Actors - Ruth Hussey

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	Actors - Ruth Hussey

Ruth Carol Hussey (October 30 1911 – April 19 2005) was an Oscar-nominated American actress.

Ruth Hussey's early life

Ruth Hussey who since childhood had the look of a movie star, was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1911. Her father died when she was seven years old from the 1918 flu. He was just thirty-four years old. Her mother, sister, brother and Ruth then carried on with life in Providence. She graduated from Pembroke College (then a women's college) at Brown University in 1933. For unknown reasons she never landed a role at Pembroke in any of the school plays she tried out for. She then studied drama in post graduate school at the University of Michigan School of Drama, and worked as an actress with a summer stock company in Michigan for two seasons.

Ruth Hussey's career

After working as an actress in summer stock, she returned to Providence and worked as a radio fashion commentator on a local station. She wrote the ad copy for a Providence clothing store and read it on the radio each afternoon. Great voice. On one fateful day she was encouraged by a friend to try out for acting roles at the Providence Playhouse. She went right over to the playhouse. The theater director there turned her down, saying the roles were cast only of New York City. So, later that week she journeyed to New York City and on her first day there she signed-up with a talent agent who booked her for a role in a play starting the next day -- back at the Providence Playhouse. In New York City she also worked for a time as a model with the world-famous Powers agency. She then landed a number of stage roles with touring companies. Dead End toured the country in 1937 and the last theater on the road trip was at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles where she was spotted on opening night by MGM talent scout Billy Grady. MGM signed her to a players contract and she made her film debut in 1937. She quickly became a leading lady in MGM's "B" unit, usually playing sophisticated, worldly roles. For a 1940 "A" picture role she was nominated for an Academy Award for her turn as Liz Embrie the cynical magazine photographer and girlfriend of James Stewart (actor) in the well remembered The Philadelphia Story
- .

"Ruth Hussey" also worked with Robert Taylor in Flight Command (1940), Robert Young in H.M.Pulham Esq (1941), Van Heflin in Tennessee Johnson (1942), Ray Milland in The Uninvited (1944) and Alan Ladd in The Great Gatsby (1949). In 1946 she starred on Broadway in State Of The Union the Pulitzer Prize play. In 1960 she co-starred in The Facts of Life
with Bob Hope.

Ruth Hussey then was active in early television drama, focused much of her attention on family activities and in 1964 designed a family cabin in the mountain community of Lake Arrowhead, California. In 1977 she and her husband Bob moved from their Brentwood (a west Los Angeles neighborhood) family home to Rancho Carlsbad in Carlsbad, California. There they lived happily ever after.

Academy Award Nomination

1940 -The Philadelphia Story

Ruth Hussey's private life

In 1942 Ruth Hussey married talent agent and radio producer C. Robert (Bob) Longenecker, who was born and raised in Litiz, PA. They raised three children: Rob Longenecker, John Longenecker, and Mary Liz Hendrix. Her husband died in 2002 not long after celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.

Her son John Longenecker works as a cinematographer and film director. He won an Academy Award for producing a live action short film The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970).

Ruth Hussey Internet links

- official website
- Ruth Hussey - brief bio
Bob Longenecker - husband
Rob Longenecker - son
- son

Ruth Hussey photos

Ruth Hussey and Bob Longenecker were married in 1942

Bob Longenecker thought a round cabin would be interesting, so his wife Ruth Hussey who enjoyed drawing house plan sketches designed a 12-sided cabin on three levels. It was just 28 feet in diameter yet slept up to 11 guests. With a deck on the mid-level floor it looked just about the right size among the pine trees overlooking Lake Arrowhead in the distance. The weekend cabin built in 1964 worked out fine for the Longenecker family summer and winter for many years. Today it is renown in the mountain community for it's unique design.

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