Ruby Dandridge

Ruby Dandridge (born Ruby Jean Butler; March 3, 1900 – October 17, 1987) was an American actress from the early 1900s to the 1950s. She is best known for her radio work in her early days of acting. Dandridge is best known for her role on the radio show Amos 'n Andy, in which she played Sadie Blake and Harriet Crawford, and on radio's Judy Canova Show, in which she played "Geranium". She is recognized for her role in the 1959 movie A Hole in the Head as "Sally".

She was born as Ruby Jean Butler in Wichita, Kansas to Nellie Simon (who was of mixed Spanish and Indian heritage) and George Butler (who was born in Jamaica in 1860 and came to the United States as a child). Her father was "a famous minstrel man."

On September 30, 1919, she married Cyril Dandridge. She moved with her husband to Cleveland, Ohio, where her daughter, actress Vivian Dandridge (1921–1991) was born. A second daughter, Academy Award-nominated actress Dorothy Dandridge, was born there in 1922, five months after Ruby and Cyril divorced. It is noted that after her divorce, Ruby Dandridge became involved with her companion, Geneva Williams, who reportedly overworked the children and punished them harshly.

In 1937, Dandridge played one of the witches in what an article in The Pittsburgh Courier called a "sepia representation" of Macbeth in Los Angeles. California. The production began July 8 at the Mayan Theater. Five years later, she appeared in a production of Hit the Deck at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, California.

One of Dandridge's earliest appearances (uncredited, as were many of the minor roles she played) was as a native dancer in King Kong. In other films, she played Dabby in Tap Roots (1948), the housekeeper in Three Little Girls in Blue (1946), Mrs. Kelso in Cabin in the Sky (1943) and Violet in Tish (1942).

Dandridge played Oriole in Beulah, and Geranium in The Judy Canova Show,:182 and was a regular cast member on Tonight at Hoagy's.:337

For one season (1961-1962), Dandridge played the maid on the television version of Father Knows Best.

In 1955, Dandridge and her business partner, Dorothy Foster, bought land in Twentynine Palms, California, with plans to construct a subdivision of 250 homes.

Also in the 1950s, Dandridge formed a nightclub act that played in clubs around Los Angeles. A review of her act cited her "flashes of effervescent showmanship" and said, "What Ruby lacks in her voice, she invariably makes up for it with her winsome personality."

Ruby attended her daughter Dorothy Dandridge's funeral in 1965.

On October 17, 1987, she died of a heart attack at a nursing home in Los Angeles, California. She was interred next to Dorothy at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

In the 1999 film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Ruby is portrayed by Loretta Devine.

Features:

• Midnight Shadow (1939)
• Broken Strings (1940)
• The Night Before the Divorce (1942)
• Gallant Lady (1942)
• Tish (1942)
• A Night for Crime (1943)
• Corregidor (1943)
• Cabin in the Sky (1943)
• Melody Parade (1943)
• I Dood It (1943)
• Never a Dull Moment (1943)
• Hat Check Honey (1944)
• Ladies of Washington (1944)
• Carolina Blues (1944)
• Can't Help Singing (1944)
• The Clock (1945)
• Junior Miss (1945)
• Saratoga Trunk (1945)
• Inside Job (1946)
• Three Little Girls in Blue (1946)
• Home in Oklahoma (1946)
• Dead Reckoning (1947)
• The Arnelo Affair (1947)
• My Wild Irish Rose (1947)
• Tap Roots (1948)
• Father Is a Bachelor (1950)
• A Hole in the Head (1959)

Short subjects:

• Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943) (voice)
• Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears (1944) (voice)
• Screen Snapshots: The Judy Canova Show (1946)
• Silly Billie (1948)

Television:

• Beulah (1952–1953)