Ruth Roman

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Ruth Roman
from the trailer for the film Strangers on a Train (1951).
Born	December 22, 1922 Lynn, Massachusetts, USA
Died	September 6, 1999 Laguna Beach, California, USA

Ruth Roman (December 22, 1922 – September 9, 1999) was an American actress.

She was born Norma Roman in the Boston suburb of Lynn, Massachusetts and as a young girl pursued her desire to become an actress by enrolling in the prestigious Bishop Lee Dramatic School in Boston. Following completion of her studies Roman headed to Hollywood where she obtained bit parts in several films before being cast in the title role in the 1945 thirteen episode serial Jungle Queen.

In 1949 she played an important role in the 1949 film, Champion. In one of her most memorable roles, Roman costarred with Farley Granger and Robert Walker in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Strangers on a Train (1951). She also appeared in the television serial Jungle Queen in the early 1950s.

Married three times, she had one son, Richard, with her first husband, Mortimer Hall. In the 1950 film Three Secrets, she played a distraught mother waiting to learn whether or not her child survived a plane crash. In July 1956, Roman and her four-year-old son were passengers on board the SS Andrea Doria ocean liner. They were separated from each other when the ship collided with another and sank. Roman was rescued waited at the pier in New York City for her son's safe arrival aboard one of the rescue ships.

A stage actress, in 1959 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. Although she never achieved the level of success in film that many had originally predicted for her, Roman nevertheless worked regularly in film well into the 1960s after which she began making appearances on television shows and movies including a recurring role in 1965-66 in The Long Hot Summer (TV series 1965-1966), and for the 1986 season of Knots Landing and on Murder She Wrote.

Roman was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6672 Hollywood Blvd for her contribution to television.

She died in her sleep at her Laguna Beach, California home in 1999, aged 76.

[edit] Partial filmography

• Jungle Queen (1945)
• The Window (1949)
• Champion (1949)
• Dallas (1950)
• Three Secrets (1950)
• Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951)
• Strangers on a Train (1951)
• Mara Maru (1952)
• Blowing Wild (1953)
• The Far Country (1955)
• The Bottom of the Bottle (1956)
• Amère victoire (UK: Bitter Victory) (1957)
• Look in Any Window (1961)
• The Baby (1972)