{{short description|American actress}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = Ruth Findlay | image = Ruth Findly 02.JPG | image_size = 225px | alt = | caption = Findlay in ''Munsey's Magazine,'' 1915 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1896|9|19}} | birth_place = Jersey City, New Jersey, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1949|07|13|1896|9|19}} | death_place = New York City, New York, US | other_names = | spouse = Donald W. Lamb (married 1927–1949) | occupation = Actress | years_active = }}
'''Ruth Findlay''' (September{{nbsp}}19, 1896{{snd}}July{{nbsp}}13, 1949) was an American stage actress active over the early decades of the 20th century.
She is not to be confused with the later film actress Ruth Findlay (1917–1976).
==Biography== [[File:Prince-and-Pauper-Faversham-Findlay.jpg|thumb|upright|left|William Faversham and Ruth Findlay in the Broadway production of ''The Prince and the Pauper'' (1920)]] Findlay was born on September 19, 1896, in The Heights, a neighborhood of Jersey City, New Jersey. Her parents were John and Margaret Findlay,<ref name="ancestry1924">[http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View&r=an&dbid=1174&iid=USM1490_2543-0197&fn=Ruth&ln=Findlay&st=r&ssrc=&pid=255182 US Passport Application (Ruth Findlay) 29 May 1924 (Ancestry.com scan)]</ref><ref name="Munsey">''Munsey's Magazine'', Volume 53, October 1914{{snd}}January 1915, p. 551</ref> both originally from Scotland. Her father, a character actor known for his portrayal of butlers and priests,<ref name="Munsey"/> was born in Glasgow with the surname Macpherson.<ref name="ancestry1924"/><ref name=NYTimes>{{cite news |date=July 14, 1949 |title=Ruth Findlay, 45, Actress on Stage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1949/07/14/archives/-uthindy-51-actress-on-stagei-leading-lady-to-faversham-and-lionel-.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=2018-03-07 }}</ref>
Findlay was raised in New York City, where she attended private schools and first appeared on stage at around the age of 12 in ''Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch'' and later ''Baby Mine'' at Daly’s Theatre.<ref name="autogenerated392">''The Moving Picture World'', Volume 27, 1916, p. 392</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=7163 |title=Baby Mine |publisher=Internet Broadway Database |access-date=2018-03-08 }}</ref> Her first major role came a few years later in a road production of ''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'' and in 1917 she found success playing Marguerite in ''A Successful Calamity'' at Broadway’s Booth Theatre.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=8293 |title=A Successful Calamity |publisher=Internet Broadway Database |access-date=2018-03-08 }}</ref>
In November 1920 the diminutive {{convert|5|ft|2|in|cm|adj=on}} actress<ref name="ancestry1924"/> began a seven-month run at the Booth Theatre playing the dual roles of Tom Canty and Prince Edward in Amélie Rives' stage adaptation of Mark Twain's ''The Prince and the Pauper''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=8340 |title=The Prince and the Pauper |publisher=Internet Broadway Database |access-date=2018-03-08 }}</ref>
Findlay’s last Broadway performances were playing Deborah Hawks in the 1941 production of ''The Land Is Bright'' at the Music Box Theatre.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=1122 |title=The Land Is Bright |publisher=Internet Broadway Database |access-date=2018-03-08 }}</ref>
During the early years of her acting career Findlay appeared in at least six silent films, all produced before 1920.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/persondetails/136803 |title=Ruth Findlay |website=AFI Catalog of Feature Films |publisher=American Film Institute |access-date=2018-03-08 }}</ref> Her most notable film performance may have been as Dora Baxter in ''The Salamander'' (1916), a film based on the 1913 novel by Owen Johnson.<ref name="autogenerated392"/><ref>American film cycles: the silent era By Larry Langman pg. 140</ref> Over her career, she worked with William Gillette, William Farnum, Eugene O'Brien, Lionel Barrymore and William Faversham.<ref name=NYTimes/>
Findlay left the stage within a year or so of her marriage to investment banker Donald W. Lamb in 1927. In 1941 she came out of retirement to appear in ''The Land Is Bright'', a play written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber.<ref name=NYTimes/>
Ruth Findlay Lamb died in New York City on July 13, 1949. She was survived by her husband, three sisters and a brother.<ref name=NYTimes/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Ruth Findlay}} * {{IBDB name | id= 40501 }} * {{IMDb name | 1187901 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Findlay, Ruth}} Category:1896 births Category:1949 deaths Category:American stage actresses Category:American silent film actresses Category:20th-century American actresses Category:Actresses from Jersey City, New Jersey