Ruth Warrick: Movies & Box Office

Ruth Elizabeth Warrick was born on June 29, 1916 in Saint Joseph, Missouri, the daughter of Frederick Roswell Warrick and Annie Louise Scott. As a teenager she won a statewide essay contest and was crowned Miss Jubilesta, which earned her a paid ambassadorial trip to New York City where she launched a career as a radio singer and met her first husband, Erik Rolf. Her striking looks and clear voice caught the attention of a young Orson Welles, who cast her as Emily Monroe Norton in the 1941 classic Citizen Kane, a role that introduced her to Hollywood and earned her the nickname “the lady who could play a lady.” While filming, she was pregnant with her first child, a circumstance that kept her from appearing in The Magnificent Ambersons but did not halt her momentum; she later returned to work with Welles on Journey into Fear (1943) and performed in several other films such as The Corsican Brothers and Song of the South. After World War II, her film appearances became less frequent, prompting a shift toward the burgeoning medium of television and stage work. During the 1950s she appeared on Broadway’s Take Me Along and became a familiar face on daytime dramas, first as Janet Johnson on The Guiding Light and then as Edith Hughes on As the World Turns, earning an Emmy nomination for her nuanced portrayals. In 1970 she secured the role that would define her legacy: the imperious yet evolving matriarch Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on All My Children. Over three and a half decades she infused Phoebe with both aristocratic snobbery and unexpected humor, drawing numerous Daytime Emmy nominations and a Lifetime Achievement award in 2004. Beyond acting, Warrick was an outspoken activist, publishing a protest song about the Kent State tragedy, writing an autobiography, and serving as a Democratic Party advocate on labor and education issues under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Soapy Award, and continued to champion civil‑rights causes until her death from pneumonia complications on January 15, 2005 in New York City.