Ruth Taylor (1905-1984) was an American silent film and early talkie actress of the late 1920s. The vivacious blond Mack Sennett comedienne nabbed the most sought-after role in 1928, Lorelei Lee in the silent film version of Anita Loos'Gentleman Prefer Blondes. Her son was the writer, comic, and actor Buck Henry.
![Ruth Taylor]()
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 611. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
![Ruth Taylor]()
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3388/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Ruth Alice Taylor was born in 1905 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her parents were Norman and Ivah (Bates) Taylor. She was only two years old when her parents decided to move to Portland, Oregon.
She graduated from the University of Oregon, where she discovered amateur theatre. In 1924, at the age of nineteen, Ruth persuaded her mother to take her to Hollywood. There the teenager spent a year working as an extra at Universal Studios.
Responding to an advertisement, the blonde, blue-eyed girl went to a casting call where she was selected by Mack Sennett out of 200 girls to play a blonde in the Harry Langdon comedy Lucky Stars (Harry Edwards, 1925).
Elizabeth Ann at IMDb: "In 1925 she signed a two-year contract with Mack Sennett and became one of his bathing beauties. With her perky smile and blonde spit curls Ruth quickly became one of Sennett's most popular actresses. She had supporting roles in several comedies including the short A Yankee Doodle Duke (Charles Lamont, 1926) and The Pride Of Pikeville (Charles Lamont, 1927) starring Ben Turpin. Ruth was nicknamed "The Little Girl With A Big Personality"."
She also appeared in such Sennett comedies as Lucky Stars with Harry Langdon and the Puppy Love series with Eddy Cline. For two years, she acted alongside Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, Alice Day, Vernon Dent, Ralph Graves, Raymond McKee, Eddie Quillan and Ben Turpin in both leading and supporting roles.
![Ruth Taylor]()
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2991/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
When her two-year contract with Mack Sennett came to an end, she went through a period of uncertainty during which, having gone freelance in the hope of playing great characters, she was turned down for all her castings. Finally, in August 1927, she unexpectedly signed with the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation.
She played the role of blue-eyed, gold-digging Lorelei Lee opposite Alice White as Dorothy Shaw and Ford Sterling as Gus Eisman in the silent film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Malcolm St. Clair, 1928), co-written by Anita Loos based on her 1925 novel.
Her diary reveals that at this time, John Emerson, casting director and co-writer, and director Malcolm St Clair retained her after interviewing two hundred actresses and conducting as many screen tests. "All the blonde actresses of Hollywood were there", she wrote.
Anita Loos, the screenwriter and author of the novel of the same name for which they were looking for the ideal actress to play the main character, also chose Ruth Taylor, telling her at a press conference, in the form of a joke, "Your screen test was the worst, so we're choosing you."
Having become the role of the year, coveted by so many famous actresses, the "chosen one" received congratulations from all sides and went from press conference to photo shoot to photo shoot. Responding to a poll on the best actress for the role, fans sent Paramount Pictures nearly 14,000 letters supporting Ruth Taylor's candidacy. They each received a photo of the actress in return. It was the largest mailing ever recorded by Hollywood for an actress.
![Ruth Taylor]()
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3802/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
That same year, following the success of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ruth Taylor starred in Just Married (Frank R. Strayer, 1929), produced by B. P. Schulberg. It featured a new comedy couple, played by Ruth Taylor and James Hall.
Along with Lupe Vélez, Lina Basquette and Sue Carol, she was a member of the 1928 WAMPAS Baby Stars class.
Ruth Taylor acted in her first talkie A Hint to Brides (Leslie Pearce, 1929) for the Christie Film Company. For Paramount Studios she starred in The College Coquette (George Archainbaud, 1929) with William Collier Jr., and for Columbia Pictures Corporation in This Thing Called Love (Paul L. Stein, 1929) with Edmund Lowe and Constance Bennett.
The next year, she played for Pathé Exchange Incorporated in the short comedy Scrappily Married (Leslie Pearce, 1930) with Bert Roach. In 1930, she married retired USAF Brigadier General and New York stockbroker Paul Steinberg Zuckerman. He had served in the Lafayette Escadrille during World War I and as a senior officer in World War II. She decided to quit making films and became a housewife.
Ruth and Paul lived in Palm Springs and were happily married until he died in 1965. The couple had a son Henry Zuckerman aka Buck Henry. At age 16, he picked up his Equity card in 1946 for a role in the long-running comedy, Life With Father. Later he became the successful screenwriter behind such hits as The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967). Ruth Taylor died in Palm Springs in 1984 at the age of 79. She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.
![Tim McCoy and Ruth Taylor]()
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5356/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures. Tim McCoy and Ruth Taylor.
Sources: Elizabeth Ann (IMDb), Find A Grave, Wikipedia (French, Spanish and English) and IMDb.
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 611. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3388/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
The little girl with a big personality
Ruth Alice Taylor was born in 1905 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her parents were Norman and Ivah (Bates) Taylor. She was only two years old when her parents decided to move to Portland, Oregon.
She graduated from the University of Oregon, where she discovered amateur theatre. In 1924, at the age of nineteen, Ruth persuaded her mother to take her to Hollywood. There the teenager spent a year working as an extra at Universal Studios.
Responding to an advertisement, the blonde, blue-eyed girl went to a casting call where she was selected by Mack Sennett out of 200 girls to play a blonde in the Harry Langdon comedy Lucky Stars (Harry Edwards, 1925).
Elizabeth Ann at IMDb: "In 1925 she signed a two-year contract with Mack Sennett and became one of his bathing beauties. With her perky smile and blonde spit curls Ruth quickly became one of Sennett's most popular actresses. She had supporting roles in several comedies including the short A Yankee Doodle Duke (Charles Lamont, 1926) and The Pride Of Pikeville (Charles Lamont, 1927) starring Ben Turpin. Ruth was nicknamed "The Little Girl With A Big Personality"."
She also appeared in such Sennett comedies as Lucky Stars with Harry Langdon and the Puppy Love series with Eddy Cline. For two years, she acted alongside Billy Bevan, Andy Clyde, Alice Day, Vernon Dent, Ralph Graves, Raymond McKee, Eddie Quillan and Ben Turpin in both leading and supporting roles.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2991/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Blue-eyed, gold-digging Lorelei Lee
When her two-year contract with Mack Sennett came to an end, she went through a period of uncertainty during which, having gone freelance in the hope of playing great characters, she was turned down for all her castings. Finally, in August 1927, she unexpectedly signed with the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation.
She played the role of blue-eyed, gold-digging Lorelei Lee opposite Alice White as Dorothy Shaw and Ford Sterling as Gus Eisman in the silent film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Malcolm St. Clair, 1928), co-written by Anita Loos based on her 1925 novel.
Her diary reveals that at this time, John Emerson, casting director and co-writer, and director Malcolm St Clair retained her after interviewing two hundred actresses and conducting as many screen tests. "All the blonde actresses of Hollywood were there", she wrote.
Anita Loos, the screenwriter and author of the novel of the same name for which they were looking for the ideal actress to play the main character, also chose Ruth Taylor, telling her at a press conference, in the form of a joke, "Your screen test was the worst, so we're choosing you."
Having become the role of the year, coveted by so many famous actresses, the "chosen one" received congratulations from all sides and went from press conference to photo shoot to photo shoot. Responding to a poll on the best actress for the role, fans sent Paramount Pictures nearly 14,000 letters supporting Ruth Taylor's candidacy. They each received a photo of the actress in return. It was the largest mailing ever recorded by Hollywood for an actress.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3802/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Member of the 1928 WAMPAS Baby Stars class
That same year, following the success of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ruth Taylor starred in Just Married (Frank R. Strayer, 1929), produced by B. P. Schulberg. It featured a new comedy couple, played by Ruth Taylor and James Hall.
Along with Lupe Vélez, Lina Basquette and Sue Carol, she was a member of the 1928 WAMPAS Baby Stars class.
Ruth Taylor acted in her first talkie A Hint to Brides (Leslie Pearce, 1929) for the Christie Film Company. For Paramount Studios she starred in The College Coquette (George Archainbaud, 1929) with William Collier Jr., and for Columbia Pictures Corporation in This Thing Called Love (Paul L. Stein, 1929) with Edmund Lowe and Constance Bennett.
The next year, she played for Pathé Exchange Incorporated in the short comedy Scrappily Married (Leslie Pearce, 1930) with Bert Roach. In 1930, she married retired USAF Brigadier General and New York stockbroker Paul Steinberg Zuckerman. He had served in the Lafayette Escadrille during World War I and as a senior officer in World War II. She decided to quit making films and became a housewife.
Ruth and Paul lived in Palm Springs and were happily married until he died in 1965. The couple had a son Henry Zuckerman aka Buck Henry. At age 16, he picked up his Equity card in 1946 for a role in the long-running comedy, Life With Father. Later he became the successful screenwriter behind such hits as The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967). Ruth Taylor died in Palm Springs in 1984 at the age of 79. She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5356/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures. Tim McCoy and Ruth Taylor.
Sources: Elizabeth Ann (IMDb), Find A Grave, Wikipedia (French, Spanish and English) and IMDb.