An MGM film star of the late 1930s
and early 40s, RUTH HUSSEY played a number of leads, and celebrated supporting
roles, usually as a sophisticated, knowing women or vixen. Ruth Hussey
played the classic role of the cynical photographer in "The Philadelphia
Story" (1940), directed by George Cukor, for which she was nominated for
an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress, with Katherine Hepburn, James Stewart
and Cary Grant.Ruth Carol Hussey grew up in Providence, Rhode
Island, with her family --
father George R. Hussey, mother Julia Agnes Corbett Hussey from Beverly,
Massachusetts, brother Robert Thurston and sister Betty Loraine.
Ruth Hussey attended Pembroke College of Brown
University, and took post graduate courses at the University of Michigan
where she continued to study acting. She played two seasons of summer stock
in Michigan.
Back in Providence she worked first as a fashion
commentator on radio, and then sought work as an actress at a local theater.
She was told that all the roles were cast out of New York City. So, she
decided to try New York, was signed by a theatrical talent agent on her
first day in town, who immediately landed her a role in a play opening
at the same Providence theater she had visited the week before.
Soon Ruth Hussey moved to New York City, worked
as a Powers model, and sought work as an actress. After a number of roles
in New York and in stock companies, she was cast in a touring company of
"Dead End" that traveled to California, at the end of the run, and played
at the grand Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles where MGM talent scout Billy
Grady sent a note back stage after the first act asking if Miss Hussey
would be willing to make a screen test at the studio.
MGM signed Hussey to a five year contract in
1937 -- later extended through eight years. Her first film role was in
"The Big City" (1937), a Spencer Tracy vehicle in which Hussey had a bit
part. But that same year, she was assigned the role of the adult abandoned
daughter in the remake of "Madame X." Hussey was put into "Judge Hardy's
Children" (1938), in a small role, but no rival to Andy's lady-love Polly
Benedict. 1939 brought roles in such classics as "Honolulu" and "The Women."
In 1940 she played opposite Spencer Tracy and Robert Young in "Northwest
Passage," and then was cast as Elizabeth Imbrie, the photographer attached
professionally to a scandal mongering reporter (James Stewart), in "The
Philadelphia Story (1940)."
Leading roles soon followed. She starred opposite
Melvyn Douglas in the marital strife drama "Our Wife" (1941). Hussey also
began to work for other studios on loan out from MGM. She played wife to
Van Heflin's "Tennessee Johnson" (1943), a biopic of the 17th US President,
and was the female doctor to John Carroll in "Bedside Manner" (1945).
"State of the Union" (1945).
Then, back to New York City where Hussey starred
in the Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway stage hit "State of the Union" (1945).
Hussey returned to films in 1948 with "I, Jane
Doe," in which she played an attorney defending a woman accused of murdering
her husband. She played Jordan Baker, Daisy Buchanan's friend, in the 1949
remake of "The Great Gatsby," with Alan Ladd, and was wife to Clifton Webb's
John Philip Sousa in "Stars and Stripes Forever" (1952). She again played
a wife, this time to Bob Hope, in her last feature movie "Facts of Life"
(1960).
Hussey also enjoyed working with Dean Martin
and Jerry Lewis in "That's
My Boy" (1951).
Television
Hussey did many guest appearances on the classic
live broadcast TV anthology shows in the 50s, beginning with "The Magnificent
Ambersons" -- a 1950 episode of ABC's "Pulitzer Prize Playhouse." She played
wife to Jack Benny in a 1955 "Shower of Stars" entitled "Time Out for
Ginger." By the early 60s she devoted her time to her husband, talent agent
Robert Longenecker, and raising her three children. Later, Robert Young,
her old MGM co-star, lured her back to TV as a guest star on a 1972 episode
of his ABC series "Marcus Welby, M.D." and also as his love interest in
the TV-movie "My Darling Daughters' Anniversary" (ABC, 1973).
In the year 2002, Ruth Hussey is doing fine
and lives with her husband Bob Longenecker in southern California. There
have three children and four grand children, and one great grandson. They
recently moved to Thousand Oaks, California -- but they continue to own
their Rancho Carlsbad,
California home -- since 1977 -- located in North San Diego County, not
far from the Pala Mission where they were married on August 9, 1942.
Ruth and Bob enjoy visits with their children
and grandchildren, watching classic films on AMC and Turner Classic Movies,
and watching music videos that their son John works on, like Roy Lee Scott's
country music cd video "The
Flying Cowboy."
Ontario Street | Providence, RI
A recent visit by Ruth Hussey
relatives at her childhood home in Providence, RI. There is a granddaughter,
a daughter, a niece or two and a couple of grand nieces. Pretty neat. The
owner now keeps the home all fixed up, and the family is very grateful.
