Ruth Clifford
Ruth Clifford (February 17, 1900 – November 30, 1998) was an American actress of leading roles in silent films, whose career lasted from silent days into the television era. Clifford got work as an extra and began her career at 15 at Universal, in fairly substantial roles. She received her first film credit for her work in Behind the Lines (1916).
By her mid-twenties, she was playing leads and second leads, including the role of Abraham Lincoln's lost love, Ann Rutledge, in The Dramatic Life of 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 and Daisy Duck.
Clifford's obituary in the Los Angeles Times noted that she "became a prime source for historians of the silent screen era".
Filmography (121 Appearances)
Mickey's Family Album
The Silent Feminists: America's First Women Directors
Funny Girl
Two Rode Together
Sergeant Rutledge
The Last Hurrah
Designing Woman
The Searchers
The Cobweb
Pluto's Christmas Tree
The Quiet Man
Sunset Boulevard
Wagon Master
Pluto and the Gopher
Key to the City
Whirlpool
Free For All
Father Was a Fullback
You're My Everything
Not Wanted
Pluto's Sweater
3 Godfathers
Cry of the City
The Luck of the Irish
Hazard
Donald's Dream Voice
Mickey's Delayed Date
Mother Wore Tights
Figaro and Frankie
My Darling Clementine
Bath Day
Shock
Leave Her to Heaven
The Spider
Circumstantial Evidence
The Keys of the Kingdom
First Aiders
The Lodger
Coney Island
Holiday Inn
Ten Gentlemen from West Point
It Happened in Flatbush
Blue, White and Perfect
Road to Happiness
Ball of Fire
Cadet Girl
Mr. Celebrity
Along the Rio Grande
Lillian Russell
Free, Blonde and 21
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk
Swanee River
Drums Along the Mohawk
Wife, Husband and Friend
Charlie Chan in Honolulu
Safety in Numbers
Four Men and a Prayer
Hollywood Boulevard
To Mary - with Love
Paddy O'Day
She Married Her Boss
The Farmer Takes a Wife
Stolen Harmony
Let's Live Tonight
Elmer and Elsie
Whom the Gods Destroy
Making the Rounds
Stand Up and Cheer!
Woman Unafraid
Miss Fane's Baby Is Stolen
Only Yesterday
Pilgrimage
The Constant Woman
The Hitchhiker
Face in the Sky
The Show of Shows
The Eternal Woman
The Devil's Apple Tree
The Thrill Seekers
Don Mike
Lew Tyler's Wives
Brooding Eyes
The Storm Breaker
The Love Hour
The Phantom of the Opera
Her Husband's Secret
As Man Desires
The Tornado
Butterfly
The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln
The Whispered Name
Ponjola
April Showers
Hell's Hole
Mothers-in-Law
Daughters of the Rich
Truxton King
The Dangerous Age
The Face on the Barroom Floor
My Dad
Tropical Love
The Invisible Ray
The Millionaire Pirate
The Game's Up
The Cabaret Girl
The Lure of Luxury
Fires of Youth
Midnight Madness
The Guilt of Silence
The Red, Red Heart
Hungry Eyes
Hands Down
The Door Between
The Savage
The Desire of the Moth
The Mysterious Mr. Tiller
Mother o' Mine
A Kentucky Cinderella
Eternal Love
Polly Put the Kettle On
Behind the Lines