Ruth Clifford
Biography
A native of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, she attended St. Mary's Seminary in Narragansett, Rhode Island, then, following her mother's death in 1911, came to Los Angeles as a teenager to live with her actress aunt. She got work as an extra and began her career at 15 at Universal, in fairly substantial roles. By her mid-twenties, she was playing leads and second leads, including the role of Abraham Lincoln's lost love, Ann Rutledge, in Abraham Lincoln (1924). But sound pictures found her roles diminishing, and throughout the next three decades she played smaller and smaller parts. She was a favorite of director John Ford (they played bridge together), who used her in eight films, but rarely in substantial roles. She was also, for a time, the voice of Walt Disney's Minnie Mouse. She lived long enough to find herself in demand for documentary interviews on the subject of early Hollywood. She was married to Beverly Hills real-estate developer James Cornelius. They had one child and divorced in 1938. She died in 1998 at the age of 98.
Pluto's Christmas Tree
Minnie Mouse (voice) (uncredited)
Cry of the City
Nurse (uncredited)
Pluto's Party
Mickey's Nephews (uncredited)
In Dutch
Dinah the Dachshund (uncredited)
Pluto's Sweater
Minnie Mouse (voice)
Mickey's Delayed Date
Minnie Mouse (voice) (uncredited)
Pluto and the Gopher
Minnie Mouse (voice)
Bath Day
Minnie Mouse (voice) (uncredited)
Figaro and Frankie
Minnie Mouse (voice) (uncredited)
Gay Lypiatt
I'd Rather Be Rich
Director's Wife (uncredited)
Two Rode Together
Woman (uncredited)
The Last Hurrah
Nurse (uncredited)
Designing Woman
Vanessa Cole (uncredited)
Bigger Than Life
Churchgoer (uncredited)
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Florence (uncredited)
The Searchers
Deranged Woman at Fort (uncredited)
La Tela del Ragno
Mrs. Jenkins
A Man Called Peter
Nurse (uncredited)
Prince of Players
English Nurse (uncredited)
Sunset Boulevard
Sheldrake's Secretary (uncredited)
Give a Girl a Break
Madelyn's Mother (uncredited)
Stars and Stripes Forever
Brooklyn Navy Yard Nurse (uncredited)
Pluto's Christmas Tree
Minnie Mouse (voice) (uncredited)
Pluto's Party
Mickey's Nephews (uncredited)
The Quiet Man
Mother (uncredited)
Wagon Master
Fleuretty Phyffe
Pluto and the Gopher
Minnie Mouse (voice)
Key to the City
Mrs. Anderson (uncredited)
Free for All
Miss Berry (uncredited)
Everybody Does It
Nurse (uncredited)
Father Was a Fullback
Neighbor
You're My Everything
Nurse (uncredited)
Pluto's Sweater
Minnie Mouse (voice)
3 Godfathers
Woman in bar (uncredited)
The Walls of Jericho
Undetermined Secondary Role (uncredited)
Unfaithfully Yours
Saleslady (uncredited)
The Snake Pit
Nurse (uncredited)
Cry of the City
Nurse (uncredited)
The Luck of the Irish
Secretary (uncredited)
Waitress (uncredited)
Mickey's Delayed Date
Minnie Mouse (voice) (uncredited)
Es begann in Schneiders Opernhaus
Resort Guest (uncredited)
Figaro and Frankie
Minnie Mouse (voice) (uncredited)
My Darling Clementine
Opera House Patron (uncredited)
Bath Day
Minnie Mouse (voice) (uncredited)
In Dutch
Dinah the Dachshund (uncredited)
Shock
Mrs. Margaret Cross (uncredited)
Leave Her to Heaven
Telephone Operator (uncredited)
The Spider
Mrs. Gillespie, Tenant
The Keys of the Kingdom
Sister Mercy Mary (uncredited)
The Lodger
Hairdresser (uncredited)
Coney Island
Saloon Patron (uncredited)
Holiday Inn
Woman (uncredited) (unconfirmed)
Ten Gentlemen from West Point
Graduation Spectator (uncredited)
Road to Happiness
Ship Passenger (uncredited)
Undetermined Minor Role (uncredited)
How Green Was My Valley
Village Woman (uncredited)
Swanee River
Bit Role (uncredited)
Drums Along the Mowhawk
Pioneer Woman (uncredited)
Charlie Chan in Honolulu
Nurse (uncredited)
Nurse
Dante's Inferno
Mrs. Gray (uncredited)
Lady by Choice
Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Stand Up and Cheer!
Secretary (uncredited)
Friend of Miss Fane
Eleanor (Uncredited)
Pilgrimage
Schoolteacher (uncredited)
Hell in a Circus
Speakeasy Floozie
The Sign of the Cross
Christian Mother at Meeting (uncredited)
Performer in 'Ladies of the Ensemble' Number (uncredited)
The Phantom of the Opera
Ballerina
Gay Lypiatt
