Ruth Sacks Caplin

Ruth Sacks Caplin (September 5, 1920 – August 5, 2014) was an American screenwriter, arts advocate, and philanthropist known for her adapted screenplay for the film, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, starring Joan Plowright and Rupert Friend.

Caplin began work on the screenplay for the film in the 1970s, based on a novel of the same name by the novelist Elizabeth Taylor. Her screenplay was ignored for decades until her son, Lee Caplin, acquired the rights to the film in 1999. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont was finally released in 2005 when Caplin was 85 years old.

Ruth Sacks was born in New York City on September 5, 1920. Her parents, who were Jewish immigrants originally from Eastern Europe, were both lawyers. Sacks received her bachelor's degree in art education in 1941 from Skidmore College. In 1942, she married Mortimer Caplin, an attorney, whom she had met when both were teenagers. The couple had five children, Lee, Michael, Jeremy, Cate and Mary Ellen Caplin. She now has nine grandchildren; Ella, Bennett, Sophie, Phoebe, Aubrey, Harriet, Daniel, Victoria ad Carter Caplin. Mortimer Caplin served as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue from 1961-63. Ruth worked as a fashion designer in New York City early in the marriage.

The family moved to Charlottesville, Virginia in 1951 when Mortimer Caplin became a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. She began working on children's plays in local schools as a costume designer and director. However, many local public schools temporarily closed in the late 1950s as part of Virginia's resistance to desegregation at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Caplin and other parents organized makeshift home schools for students in defiance of the closures. She taught her children dance, music and studio arts in the family basement. She also co-designed her husband's law firm office.

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