Ruth Roland

Ruth Roland (August 26, 1892 – September 22, 1937) was an American stage and film actress and film producer.

Years active1908–1935

Spouses

Lionel T. Kent
(m. 1917–1919; divorced)
Ben Bard
(m. 1929–1937; her death)

Early life and career

Ruth Roland was born in San Francisco, California. Her father managed a theatre, and she became a child actress who went on to work in vaudeville. She was hired by director Sidney Olcott who had seen her on stage in New York City. She appeared in her first film for Kalem Studios in 1909 and along with actress Gene Gauntier was soon billed as a "Kalem Girl". She eventually was sent to Kalem's West Coast studio, where she was the leading actress andoverseer of "Kalem House" where all the actors lived. Aged 12, she was the youngest student at Hollywood High School, having attended the school around 1904 or 1905 (there is debate on this date). Roland was Hollywood High School's first homegrown movie star.[2]

Roland left Kalem and went on to even more fame at Balboa Films, where she was under contract from 1914–1917. In 1915 she appeared in a 14-episode adventure film serial titledThe Red Circle. A shrewd businessperson, she established her own production company and signed a distribution deal with Pathé to make six new multi-episode serials that proved very successful.

Between 1909 and 1927, Roland appeared in more than 200 films. She appeared in an early color feature film Cupid Angling (1918) made in the Natural Color process invented by Leon F. Douglass, and filmed in the Lake Lagunitas area of Marin County, California.

Roland worked the film business until 1930 when she made her first talkie. Although her voice worked well enough on screen, now entering her forties she returned to performing in live theatre, making only one more film appearance, a talkie, in 1935.

Personal life

Roland was married to Lionel T. Kent from 1917 to 1917. In 1929 she married fellow actor Ben Bard, who also had a stage acting background, and who ran a Hollywood acting school after they married. They were together until the end of Roland's life.

Death

Ruth Roland died of cancer in 1937, aged 45, in Hollywood and is interred near her husband, Ben Bard in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Ruth Roland received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6220 Hollywood Boulevard on February 8, 1960.

Selected filmography

• The Scarlet Letter (1908)
• The Cardboard Baby (1909)
• Her Indian Mother (1910)
• He Who Laughs Last (1911)
• Pulque Pete and the Opera Troupe (1912)
• The Raiders from Double L Ranch (1913)
• Gertie Gets the Cash (1914)
• The Pursuit of Pleasure (1915)
• The Red Circle (1915)
• A Matrimonial Martyr (1916)
• The Sultana (1916)
• The Devil's Bait (1917)
• The Neglected Wife (1917)
• The Fringe of Society (1917)
• Hands Up! (1918)
• Cupid Angling (1918)
• The Tiger's Trail (1919)
• The Adventures of Ruth (1919)
• Ruth of the Rockies (1920)
• The Avenging Arrow (1921)
• White Eagle (1922)
• The Timber Queen (1922)
• The Haunted Valley (1923)
• Dollar Down (1925)
• The Masked Woman (1927)
• Reno (1930)
• From Nine to Nine (1935)

Italiano :

Filmografia

1908/1911

• The Scarlet Letter, regia di Sidney Olcott (1908)
• The Old Soldier's Story, regia di Sidney Olcott (1909)
• The Cardboard Baby, regia di Sidney Olcott (1909)
• The Indian Scout's Vengeance, regia di Sidney Olcott (1910)
• Her Indian Mother, regia di Sidney Olcott (1910)
• A Chance Shot, regia di Pat Hartigan (1911)
• A Sheepman's Triumph (1911)
• Arizona Bill, regia di George Melford e Robert G. Vignola (1911)
• The Smugglers (1911)
• Mesquite's Gratitude (1911)
• How Texas Got Left (1911)
• He Who Laughs Last (1911)

1912

• The Dude Cowboy, regia di P.C. Hartigan (1912)
• The Desert Trail, regia di Pat Hartigan (1912)
• Things Are Seldom What They Seem (1912)
• How Jim Proposed (1912)
• Accidents Will Happen (1912)
• Walk, -- You, Walk! (1912)
• The Swimming Party, regia di Pat Hartigan (1912)
• The Girl Deputy, regia di P.C. Hartigan (1912)
• The Romance of a Dry Town, regia di P.J. Hartigan (1912)
• The Trail Through the Hills (1912)
• The Kidnapped Conductor (1912)
• Outwitting Father (1912)
• The Schoolma'm of Stone Gulch (1912)
• The Trail of Gold (1912)
• The Pasadena Peach (1912)
• A Fish Story (1912)
• Hypnotic Nell (1912)
• Ranch Girls on a Rampage (1912)
• The Pugilist and the Girl (1912)
• The Chauffeur's Dream (1912)
• The Girl Bandit's Hoodoo (1912)
• The Bugler of Battery B, regia di George Melford e Kenean Buel(1912)
• The Soldier Brothers of Susanna, regia di George Melford eKenean Buel (1912)
• The Beauty Parlor of Stone Gulch (1912)
• The Woman Hater (1912)
• Saved from Court Martial, regia di George Melford e Kenean Buel (1912)
• The Hoodoo Hat (1912)
• The Loneliness of the Hills (1912)
• Dr. Skinnem's Wonderful Invention (1912)
• In Peril of Their Lives (1912)
• Fat Bill's Wooing
• Queen of the Kitchen (1912)
• A Hospital Hoax (1912)
• The Belle of the Beach (1912)
• Paying the Board Bill (1912)
• Death Valley Scotty's Mine (1912)
• Stenographer Wanted (1912)
• The Bachelor's Bride (1912)
• I Saw Him First (1912)
• The Landlubber (1912)
• Strong Arm Nellie (1912)
• The Chaperon Gets a Ducking (1912)
• Something Wrong with Bessie (1912)
• A California Snipe Hunt (1912)
• The Mummy and the Cowpuncher (1912)
• Pulque Pete and the Opera Troupe (1912)
• Brave Old Bill (1912)
• A Mountain Tragedy (1912)
• The Peace Offering (1912)

1913

• The Mission of a Bullet (1913)
• Able-Minded Abe (1913)
• The Manicurist and the Mutt (1913)
• A Hero's Reward (1913)
• One on Willie (1913)
• The Horse That Wouldn't Stay Hitched (1913)
• Three Suitors and a Dog (1913)
• The Matrimonial Venture of the 'Bar X' Hands (1913)
• Trixie and the Press Agent (1913)
• A Cold Storage Egg (1913)
• The Sheriff of Stone Gulch (1913)
• Parcel Post Johnnie (1913)
• Absent Minded Abe (1913)
• Jones' Jonah Day (1913)
• An Indian Maid's Warning (1913)
• The Cat and the Bonnet (1913)
• The 'Fired' Cook (1913)
• Fatty's Deception (1913)
• The Indestructible Mr. Jenks (1913)
• The Bravest Girl in California (1913)
• The Phony Singer (1913)
• A Coupon Courtship (1913)
• Fatty's Busy Day (1913)
• Toothache (1913)
• The Hash House Count (1913)
• Pat, the Cowboy (1913)
• The Egyptian Mummy (1913)
• The Black Hand (1913)
• The Comedy Team's Strategy (1913)
• When Women Are Police (1913)
• Percy's Wooing (1913)
• Smoked to a Finish (1913)
• Cupid's Lariat (1913)
• The Knight of Cyclone Gulch (1913)
• Curing Her Extravagance (1913)
• The Raiders from Double L Ranch (1913)
• Entertaining Uncle (1913)
• What the Doctor Ordered (1913)
• The Tenderfoot's Luck (1913)
• Hoodooed on His Wedding Day (1913)
• The Hobo and the Hobble Skirt (1913)
• The Amateur Burglar (1913)
• The Captivating Widow (1913)
• Mike, the Timid Cop (1913)
• Boggs' Predicament (1913)
• The Burglar and the Baby (1913)
• One Best Bet (1913)
• The Hobo and the Myth (1913)
• And the Watch Came Back (1913)
• Pete's Insurance Policy (1913)
• The Troublesome Telephone (1913)
• The Speed Limit (1913)
• The Tightwad's Present (1913)
• The Fickle Freak (1913)
• Hypnotizing Mamie (1913)
• The Laundress and the Lady (1913)
• The Good Old Summer Time (1913)
• While Father Telephoned (1913)
• General Bunko's Victory (1913)
• Emancipated Women (1913)
• Able-Minded Abe

1914

• Bill's Board Bill (1914)
• The Joke on Jane
• Only One Shirt
• At Last They Eat
• The Medicine Show at Stone Gulch
• The Gun Behind the Man
• Too Many Johnnies
• A Bottled Romance
• Reggie, the Squaw Man
• Hiram's Hotel
• Looking for a Fortune
• Her Fallen Hero
• The Family Skeleton
• And the Villain Still Pursued Her (1914)
• The Confiscated Count
• Hubby's Night Off
• Gertie Gets the Cash
• Dippy's Dream
• McBride's Bride
• The Girl and the Gondolier
• Tight Shoes
• Reaping for the Whirlwind
• The Wages of Sin
• An Elopement in Rome
• Fleeing from the Fleas
• Rube, the Interloper
• Wanted: An Heir
• The Bingville Fire Department, regia di Marshall Neilan (1914)
• The Deadly Battle at Hicksville
• Don't Monkey with the Buzz Saw
• A Substitute for Pants
• Sherlock Bonehead
• When Men Wear Skirts
• Ham the Lineman
• The Slavery of Foxicus
• The Tattered Duke
• Si's Wonderful Mineral Spring
• Ham and the Villain Factory
• Lizzie the Life Saver
• Ham, the Piano Mover
• A Peach at the Beach
• Ham the Iceman
• Bud, Bill and the Waiter
• Cupid Backs the Winners

1915

• The Tip-Off, regia di T. Hayes Hunter (1915)
• A Model Wife
• The Girl Detective serial, regia di James W. Horne (1915)
• The Affair of the Deserted House
• The Disappearance of Harry Warrington
• The Mystery of the Tea Dansant
• She Would Be a Cowboy
• Old Isaacson's Diamonds
• Who Pays?, regia di Harry Harvey, H.M. Horkheimer e Henry King (1915)
• Jared Fairfax's Millions
• Following a Clue
• The Price of Fame, regia di H.M. Horkheimer (1915)
• The Pursuit of Pleasure, regia di Harry Harvey (1915)
• When Justice Sleeps, regia di Harry Harvey (1915)
• The Love Liar, regia di Harry Harvey (1915)
• Unto Herself Alone, regia di Harry Harvey (1915)
• Houses of Glass, regia di Harry Harvey (1915)
• Blue Blood and Yellow, regia di Harry Harvey (1915)
• Today and Tomorrow (1915)
• For the Commonwealth, regia di Harry Harvey (1915)
• The Pomp of Earth, regia di Harry Harvey (1915)
• The Fruit of Folly, regia di Harry Harvey (1915)
• Toil and Tyranny, regia di Harry Harvey (1915)
• Comrade John, regia di Bertram Bracken (1915)
• The Red Circle serial, regia di Sherwood MacDonald (1915)

1916

• The Matrimonial Martyr, regia di Sherwood MacDonald (1916)
• The Sultana, regia di Sherwood MacDonald (1916)

1917

• The Devil's Bait, regia di Harry Harvey (1917)
• The Neglected Wife, regia di William Bertram (1917)
• The Stolen Play, regia di Harry Harvey (1917)
• The Fringe of Society
• A Message from Reno (1917)

1918

• The Price of Folly (1918)
• Phantom Fame (1918)
• Counterfeit Clues (1918)
• The Cat's Paw (1918)
• The Sin of Innocence (1918)
• Sold for Gold (1918)
• In Poverty's Power (1918)
• The Rebound (1918)
• Shifting Sands (1918)
• Cupid Angling (1918)
• Hands Up!, regia di Louis J. Gasnier e James W. Horne - serial (1918)

1919

• Love and the Law
• The Tiger's Trail, regia di Robert Ellis, Louis J. Gasnier e Paul Hurst (1919)
• The Adventures of Ruth, regia di George Marshall e, non accreditata, Ruth Roland (1919)

1920/1929

• Ruth of the Rockies serial, regia di George Marshall (1920)
• The Avenging Arrow serial, regia di William Bowman e W.S. Van Dyke (1921)
• White Eagle serial, regia di Fred Jackman e W.S. Van Dyke(1922)
• The Timber Queen serial, regia di Fred Jackman (1922)
• The Haunted Valley
• Ruth of the Range
• Dollar Down, regia di Tod Browning (1925)
• Where the Worst Begins, regia di John McDermott (1925)
• The Masked Woman, regia di Silvano Balboni (1927)

1930/1935

• Reno, regia di George Crone (1930)
• From Nine to Nine, regia di Edgar G. Ulmer (1935)