1917 edition of the Motion Picture News Studio Directory (which did not list her in its October 1916 edition).

Biographical Notes: Ruth Rose was born in 1895, the daughter of Edward E. Rose, a dramatist who at one time was stage manager of the theatre known as the Boston Museum. In an interview in the Boston Traveler, October 4, 1913, Miss Rose stated that her earliest recollection of the stage was that of being held up by her father so she could press the button which raised the curtain at Boston's Castle Square Theatre. Ruth Rose was educated in Boston, New York, and Paris. In New York City she landed a role in The Blue Mouse, after which time she was seen with Margaret Anglin in Green Stockings, followed by work in Bobby Burnitt. During the autumn of 1911 she was at the Century Theatre in New York City in A Daughter of Heaven. During the next summer she acted in stock productions in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In the autumn of 1912 Ruth Rose was back at the Century Theatre, where she was seen in Joseph and His Brethren, which later went on tour. In February 1914 she was on stage in this play at the Cleveland Opera House. An interview with the actress, published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 21, 1914, stated that she was a good business woman, and, in addition to acting, she spent much time writing, having sold many magazine stories and movie scenarios. In the summer months, when theatres were dark, she was a writer for a New York City newspaper.

After World War I commenced she went to France and served in the ambulance corps and as a volunteer supply truck driver for part of 1916 and 1917. Returning to America, the actress was on the stage in Boston in a road company production of Turn to the Right, and then from about 1918 to 1920 was a leading woman for Otis Skinner and appeared in his productions, including Mister Antonio, Humpty Dumpty, The Honor of the Family, and Pietro. In the autumn of 1920 she was in New York in Footloose.

By 1917 her screen career included work with Reliance, Thanhouser, and Famous Players. That year's edition of the Motion Picture News Studio Directory noted that she was a 5'6" tall brunette. At the time she was represented by Kirmmse, Inc., 105 West 40th Street, New York City.

# # #