How much is Ruta Lee worth?
| Net Worth: | $40 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actress |
| Date of Birth: | May 30, 1935 |
| Country: | Canada |
| Height: | 1.55 m |
About Ruta Lee
Her family made the journey to the United States on March 1, 1948, and they eventually settled in Los Angeles. It was there that she attended Hollywood High School, where she graduated in 1952, and where she began her acting studies and began performing in school plays. She received her higher education from both the University of California in Los Angeles and Los Angeles City College.
At Grauman’s Chinese Theater, she worked as a cashier, an usherette, and a candy girl; however, she was terminated after one night’s shift because she had $40 less in her cash account than she should have had at the conclusion of the shift.
After that, Lee was able to get her foot in the door by appearing as a guest on two episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show on CBS. She got an agent very quickly, and he secured a role for her in an episode of The Roy Rogers Show, which was followed by a role in 1953 on the series The Adventures of Superman. In the same year, while she was performing in a tiny theater production of On the Town, she earned a role as bride Ruth in the Academy Award-nominated musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, even though she was still labeled as Ruta Kilmonis.
The only child of Lithuanian Roman Catholic immigrants, Ruta Lee was the only child of her parents when she was born on May 30, 1935 in Montreal, Quebec. Her father worked as a tailor, and her mother stayed at home to take care of the family. Lee has also made scores of guest-starring appearances on various television shows in addition to her work in films. She seems to be in every single thing that aired on television for a good number of years. She played the leading lady in three episodes of Maverick, including “The Comstock Conspiracy” (1957) with James Garner, “The Plunder of Paradise” (1958), and “Betrayal” (1959) with Jack Kelly.
Between 1957 and 1959, she appeared in a variety of roles in eight episodes of the crime drama series The Lineup, which aired on CBS. She appeared in four episodes of the syndicated criminal drama U.S. Marshal that were produced by John Bromfield during the years 1959 and 1960.
In the 12th episode of the NBC/WB Western series Temple Houston, which aired in 1963 and was titled “Enough Rope” Lee appeared as a guest star under the name Lucy Tolliver. Jeffrey Hunter portrayed the historical figure Temple Lea Houston, who was a frontier lawyer and the youngest son of Sam Houston. After a total of 26 weeks, Temple Houston was terminated. Lee has been quoted as saying the following about Hunter: “He was one of the prettiest people that ever was put on the screen; God, he was gorgeous.”
In 1964, Lee made a phone call to Nikita Khrushchev, who was serving as the Premier of the Soviet Union at the time, and asked him to grant clemency to her grandmother, Ludvise Kamandulis, who had been imprisoned in a labor camp in Siberia since the end of World War II.
The request for the pardon was successful, and Lee’s grandma moved to California to be with her granddaughter in 1964. Two years after that, Kamandulis passed away. When Lee won custody of her cousin Maryte Kaseta, then 18 years old, from Lithuania in 1987, she once again saved a relative from the territory that was occupied by the Soviet Union.
Also in 1965, she was given the role of a famous actress in the episode of the sitcom Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. titled “Gomer Dates a Movie Star” Her character’s name was Gloria Morgan. In the episode “A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain” from the 1963 season of The Twilight Zone on CBS, she played the role of a woman whose old husband participated in a scientific experiment and then aged “backward” as a result of the experiment.
In 1976, Lee tied the knot with Webster B. “Webb” Lowe Jr., a successful restaurant executive in Texas. They split their time between their properties in Hollywood, Fort Worth, Palm Springs, and Mexico City. Webb died July 1, 2020. They did not have any kids.
Lee considers herself to be a “conservative” in terms of her political views, and she was a speaker at the 1972 Republican National Convention. Lee was honored by being inducted into the National Lithuanian American Hall of Fame on the 24th of August, 2013.
Coming of Age was a sitcom that aired on CBS from 1988 until 1989, and Lee had a recurrent role on the show during that time. In the television movie Sweet Bird of Youth, which she starred in alongside Elizabeth Taylor in 1989, she gave a performance as Sally Powers. Throughout the 1990s, Lee continued to make guest appearances on a variety of television shows, the most notable of which being the sitcom Roseanne. Lee played the role of the girlfriend of Bev Harris, whose character revealed that she was gay. Estelle Parsons played Bev Harris.
She had a role in the British comedy-drama Funny Bones (1995), in which she and Jerry Lewis portrayed the parental figures for Oliver Platt’s character. Their characters were Oliver Platt’s parents. One of the Golden Boot Awards was bestowed upon Lee in the year 2002 in recognition of her contributions to Western television and film.
In recognition of her many accomplishments in the television industry, Lee was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the year 2006. Lee was honored with the awarding of a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in the year 1995.
At the Casa Maana theater in Fort Worth, Texas, in February 2008, Lee starred alongside Sally Struthers in a production of Steel Magnolias. Lee played the role of Clairee in the play. In the October 2010 production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which took place at the Casa Maana Theatre as well, Lee portrayed the part of Miss Mona. Over the course of more than half a century, Lee has been an active member of the charity group known as The Thalians.
Lee, who is also the board chairman, co-produced the annual Ball of the Thalians with the late Debbie Reynolds throughout these five decades. In addition to generating money and offering services for organizations that work with troubled adolescents and mental health, Lee is also the board chairman. She was a member of The Thalians for 55 years before she decided to stand down in 2011 and become a member emerita of the organization. The restoration of Lee’s Lithuanian citizenship took place in February of 2019.
Summing-Up
In the stage production of the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, she appeared as one of the brides. She had roles in films such as Billy Wilder’s crime drama Witness for the Prosecution and Stanley Donen’s musical comedy Funny Face. She is also remembered for her guest appearance in the episode “A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain” from the 1963 season of Rod Serling’s science fiction series The Twilight Zone.
