Ruth Gilbert (May 8, 1912 – October 12, 1993) was an American actress, best known for her role as

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

in the first sound version of ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...

'' in 1931, and as Max in ''

The Milton Berle Show ''Texaco Star Theater'' was an American comedy-variety show, broadcast on radio from 1938 to 1949 and telecast from 1948 to 1956. It was one of the first successful examples of American television broadcasting, remembered as the show that gave Mi ...

''.

Career

A graduate of the

American Academy of Dramatic Arts The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a private performing arts conservatory with two locations, one in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related art ...

, Gilbert's role as Alice in the 1931 film ''

'' was her first major role. The film was made by Metropolitan Studios, an independent film company from

Fort Lee, New Jersey Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop the Palisades. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 40,191. As of the 2010 U.S. census, th ...

.The first talking film of 'Alice In Wonderland' was shot in Fort Lee , NJ.com
/ref> They made it for educational purposes in readiness for the 100th anniversary of

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

's birth the following year Gilbert's success in ''Alice in Wonderland'' gained her national recognition and this led to her first

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

role in '' Girls in Uniform'' in 1932, a play inspired by the German film ''

Mädchen in Uniform ' ("Girls in Uniform") is a 1931 German romantic drama film based on the play ' (''Yesterday and Today'') by Christa Winsloe and directed by Leontine Sagan with artistic direction from Carl Froelich, who also funded the film. Winsloe also wrote ...

'', which was in turn based upon the

Christa Winsloe Christa Winsloe (23 December 1888 – 10 June 1944), formerly Baroness Christa von Hatvany-Deutsch, was a German-Hungarian novelist, playwright and sculptor, best known for her play ''Gestern und heute'' (known under several titles, see below), ...

novel and play.Ruth Gilbert; TV, Stage Actress - Los Angeles Times
/ref> Her role as Alice also got Gilbert noticed by

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

who cast her in the role of Muriel in the

Theatre Guild The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the W ...

production of ''

Ah, Wilderness! ''Ah, Wilderness!'' is a comedy by American playwright Eugene O'Neill that premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on October 2, 1933. It differs from a typical O'Neill play in its happy ending for the central character, and depiction of a ...

'', which also starred

George M. Cohan George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer. Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudev ...

. She continued to work steadily on Broadway and as a radio actress throughout the 1930s and 1940s. During this period, she appeared as Sadie in

John Howard Lawson John Howard Lawson (September 25, 1894 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer, specializing in plays and screenplays. After starting with plays for theaters in New York City, he worked in Hollywood on writing for films. He was the first pres ...

's ''Processional'' at the

Federal Theatre Project The Federal Theatre Project (FTP; 1935–1939) was a theatre program established during the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the United ...

in 1937.Ruth Gilbert Dead; Actress, 71, Starred On Berle's TV Show - New York Times
/ref> She was also a member of the Group Theatre for two years, and in 1946 O'Neill cast her as Pearl in his play ''

The Iceman Cometh ''The Iceman Cometh'' is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1946, the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 9, 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling, where it ran for 136 perfo ...

''. On radio, she appeared in

Norman Corwin Norman Lewis Corwin (May 3, 1910 – October 18, 2011) was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing. His earliest and biggest successes were in the writing and directing of radio drama during the ...

's '' Columbia Presents Corwin''. In 1949, Gilbert replaced

Lee Grant Lee Grant (born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal; October 31, during the mid-1920s) is an American actress, documentarian, and director. She made her film debut in 1951 as a young shoplifter in William Wyler's ''Detective Story'', co-starring Kirk Dougl ...

as the shoplifter in the Broadway run of ''

Detective Story Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as specu ...

''. That same year, she also appeared in the ''

NBC Presents ''NBC Presents'' is a live merican anthology series produced by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). A total of thirty-six episodes aired on NBC from January 3, 1949 to October 10, 1949. Guest stars included Cloris Leachman, John Forsythe, To ...

'' episode entitled, "The Florist Shop", and she became the star of her own short lived TV series, ''

Ruthie on the Telephone ''Ruthie on the Telephone'' is an American Comedy television, comedy television series that was broadcast on the CBS Television network at 7:55pm ET from August 7 to November 5, 1949. The show was written by Goodman Ace and sponsored by Phillip M ...

'', which co-starred

Phillip Reed Phillip Reed (born Milton LeRoy; March 25, 1908 – December 7, 1996) was an American actor. He played Steve Wilson in a series of four films (1947–1948) based on the ''Big Town'' radio series. Early years Reed was a star athlete at Eras ...

.Ruth Gilbert – IMDb
/ref> The latter series was notable in that it was a prime time show in which each episode was only five minutes long. Gilbert continued to work well into the 1950s. From 1953 to 1955, she played Max, the lovesick, scatterbrained secretary, in ten episodes of ''

''. Her often repeated line in the show, "Let's not fight this, Mil-l-ton, it's bigger than both of us," became her catchphrase However, midway through her tenure on the show, she was fired for becoming pregnant. Nevertheless, the matter was ultimately resolved by arbitration and she returned to the program after the birth of her daughter. Gilbert's career reached its zenith in the 1950s and thereafter began to slow down. However, a year before her death, she made one last comeback in a cameo as Mrs. Landesman in the film '' Me, Myself and I'' in 1992.

Death

Gilbert died on October 12, 1993 at a hospice in Calvary Hospital in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

of brain cancer. Her death was mistakenly originally reported as happening on October 13, 1993 at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/15/obituaries/ruth-gilbert-dead-actress-71-starred-on-berle-s-tv-show.html The archived New York Times obituary has a correction at the bottom of the page.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Ruth 1912 births 1993 deaths Actresses from New York City American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni American film actresses American radio actresses American stage actresses American television actresses Deaths from brain cancer in the United States 20th-century American actresses Federal Theatre Project people