Alma Rubens

Alma Rubens
Publicity photo of Rubens from Stars of the Photoplay (1924)
Born	Alma Genevieve Reubens (1897-02-19)February 19, 1897 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	January 21, 1931(1931-01-21) (aged 33) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Lobar pneumonia and bronchitis
Resting place	Mountain View Cemetery
Nationality	American
Other names	Alma Ruben Alma Ruben
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1913–1929
Spouse(s)	Franklyn Farnum (m. 1918; div. 1919) Daniel Carson Goodman (m. 1923; div. 1925) Ricardo Cortez (m. 1926–31)

Alma Rubens (February 19, 1897 – January 21, 1931) was an American film actress and stage performer.

Rubens began her career in the mid 1910s. She quickly rose to stardom in 1916 after appearing opposite Douglas Fairbanks in The Half Breed. For the remainder of the decade, she appeared in supporting roles in comedies and drama. In the 1920s, Rubens developed a drug addiction which eventually ended her career. She died of lobar pneumonia and bronchitis shortly after being arrested for cocaine possession in early January 1931.

She was born Alma Genevieve Reubens to John B. and Theresa (née Hayes) Rueben in San Francisco, California. Her father, John Ruebens, born in 1857 in Germany, was Jewish, and emigrated to the United States in 1890. Alma vehemently denied any Jewish heritage through her lifetime however. Her mother was of Irish heritage. She had an older sister, Hazel who was born in 1893. She was raised in the Roman Catholic faith and attended Sacred Heart Convent in San Francisco. Some biographies erroneously state that her birth name was Genevieve Driscoll. The name was in fact a pseudonym that she later used in a non-professional capacity, as Genevieve was her middle name and Driscoll was her maternal grandmother's maiden name.

Her first stage opportunity came when a chorus girl in a musical comedy theater troupe became ill. Rubens was chosen to take her place and joined the troupe as a regular performer. There she met Franklyn Farnum who was also a member. He later convinced Rubens to leave the troupe and try her hand at film acting.

In 1916, Rubens signed with Triangle Film Corporation. Her first film for the company was the comedy-drama Reggie Mixes In, starring Douglas Fairbanks. Later that same year, Rubens was re-teamed with Fairbanks for cocaine comedy The Mystery of the Leaping Fish, The Half Breed and The Americano. The next year, Rubens co-starred in two westerns, Truthful Tolliver with William S. Hart and The Firefly of Tough Luck with Charles Gunn. In 1918, she announced that she was changing the spelling of her last name of Rueben to "Rubens" because it caused too much confusion in the movie industry and in publications. She later told Photoplay magazine, "As a matter of fact my name is not the same [spelling] as the painter's. It's either Reubens or Ruebens-I forget which. I never could spell it. Couldn't remember where the 'e' came. So I let it go Rubens."