Ruth Hussey, costar of 'Philadelphia Story'
LOS ANGELES -- Actress Ruth Hussey, who was best known for her Oscar-nominated role as James Stewart's sassy photographer girlfriend in the classic 1940 film ''The Philadelphia Story," died Tuesday at a convalescent home in Newbury Park. Calif. She was 93.
Her son, John Longenecker of Beverly Hills, said Ms. Hussey died from complications after an appendectomy.
''But my mom told her children and grandchildren she had 'Cholery Marbles,' a term for whatever ails you, invented by her mother in Rhode Island and well known and used by all the Hussey cousins and family," he said, adding, ''she was fun."
Ruth Carol Hussey was born in Providence and graduated from Pembroke Women's College at Brown University. She studied acting at the University of Michigan.
She began her career as a fashion commentator on local radio and later was a model in New York for the famed Powers agency. She began acting and became a contract player for MGM after she was spotted by a talent scout while in Los Angeles with the road tour of ''Dead End."
Her first film was an uncredited role in ''The Big City" in 1937, starring Spencer Tracy; in 1940, she was Tracy's leading lady in ''Northwest Passage."
She also starred opposite Robert Taylor in ''Flight Command" (1940), Melvyn Douglas in ''Our Wife" (1941), Van Heflin in ''Tennessee Johnson" (1943), Ray Milland in ''The Uninvited" (1944), and John Carroll in ''Bedside Manner" (1945).
''She has had a steady film career in which strong womanly roles have been her forte," Los Angeles Times writer Edwin Schallert wrote of Ms. Hussey in 1949. ''She is generally an important force in the plot of any film in which she appears."
In 1945, Ms. Hussey appeared on Broadway, starring in the successful ''State of the Union" as the wife of a presidential candidate, played by Ralph Bellamy. She was on Broadway in 1949 in the hit comedy ''Goodbye, My Fancy," and she toured with ''The Royal Family of Broadway."
Her later movies included ''I, Jane Doe" (1948), the 1949 remake of ''The Great Gatsby," and ''Stars and Stripes Forever" (1952). Her last feature film role was in 1960 in ''The Facts of Life," playing Bob Hope's wife.
Ms. Hussey moved into television, including guest appearances in ''The Magnificent Ambersons" and ''Time Out for Ginger." She was the love interest of Robert Young in the 1973 television movie ''My Darling Daughters' Anniversary."
But for many film fans, she will always be Elizabeth ''Liz" Imbrie, the saucy journalist who works with reporter Mike Connor (Stewart) to cover the forthcoming wedding of socialite Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) in George Cukor's ''The Philadelphia Story."
The script by Donald Ogden Stewart earned an Oscar and provided snappy dialogue to all the actors, including Cary Grant, who played Lord's troublesome ex-husband, C.K. Dexter Haven.
Ms. Hussey lost the best-supporting actress Oscar to Jane Darwell's portrayal of Ma Joad in ''The Grapes of Wrath."
Ms. Hussey's husband of 60 years, talent agent George Longenecker, died in 2002. In addition to her son, she leaves another son, Rob of Houston; a daughter, Mary Hendrix of Oak Park, Calif.; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
