Actress Ruth Hussey died this past April 19. She was 93.
Though never a top Hollywood star, Ruth Hussey was a reliable and welcome presence in numerous motion pictures of the 1940s and early 1950s. At times she was just decorative, but when given the chance, Hussey could wisecrack like the best of them — but without ever losing her cool, ladylike poise. She could easily have played the roles for which Myrna Loy became famous, but the problem was that they were both at the same studio, MGM, and the Myrna Loy parts went to Myrna Loy.
Among Ruth Hussey's most important films are The Philadelphia Story (1940), in which she almost lost James Stewart to Katharine Hepburn, and for which she received a best supporting actress Academy Award nomination; H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), as one of the two women in Robert Young's life (the other was Hedy Lamarr — and true, Lamarr was beautiful, but it was hard to believe that she could lure Young away from Ruth Hussey); The Uninvited (1944), with Ray Milland and Gail Russell, a highly entertaining supernatural tale; and Stars and Stripes Forever (1952), a biopic of John Philip Souza (Clifton Webb), in which Hussey played Souza's wife. In her last feature film, The Facts of Life (1960), she was Bob Hope's wife.
On Broadway, Hussey played the female lead in Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse's Pulitzer Prize-winning hit State of the Union (1945), a role that went to her Philadelphia Story co-star Katharine Hepburn when the play was transferred to the big screen in 1948. (Ralph Bellamy's part in the play was given to Spencer Tracy in the film version.)