Stonehouse, Ruth (1893–1941)

American silent-film actress and director. Born in 1893; died in 1941.

Selected filmography (as an actress):

The Papered Door (1911); Billy McGrath's Love Letters (1912); Chains (1912); From the Submerged (1912); Neptune's Daughter (1912); Sunshine (1912); Twilight (1912); Broken Threads United (1913); Home Spun (1913); In Convict's Garb (1913); The Pathway of Years (1913); The Spy's Defeat (1913); Thy Will Be Done (1913); A Woman's Way (1913); An Angel Un-aware (1914); Ashes of Hope (1914); The Battle of Love (1914); Blood Will Tell (1914); The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1914); Night Hawks (1914); The Other Girl (1914); Sparks of Fate (1914); Splendid Dishonor (1914); Trinkets of Tragedy (1914); Above the Abyss (1915); An Amateur Prodigal (1915); The Fable of the Galumptious Girl (1915); A Night in Kentucky (1915); The Romance of an American Duchess (1915); The Slim Princess (1915); When My Lady Smiles (1915); The Adventures of Peg o' the Ring (serial, 1916); Dorothy Dares (1916); The Heart of Mary Ann (1916); Love Never Dies (1916); Mary Ann in Society (1916); Daredevil Dan (1917); Follow the Girl (1917); A Limb of Satan (1917); Love Aflame (1917); The Phantom Husband (1917); The Stolen Actress (1917); Tacky Sue's Romance (1917); A Walloping Time (1917); The Masked Rider (serial, 1919); The Master Mystery (serial, 1919); Puppy Love (1919); Are All Men Alike? (1920); Hope (1920); The Land of Jazz (1920); Parlor Bedroom and Bath (1920); Don't Call Me Little Girl (1921); I Am Guilty (1921); Flames of Passion (1923); The Flash (1923); Lights Out (1923); The Way of the Transgressor (1923); Broken Barriers (1924); A Girl of the Limberlost (1924); Blood and Steel (1925); Fifth Avenue Models (1925); The Fugitive (1925); A Two-Fisted Sheriff (1925); Broken Homes (1926); The Wives of the Prophet (1926); Poor Girls (1927); The Satin Woman (1927); The Ape (1928); The Devil's Cage (1928).

Born in 1893, Ruth Stonehouse began her career as a dancer in vaudeville when she was eight years old. Also an aerialist, she later became an actress and formed a partnership with Bronco Billy Anderson at Essanay Studios of Chicago. As early as 1911, she had become one of the company's leading players, appearing opposite such silent-screen stars as Francis X. Bush-man, Harry Houdini, and Norma Shearer . As an actress, Stonehouse believed she was being typecast in submissive "little girl" roles; to combat this image, she began working behind the camera. In 1916, she joined other women directors hired by Universal Studios, such as Lois Weber , Ida May Park , Cleo Madison , Grace Cunard , Elsie Jane Wilson , and Ruth Ann Baldwin , to write, direct, and star in their own films. During the early 1920s, Stonehouse returned to acting in supporting roles for Universal and other studios, a career that ended in 1928. Although Stonehouse was proud of her work as a director, as noted in a Women Film Directors profile, her directorial film work has either been lost or is otherwise unavailable, thus impeding an accurate assessment. She died in 1941.

sources:

Foster, Gwendolyn A., ed. Women Film Directors: An International Bio-critical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. 3rd ed. rev. by Fred Klein and Ronald Dean Nolan. NY: Harper-Perennial, 1998.

Slide, Anthony. Silent Portraits: Stars of the Silent Screen in Historic Photographs. Vestal, NY: Vestal Press, 1989.

Barbara Koch , freelance writer, Farmington Hills, Michigan