Ruth Roland | |
---|---|
Born |
San Francisco, California, U.S. |
August 26, 1892
Died | September 22, 1937 Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
(aged 45)
Occupation | Actress, producer |
Years active | 1908–1935 |
Spouse(s) | Lionel T. Kent (m. 1917–1919; divorced) Ben Bard (m. 1929–1937; her death) |
Ruth Roland (August 26, 1892 – September 22, 1937) was an American stage and film actress and film producer.
Ruth Roland was born in San Francisco, California. Her father managed a theatre, and she became a child actress who went on to work in vaudeville. She was hired by director Sidney Olcott who had seen her on stage in New York City. She appeared in her first film for Kalem Studios in 1909 and along with actress Gene Gauntier was soon billed as a "Kalem Girl". She eventually was sent to Kalem's West Coast studio, where she was the leading actress and overseer of "Kalem House" where all the actors lived. Aged 12, she was the youngest student at Hollywood High School, having attended the school around 1904 or 1905 (there is debate on this date). Roland was Hollywood High School's first homegrown movie star.
Roland left Kalem and went on to even more fame at Balboa Films, where she was under contract from 1914–1917. In 1915 she appeared in a 14-episode adventure film serial titled The Red Circle. A shrewd businessperson, she established her own production company and signed a distribution deal with Pathé to make six new multi-episode serials that proved very successful.
Between 1909 and 1927, Roland appeared in more than 200 films. She appeared in an early color feature film Cupid Angling (1918) made in the Natural Color process invented by Leon F. Douglass, and filmed in the Lake Lagunitas area of Marin County, California.