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Ruth Ford

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For other people named Ruth Ford, see Ruth Ford (disambiguation).

Ruth Ford
Ford photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1947
Born(1911-07-07)July 7, 1911
Brookhaven, Mississippi, U.S.
DiedAugust 12, 2009(2009-08-12) (aged 98)
New York City, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Mississippi
Occupation(s)Actress, model
Years active1938–1985
Spouse(s)Peter van Eyck
(m. 1940; div. 19??)
​
​
(m. 1952; died 1965)​
RelativesCharles Henri Ford (brother)

Ruth Ford (July 7, 1911 – August 12, 2009) was an American actress and model. Her brother was the bohemian surrealist Charles Henri Ford. Their parents owned or managed hotels in the American South, and the family regularly moved.

Life and career

Born in Brookhaven, Mississippi, Ford was the daughter of Charles and Gertrude Cato Ford, who owned hotels in four towns in the South.[1] She was a graduate of the University of Mississippi.[2] Writer and artist Charles Henri Ford was her brother.[3]

As a model, Ford posed for photographers Cecil Beaton, Man Ray, and Carl Van Vechten, among others.[1]

She married actor Peter Van Eyck in 1940, but the marriage was unsuccessful.[1] Van Eyck was the father of her daughter, Shelley, who was born in 1941. Before Ford's trip to Hollywood, she was a member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre, and appeared in his film Too Much Johnson (1938), which was considered lost until the rediscovery of footage in 2013.[4] Welles's assistance helped her to land contracts with Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. studios.[citation needed]

Ford's Broadway debut was in The Shoemaker's Holiday (1938). Among her other Broadway performances, she starred in Poor Murderer (1976).[5]

Ford married film star Zachary Scott, and they remained together until Scott's death in 1965. Scott adopted Shelley, who took the name Shelley Scott. Zachary Scott reportedly died penniless except for a $100,000 insurance policy he left for his widow. Later, in the 1970s, she was involved in a relationship with the much younger manwriter Dotson Rader.[6]

Ford, writing out Christmas cards by her courtyard window, was the first person to call 911 to report shots fired at The Dakota apartments after what turned out to be the murder of John Lennon.[citation needed]

Ford died in New York City.[citation needed]

Posthumous

In May 2010 it was reported, originally in The Wall Street Journal, that Ford's estate had been worth $8.4 million, almost all of it in the value of two apartments she owned in the apartment building The Dakota in Manhattan, where she died at the age of 98 in 2009. One of the apartments had belonged to her brother Charles, who predeceased her. She bequeathed the apartments to her cook/butler, Indra Tamang, a Nepalese-American whom Charles Henri Ford had brought to New York. Ford's daughter and grandchildren reportedly were disinherited.[7][8] Tamang sold the larger of Ford's Dakota apartments in 2011 for less than $4.5 million.[9]

Partial filmography

References

  1. ^ a b c Hevesi, Dennis (August 14, 2009). "Ruth Ford, 98, Film and Stage Actress". The New York Times. p. B 13. Retrieved October 2, 2020 – via ProQuest.
  2. ^ "Eudora Welty to open Faulkner conference". The Clarksdale Press Register. Mississippi, Clarksdale. July 28, 1987. p. 3. Retrieved July 13, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Ruth Ford". Films of the Golden Age (103): 48–49. Winter 2020.
  4. ^ Kehr, Dave (August 7, 2013), "Early Film by Orson Welles Is Rediscovered", New York Times
  5. ^ "Ruth Ford". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  6. ^ "Ruth Ford & Dotson Rader: A December Mistress-Muse to May". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved March 24, 2019.
  7. ^ "Upper West Side Butler Inherits Two Apartments in the Dakota". DNAinfo New York. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2019.
  8. ^ Barbanel, Josh (May 10, 2010). "The Butler Did It—at the Dakota". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  9. ^ Barbanel, Josh (February 2, 2011). "Butler Did It: Sells Dakota Co-op". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
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