Ruth Gillette (1906-94) started appearing in musical comedies straight after school, making her Broadway debut in the Shubert Brothers’ 1925 production of Gay Paree.
Gillette’s first film was MGM’s Stage Mother. She was uncredited and named in documentation only as ‘Blonde’, even though she headlines in three important scenes. She was also in The Great Ziegfeld, again uncredited, playing Lillian Russell (whom she also portrayed in David Harum [1934] and The Gentleman from Louisiana [1936]). And she was an earthquake survivor in San Francisco.
Gillette continued acting in films, television and on stage until the age of 80. In 1950, she played Gloria Grahame’s masseuse friend in In a Lonely Place. She later took over from Reta Shaw the role of Mabel in the original Broadway production of The Pajama Game.
