Ruth Attaway

Born: 1910-06-28

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Ruth Attaway (June 28, 1910 – September 21, 1987) was an American film and stage actress. Among the films she appeared in include Raintree County (1957), Porgy and Bess (1959) and Being There (1979). Attaway was born on June 28, 1910, in Greenville, Mississippi. She was the daughter of physician W.A. Attaway, PhD. Her siblings included a sister, Florence and a brother, William. She graduated from the University of Illinois, where she majored in sociology. Attaway made her Broadway debut in 1936 in the Pulitzer Prize winning play, You Can't Take It with You. She was the first director of the New York Players Guild, a black repertory theater company formed in New York in 1945. From 1954 to 1955, she portrayed Anna Hicks in the play Mrs. Patterson at the National Theater. From 1964 to 1967, she was with the Repertory Society of Lincoln Center. Attaway made her film debut by portraying Moll in The President's Lady (1953), opposite Susan Hayward and Charlton Heston. She went on to play a variety of characters in film such as Philomena in The Young Don't Cry (1957), Serena Robbins in Porgy and Bess (1959), the Farmer's Wife in Terror in the City (1964), Edna in Conrack (1974) and Louise in Being There (1979). In 1954, Attaway was within the cast of an unaired pilot titled Three's Company. She also played Delia in the 1978 television movie, The Bermuda Depths. Attaway was married to Allan Morrison, an editor of Ebony. He died on May 29, 1968, at the age of 51. Attaway died on September 21, 1987, in New York Hospital of injuries resulting from a Manhattan apartment fire. She was 77 years old.


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Being There

as Louise
Released: 1979-12-19

A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an...

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The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

as Mayor's Nurse
Released: 1974-10-02

In New York, armed men hijack a subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. Even if it's...

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Raintree County

as Parthenia (uncredited)
Released: 1957-12-20

In 1859, idealist John Wickliff Shawnessey, a resident of Raintree County, Indiana, is...

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The Bermuda Depths

as Delia
Released: 1978-01-27

Scientists pursuing the mysteries of the deep are threatened by a beautiful girl who seems to...

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Porgy and Bess

as Serena Robbins
Released: 1959-06-24

Set in the early 1900s in the fictional Catfish Row section of Charleston, South Carolina, which...

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Conrack

as Edna
Released: 1974-03-27

A young, white school teacher is assigned to Yamacraw Island, an isolated fishing community off...

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The President's Lady

as Moll
Released: 1953-05-21

The story of president Andrew Jackson from his early years, through his meeting with and...

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The Young Don't Cry

as Philomena
Released: 1957-07-26

An orphaned teen gets involved with some chain-gang convicts.

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Pie in the Sky

as Farmer's Wife
Released: 1964-01-01

Rural runaway finds himself in Manhattan.

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