Ruth Warrick
Ruth Warrick, Charles Foster Kane’s wife in Orson Welles‘ 1941 classic Citizen Kane, died today of complications from pneumonia. She was 89.
Also in 1941, Warrick was Douglas Fairbanks, Jr’s leading lady in the period adventure The Corsican Brothers, but despite an auspicious beginning her film career didn’t go very far.
In the following years, Warrick (born in St. Joseph, Missouri, on June 29, 1915) was cast in supporting roles in major productions or in leads in B fare, usually playing the hero’s or the second male lead’s wife. Among the most important of those were Norman Foster and (an uncredited) Orson Welles’ Journey into Fear (1942), in which she plays hero Joseph Cotten’s wife — though the chief female role went to Dolores del Rio; the all-star pro-British Forever and Day (1943); and Disney’s part-animated feature Song of the South (1947).
Also, Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944), as Edward G. Robinson’s wife; the B-biopic The Iron Major (1944), as the wife of football coach turned war veteran Francis Cavanaugh (played by Pat O’Brien); Otto Preminger’s romantic drama Daisy Kenyon (1947), starring Joan Crawford, Henry Fonda, and Dana Andrews (Warrick played Andrews’ wife); and the musical Let’s Dance (1950), supporting Fred Astaire and Betty Hutton.
In the early 1950s, Warrick began working mostly on television. She eventually became a household name thanks to the long-running soap opera All My Children, in which she played the sophisticated Phoebe Tyler. For that role, Warrick received two Daytime Emmy nominations, in addition to a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. (Also, in 1967 she was nominated for a prime-time Emmy for a supporting appearance in the series Peyton Place.)
According to the IMDb, Warrick’s last film role was in Richard Friedman’s 1984 low-budget crime drama Death Mask, starring former 1940s Goldwyn star Farley Granger.
When not acting, Warrick was an active supporter of arts programs.
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Tags: All My Children, Citizen Kane, Classic Movies, Journey into Fear, Mr. Winkle Goes to War, Orson Welles, Peyton Place, Ruth Warrick, Song of the South, The Corsican Brothers
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It’s funny. I remember Ruth Warrick on TV but I had no idea she’d been a movie star.
A Grand Lady. Ruth Warrick we miss you!