Ruth McDevitt


Ruth Thane McDevitt was an American stage, film, radio and television actress.

Career

The daughter of John Barnabas Shoecraft and Elizabeth Imber Shoecraft, McDevitt was born in Coldwater, Michigan, but she grew up in Ohio. After attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she married Patrick McDevitt on December 10, 1928, and decided to devote her time to her marriage. After her husband's death in 1934, she returned to acting. She performed on Broadway, in particular understudying and succeeding Josephine Hull in Arsenic and Old Lace and The Solid Gold Cadillac.
McDevitt also acted on radio, portraying the title character's mother in Keeping up with Rosemary and Jane in This Life Is Mine.
On television, McDevitt portrayed Bessie Thatcher in the DuMont drama A Woman to Remember. She played Mom Peepers in the 1950s sitcom Mister Peepers and Grandma Hanks on CBS's Pistols 'n' Petticoats. She was a regular on The Everly Brothers Show and the NBC soap Bright Promise from September 1969 to June 1970. McDevitt also had a regular role as Emily Cowles on , starring Darren McGavin.
McDevitt guest starred in such series as Suspense, Cosmopolitan Theatre, Decoy, The United States Steel Hour, Westinghouse Studio One, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Andy Griffith Show, The Debbie Reynolds Show, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, Mayberry R.F.D., I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Love, American Style, That Girl, Nanny and the Professor, Room 222, Mannix, Here's Lucy, Gunsmoke, Marcus Welby, M.D., Phyllis, Little House on the Prairie, All in the Family, and The Streets of San Francisco, Naked City.
Her film debut was in The Guy Who Came Back, followed by memorable roles in The Parent Trap,
Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, Boys' Night Out, Dear Heart, The Shakiest Gun in the West, Angel in My Pocket, The Love God?, Change of Habit, The War Between Men and Women, and Mixed Company.

Death

McDevitt died, aged 80, in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and is interred in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.

Filmography