Ruth Roland

Who is, or rather was, Ruth Roland?

Ruth Roland was a rather substantial film star in the first three decades of the 20th century. She was even credited at the time as being one of the smartest people in Hollywood. Certainly, it must have been unusual for a woman to form her own production company during that time period. Yet Ruth Roland did exactly that.

Unfortunately for her legacy, Ruth Roland died young. She passed away from cancer in 1937 at the age of only 45. Furthermore, since the vast majority of her films are from the silent era, her filmography is woefully incomplete. I'd imagine only a fraction of her work actually survives.

Ruth Roland was feisty on the screen, and it sounds as if she was feisty off the screen as well. Her movie career wound down not because she was ousted due to the advent of talkies, but because she lost interest and had plenty of money. One magazine of the era claimed she was making a killing in real estate, too. Not too shabby for a woman in that day and age.

Here's Ruth Roland's memorial on Find A Grave. Embedded below is a small sample of her work. I suspect I'll be looking into more of it, in addition to featuring her on the movie serial image blog "Continued Next Week!".