Patsy Ruth Miller Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Not to be confused with American artist and Olympic silver medalist Ruth Miller born on the same day.Patsy Ruth Miller (January 17, 1904 – July 16, 1995) was an American film actress who played Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) opposite Lon Chaney.
[About working with Charles Ray in The Girl I Loved (1923)] He wasn't just acting in those scenes. He really was in love with me. I've never talked about it before, but I suppose that is why he chose me for the part. He could have had any one of a dozen actresses. I wasn't aware of how he felt at first, and it was only later on, as the film progressed, that I realized it. It became rather uncomfortable for me, especially when I realized the rest of the cast was aware of it, too. I remember Edythe Chapman, a fine character actress who was playing Charles' mother, taking me aside one day while the crew was setting up the next scene, and warning me to be careful. "He is a married man," she said.
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[In a 1989 interview] There aren't many of us left who remember the Hollywood of those far-off days when pepper trees lined Vine Street, but I don't think contemporary writers have depicted it accurately. It was not a modern Sodom and Gomorrah, nor was the use of drugs commonplace. The few actors--and I do mean few--who did use them were called dope fiends, and their careers were usually wrecked by scandal. The worst thing my girlfriends and I ever did was roll our stockings below the knee and do a little necking with our beaus in rumble seats. We danced, we went to football games, and we read the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay and the novels of [F. Scott Fitzgerald]. We did drink, of course--it was mandatory during those days of Prohibition--but not to excess. On the whole it was an age of innocence . . . and I was one of the most innocent.
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Fact
1
Leading lady in Hollywood silents and a few early talkies who retired in 1931.
2
Profiled in "Speaking of Silents: First Ladies of the Screen" by William Drew, 1997.
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At one point in 1924 three of her films were playing simultaneously on New York's Broadway.
4
She became friendly with Lucille Le Seur (the young Joan Crawford) in 1924. According to Miller, Crawford told a lewd joke in mixed company, which made her uncomfortable. The friendship faded, but in a 1989 interview for "Films in Review", Miller said she still remembered the joke although she would not repeat it.
5
She and her family were vacationing in Los Angeles in 1920 when she spotted Alla Nazimova at a party, had herself introduced to the star, and within a short time was offered a screen test. The veteran actress became Miller's mentor.
6
After her acting career ended, she became a writer of short stories (for which she won three O Henry Awards), a novel ("That Flanagan Girl", 1939) and a book about Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, "Music in My Heart", which was produced as an original musical at the Adelphi Theatre on Broadway and ran for 124 performances (1947-1948).
7
Protege of Alla Nazimova, whom she met during a party in Hollywood and helped the 16-year-old to get cast opposite Rudolph Valentino in Camille (1921).
8
Lived with her brother and both her parents during her film career.
$1.7 Million
