Ruby Dandridge

Ruby Dandridge
Dandridge in 1947.
Born	Ruby Jean Butler (1900-03-03)March 3, 1900 Wichita, Kansas, U.S.
Died	October 17, 1987(1987-10-17) (aged 87) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart Attack
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale, California)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1917–1959
Spouse(s)	Cyril Dandridge (m. 1919–22)
Partner(s)	Geneva Williams
Children	Vivian Dandridge Dorothy Dandridge
Family	Nayo Wallace (great-granddaughter)

Ruby Dandridge (born Ruby Jean Butler; March 3, 1900 – October 17, 1987) was an American actress from the early 1900s to the 1950s. She is best known for her radio work in her early days of acting. Dandridge is best known for her role on the radio show Amos 'n Andy, in which she played Sadie Blake and Harriet Crawford, and on radio's Judy Canova Show, in which she played "Geranium". She is recognized for her role in the 1959 movie A Hole in the Head as "Sally".

She was born as Ruby Jean Butler in Wichita, Kansas to Nellie Simon (who was of mixed Spanish and Indian heritage) and George Butler (who was born in Jamaica in 1860 and came to the United States as a child). Her father was "a famous minstrel man."

On September 30, 1919, she married Cyril Dandridge. She moved with her husband to Cleveland, Ohio, where her daughter, actress Vivian Dandridge (1921–1991) was born. A second daughter, Academy Award-nominated actress Dorothy Dandridge, was born there in 1922, five months after Ruby and Cyril divorced. It is noted that after her divorce, Ruby Dandridge became involved with her companion, Geneva Williams, who reportedly overworked the children and punished them harshly.

In 1937, Dandridge played one of the witches in what an article in The Pittsburgh Courier called a "sepia representation" of Macbeth in Los Angeles. California. The production began July 8 at the Mayan Theater. Five years later, she appeared in a production of Hit the Deck at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, California.

One of Dandridge's earliest appearances (uncredited, as were many of the minor roles she played) was as a native dancer in King Kong. In other films, she played Dabby in Tap Roots (1948), the housekeeper in Three Little Girls in Blue (1946), Mrs. Kelso in Cabin in the Sky (1943) and Violet in Tish (1942).