Biography
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 A...
Known For
Complete Filmography
The Trouble with Spies
1987
as Mrs. Arkwright
George Trent, a British spy, has gone incommunicado in Ibiza. Appleton Porter (Donald Sutherland) is sent to find out what happened to Trent. Porter s...
The Ten-Year Lunch
1987
as Herself - Participant
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 grou...
Maxie
1985
as Mrs. Lavin
When Nick and Jan move into their new apartment in San Francisco, the batty landlady upstairs tells them about a girl who used to live there in the 20...
Delta Pi
1984
as Mugsy
A sorority house mother enters her girls in a mud-wrestling contest.
Voyage of the Rock Aliens
1984
as The Sheriff
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...
Don't Go to Sleep
1982
as Bernice
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.
Jimmy the Kid
1982
as Bernice
Gang of bumbling crooks kidnap a bratty little kid, find out they got more than they bargained for.
Night of 100 Stars
1982
as Self
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City ...
Any Which Way You Can
1980
as Ma Boggs
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 wh...
My Bodyguard
1980
as Gramma
Clifford Peach, an easygoing teenager, is finding less than easy to fit in at his new high school, where a tough-talking bully terrorizes his classmat...
Hardhat & Legs
1980
as Grandmother
A sex education teacher falls for a construction worker with a gambling problem.
Hardhat & Legs
1980
Screenplay
A sex education teacher falls for a construction worker with a gambling problem.
Scavenger Hunt
1979
as Arvilla Droll
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 te...
Boardwalk
1979
as Becky Rosen
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 ...
Every Which Way but Loose
1978
as Ma Boggs
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 ora...
Perfect Gentlemen
1978
as Ms. Cavagarno
Women whose husbands are incarcerated decide to band together to rob a hotel safe.
The Prince of Central Park
1977
as Mrs. Miller
A lonely widow who frequents Central Park becomes emotionally involved with two orphaned youngsters who have built an oasis for themselves there after...
Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby
1976
as Minnie Castevet
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 himsel...
The Great Houdinis
1976
as Cecilia Weiss
A biography of the renowned escape artist Harry Houdini, examining his fascination with the occult and his promise to his wife on her deathbed that he...
The Big Bus
1976
as Old Lady
The ultimate disaster film parody. A nuclear-powered bus is making its maiden non-stop trip from New York to Denver. The journey is plagued by disaste...
Isn't It Shocking?
1973
as Marge Savage
A small-town sheriff is confronted with the deaths of local senior citizens and strange goings-on in his town.
Harold and Maude
1971
as Maude
The young Harold lives in his own world of suicide-attempts and funeral visits to avoid the misery of his current family and home environment. Harold ...
Where’s Poppa?
1970
as Mrs. Hocheiser
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 ...
What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?
1969
as Mrs Dimmock
An aging widow hides a deadly secret which she will do anything to keep buried.
Rosemary's Baby
1968
as Minnie Castevet
A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the pur...
Rosie!
1967
Theatre Play
An eccentric Los Angeles dowager decides to fight back when her two greedy daughters attempt to have her declared legally insane.
Blithe Spirit
1966
as Madame Arcati
The play concerns the socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to condu...
Lord Love a Duck
1966
as Stella Bernard
From his prison cell, young Alan Musgrave relates his experiences of the previous year dedicated to fulfilling every whim of beautiful and self-absorb...
Inside Daisy Clover
1965
as The Dealer - Mrs. Clover
A girl on the road to stardom fights the dehumanizing effects of Hollywood life.
The Matchmaker
1954
as Mrs. Levi
Can the ever-resilient Mrs. Levi melt the heart of the eternally sour-tempered Mr. Vandergelder?
The Actress
1953
Writer
The true story of Ruth Gordon's early struggles on the road to stage stardom.
Pat and Mike
1952
Screenplay
Pat Pemberton is a brilliant athlete, except when her domineering fiancé is around. The ladies golf championship is in her reach until she gets fluste...
The Marrying Kind
1952
Writer
Florence and Chet Keefer have had a troublesome marriage. Whilst in the middle of a divorce hearing the judge encourages them to remember the good tim...
Adam's Rib
1949
Screenplay
A woman's attempted murder of her uncaring husband results in everyday quarrels in the lives of Adam and Amanda, a pair of happily married lawyers who...
A Double Life
1947
Screenplay
A Shakespearian actor starring as Othello opposite his wife finds the character's jealous rage taking over his mind off-stage.
Over 21
1945
Theatre Play
A woman screenwriter lives in a shabby bungalow in order to be near her husband, a 39-year-old newspaper editor who has just joined the army.
Action in the North Atlantic
1943
as Mrs. Sarah Jarvis
Merchant Marine sailors Joe Rossi (Humphrey Bogart) and Steve Jarvis (Raymond Massey) are charged with getting a supply vessel to Russian allies as pa...
Edge of Darkness
1943
as Anna Stensgard
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 ...
Two-Faced Woman
1941
as Ruth Ellis
A woman pretends to be her own twin sister to win back her straying husband.
Information Please Series 2, No. 2
1940
as Self - Guest Expert
This issue of RKO's Information Please series, based on the radio program featuring most of the same people, has Howard Lindsay, co-author and co-star...
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
1940
as Mrs. Ehrlich
True story of the doctor who considered it was not immoral to search for a drug that would cure syphilis.
Abe Lincoln in Illinois
1940
as Mary Todd Lincoln
Abe Lincoln in Illinois is a 1940 biographical film which tells the story of the life of Abraham Lincoln from his departure from Kentucky until his el...
The Whirl of Life
1915
as Dancer
The plot is a loose autobiographical interpretation of the life of Vernon and Irene Castle, interspersed among a typical melodrama of the period