Ruth Gloria Nelson (August 2, 1905 – September 12, 1992) was an American stage and film actress. She is known for her roles in films such as '' Wilson'', '' A Tree Grows in Brooklyn'', ''

Humoresque Humoresque (or Humoreske) is a genre of Romantic music characterized by pieces with fanciful humor in the sense of mood rather than wit. History The name refers to the German term ''Humoreske'', which was given from the 1800s (decade) onward to h ...

'', '' 3 Women'', ''

The Late Show The Late Show may refer to: Books * ''The Late Show'' (book), a 2017 book by Michael Connelly Film * ''The Late Show'' (film), a 1977 film * ''Late Show'', a 1999 German film by director Helmut Dietl Music * ''The Late Show'' (Eddie "Loc ...

'' and ''

Awakenings ''Awakenings'' is a 1990 American drama film directed by Penny Marshall. It is written by Steven Zaillian, who based his screenplay on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir ''Awakenings''. It tells the story of neurologist Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams ...

''. She was the wife of John Cromwell, with whom she acted on multiple occasions.

Early life

Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Nelson was the daughter of Sanford Leroy Nelson and vaudeville actress Eva Mudge. She attended Immaculate Heart Convent School in Los Angeles, studying first with

Daniel Frohman Daniel Frohman (August 22, 1851 – December 26, 1940) was an American theatrical producer and manager, and an early film producer. Biography Frohman was born to a Jewish family in Sandusky, Ohio. His parents were Henry (1826–1899) and Ba ...

and then with

Richard Boleslawski Richard Boleslawski (born Bolesław Ryszard Srzednicki; February 4, 1889 – January 17, 1937) was a Polish theatre and film director, actor and teacher of acting. Biography Richard Boleslawski was born Bolesław Ryszard Srzednicki on February ...

at the

American Laboratory Theatre The American Laboratory Theatre was an American drama school and theatrical company located in New York City that existed during the 1920s and 1930s. It was a publicly subsidized, student-subscription organization that held fund-raising campaign ...

in New York City during the early 1920s.

Career

Nelson made her stage debut in New York on April 4, 1928 at the Laboratory Theatre under Boleslawski's direction, portraying the title character in

Jean-Jacques Bernard Jean-Jacques Bernard (30 July 1888 – 14 September 1972) was a French playwright and the chief representative of what became known as ''l’école du silence'' or, as some critics called it, the ''art of the unexpressed'', in which the dialogue doe ...

's ''Martine''. Over the next two seasons, Nelson made two more appearances—in Checkhov's ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' ( rus, Ча́йка, r=Cháyka, links=no) is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatises t ...

'' and Vladimir Kirshon's ''Red Rust''—prior to becoming, in 1931, a charter member of the newly formed theatre collective, The Group Theatre, with whom she remained throughout its run from 1931 to 1941, receiving particular praise for her performance as the chief striker's wife in

Clifford Odets Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withdra ...

' play, ''

Waiting for Lefty ''Waiting for Lefty'' is a 1935 play by the American playwright Clifford Odets; it was his first play to be produced. Consisting of a series of related vignettes, the entire play is framed by a meeting of cab drivers who are planning a labor ...

''. After the Group Theatre ended in 1941, Nelson relocated to Hollywood. Throughout the 1940s, she made a number of movies for

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

and other Hollywood studios. One of these was '' A Tree Grows in Brooklyn'' (1945), directed by fellow Group Theatre member

Elia Kazan Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...

. She also appeared in Kazan's film ''

The Sea of Grass ''The Sea of Grass'' is a 1936 novel by Conrad Richter. It is set in New Mexico in the late 19th century, and concerns the clash between rich ranchers, whose cattle run freely on government-owned land, a prairie "sea of grass", and the homestead ...

'' in 1947. As her career began to take off, she was compelled to put things on hold when her husband, the director John Cromwell, a leading Roosevelt Democrat in the film industry, was falsely accused of

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

by actor Adolphe Menjou in front of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee hearings on Hollywood in 1951 and his career went on to be blacklisted. While offered a New York stage role as a wife in what turned out to be ''

Death of a Salesman ''Death of a Salesman'' is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a montag ...

'', Nelson turned it down as she did most acting offers at this time to stay in Los Angeles and support Cromwell. Nelson had not made a Hollywood film for nearly 30 years when she appeared with her husband in 1977's '' 3 Women'', directed by

Robert Altman Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New H ...

, and ''

'', a film

Robert Benton Robert Douglas Benton (born September 29, 1932) is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the writer and director of the film ''Kramer vs. Kramer'', for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Adapted S ...

wrote and directed that Altman produced. The following year, she and Cromwell played husband and wife as the aged patriarchal grandparents in '' A Wedding'', a comedy directed by Altman. In 1980, stepson

James Cromwell James Oliver Cromwell (born January 27, 1940) is an American actor and activist. Some of his best-known films include ''Babe'' (1995), '' Star Trek: First Contact'' (1996), ''L.A. Confidential'' (1997), '' The Green Mile'' (1999), ''The Queen'' ...

appeared with Nelson in

John Korty John Korty (June 22, 1936 – March 9, 2022) was an American film director and animator, best known for the television film '' The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman'' and the documentary '' Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen ...

's made-for-TV movie ''

A Christmas Without Snow ''A Christmas Without Snow'' is a 1980 American made-for-television drama film directed by John Korty and starring Michael Learned and John Houseman. The film was broadcast on CBS on December 9, 1980. Plot A divorcee, Zoe Jensen (Michael Learned ...

''; two years later, they appeared onstage together in the

Public Theater The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: An American Li ...

's production of

Botho Strauss Botho Strauß (; born 2 December 1944) is a German playwright, novelist and essayist. Biography Botho Strauß's father was a chemist. After finishing his secondary education, Strauß studied German, History of the Theatre and Sociology in Colo ...

's ''Three Acts of Recognition'', staged by

Richard Foreman Richard Foreman (born June 10, 1937 in New York City) is an American avant-garde playwright and the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater. Achievements and awards Foreman has written, directed and designed over fifty of his own plays, b ...

. Moreover, as early as 1968, Nelson had performed onstage under her stepson's direction, giving a well-received performance as Mary Tyrone in a regional production of

O'Neill The O'Neill dynasty (Irish: ''Ó Néill'') are a lineage of Irish Gaelic origin, that held prominent positions and titles in Ireland and elsewhere. As kings of Cenél nEógain, they were historically the most prominent family of the Northern ...

's ''Long Day's Journey Into Night''; reprising the role she'd first played on Broadway in 1957, initially as

Florence Eldridge Florence Eldridge (born Florence McKechnie, September 5, 1901 – August 1, 1988) was an American actress. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play in 1957 for her performance in '' Long Day's Journey into Night''. E ...

's understudy, and then as the permanent replacement for an ailing

Fay Bainter Fay Okell Bainter (December 7, 1893 – April 16, 1968) was an American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for ''Jezebel'' (1938) and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Early life Bainter wa ...

during the show's national tour. Both critic

Claudia Cassidy Claudia Cassidy (1899 – July 21, 1996), was an influential, 20th-century American performing arts critic. She was a long-time critic for the ''Chicago Tribune.'' Starting in 1925 she was music and drama critic for The Journal of Commerce. Sh ...

and director—and Group Theatre co-founder— Robert Lewis judged Nelson's Mary Tyrone the finest they'd ever seen. Reviewing the 1966 revival of

Thornton Wilder Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and ''The Skin of Our Teeth'' — a ...

's ''

The Skin of Our Teeth ''The Skin of Our Teeth'' is a play by Thornton Wilder that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on October 15, 1942, at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway on November 18, 194 ...

'' staged by Douglas Campbell at Minnesota's

Guthrie Theatre The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions between Sir Tyrone Gut ...

, critic

Stanley Kauffmann Stanley Kauffmann (April 24, 1916 – October 9, 2013) was an American writer, editor, and critic of film and theater. Career Kauffmann started with ''The New Republic'' in 1958 and contributed film criticism to that magazine for the next fifty ...

writes: Nelson's final feature film appearance was in 1990's ''

''; her performance—as the mother of a hospital patient played by

Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...

(a role which—in a widely disseminated contemporaneous story published by ''Premiere Magazine''—was erroneously reported as having gone to an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

-flaunting

Shelley Winters Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American actress whose career spanned seven decades. She appeared in numerous films. She won Academy Awards for ''The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959) and ''A Patch o ...

)—was singled out for praise by several critics, including the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

's''

Julie Salamon Julie Salamon (born July 10, 1953) is an American author and journalist, who has been a film and television critic for the ''Wall Street Journal'' and the ''New York Times''. She is the author of twelve books, for adults and children. In 2021, she ...

: "Nelson achieves a wrenching beauty that stands out even among these exceptional actors doing exceptional things." In her 2012 memoir, the film's director,

Penny Marshall Carole Penny MarshallBorn Carole Penny Marshall in 1943, as per ''My Mother Was Nuts, a Memoir'', p. 10; . Copyright 2012 (October 15, 1943 – December 17, 2018) was an American actress, director and producer. She is known for her role as ...

, recalls:

Personal life

Nelson was married twice. She wed actor

William Challee William John Challee (April 6, 1904 – March 11, 1989) was an American actor. Biography Challee was born in Chicago and was a student at Lake View High School. Challee appeared on Broadway by 1926 and by 1931 in early Group Theatre produc ...

on August 2, 1931. They divorced in 1937. In 1947, Nelson married actor/director John Cromwell, whom she had first met two years before on the set of '' Anna and the King of Siam''.Sullivan, Dan (May 31, 1964)
"Nun Launches a Star for Guthrie Theater"
''Minneapolis Tribune''. p. 1 Ent.. Retrieved September 6, 2022. The marriage lasted 32 years until Cromwell's death in 1979 from a

pulmonary embolism Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an pulmonary artery, artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include dyspnea, shortness of breath, chest pain p ...

. She was the stepmother of actor

. Nelson died on September 12, 1992 at her home in New York City from cancer complicated by a stroke and pneumonia.

Filmography

Film

Television

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Ruth 1905 births 1992 deaths Actresses from Michigan American film actresses American stage actresses People from Saginaw, Michigan Deaths from cancer in New York (state) 20th-century American actresses Alumni of Immaculate Heart High School, Los Angeles