RUTH ROLAND (1892–1937)

Ruth Roland’s show-business roots (her father was a theater manager and her mother a singer and an actress) practically guaranteed entry into acting. She made her debut at the age of three, following in her mother’s footsteps. After her parents’ divorce and her mother’s sudden death, eight-year-old Ruth went to live with an aunt in Los Angeles, where she developed a vaudeville act. There she caught the eye of a Kalem director and soon signed with the studio, which recognized her comic and equestrian skills and cast her in a myriad of silent Westerns and comedies. She was soon billed as a “Kalem girl.” 

In 1915, after appearing in The Girl Detective, Roland left Kalem and signed with Balboa, where she appeared in The Red Circle, the first of her eleven serials.  She then signed with serial giant Pathé, where she starred in Westerns such as Hands Up and as Anita Delgado, the principal role in The Avenging Arrow, earning her a reputation as one of the top ten Western stars of the time and as a rival of Pearl White.

Despite her popular appeal, Ruth’s business acumen was the key to her financial success: she made more money from real estate investments than from her movies. She made her last film, Nine to Nine, in 1935. She died of cancer two years later at the age of 44.