Ruth Webb Death
Ruth passed away on December 4, 2006 at the age of 88 in Burbank, California, USA. Ruth's cause of death was pulmonary illness.
When did Ruth Webb die?
December 4, 2006How did Ruth Webb die? What was the cause of death?
Pulmonary illnessHow old was Ruth Webb when died?
88Where did Ruth Webb die? What was the location of death?
Burbank, California, USA
Ruth Webb Birthday and Date of Death
Ruth Webb was born on March 17, 1918 and died on December 4, 2006. Ruth was 88 years old at the time of death.
Birthday: March 17, 1918
Date of Death: December 4, 2006
Age at Death: 88
Is Ruth Webb's father, Harry A. Ford, dead or alive?
Harry A. Ford's information is not available now.
Ruth Webb - Biography
Ruth Webb, Talent Agent Who Revived Flagging Careers, Is Dead at 88 By MARGALIT FOXPublished: December 17, 2006Ruth Webb, a successful Hollywood agent who was a master of the art of professional rehabilitation, reviving dormant careers and representing clients few other agencies would touch, died on Dec. 4 in Los Angeles. She was 88.Associated PressRuth Webb in 1952.The cause was a long pulmonary illness, said Sherri Spillane, Ms. Webb’s business partner. A longtime resident of Hollywood, Ms. Webb had lived in Northridge, Calif., in recent years.Until her death, Ms. Webb was president and chief executive of the Ruth Webb Talent Agency, which she founded in 1962 and presided over from her unusually appointed bedroom.A former stage actress and nightclub singer, Ms. Webb was said in later years to resemble a cross between Zsa Zsa Gabor and Auntie Mame, and she lived both parts to the hilt. She resided for years in a house overflowing with raccoons (some live, many stuffed); was married four times; and was partial to dressing in feathers and gold lamé.Ms. Webb was known in particular for representing screen stars of a bygone era. Over the years, her clients included Kathryn Grayson, Rhonda Fleming, Dorothy Lamour, Donald O’Connor, Gloria Swanson, Gig Young and Ann Sothern.She was widely credited with having revived the career of Mickey Rooney, who returned from relative obscurity to make his Broadway debut in “Sugar Babies” in 1979. Ms. Webb also handled personalities like Chuck Connors, Tiny Tim, Phyllis Diller, Bert Parks and Rose Marie.In the 1990s, Ms. Webb’s agency was also famous for what it cheerfully called its scandal division, which represented names intimately familiar to anyone who has ever waited in line at a supermarket.For an agent, such clients pose a special challenge. Ms. Webb’s stable included, at one time or another, people from nontheatrical professions like Tonya Harding (the figure skater disgraced by her role in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan), Joey Buttafuoco (the auto-body shop owner known for his dalliance with the teenage Amy Fisher) and Sydney Biddle Barrows (the Mayflower Madam).It also included friends and business associates of the famous, among them Kato Kaelin (O. J. Simpson), Gennifer Flowers (Bill Clinton) and Divine Brown (Hugh Grant).Then there were those who found notoriety through marriage, including Tammy Faye Messner (better known as Tammy Faye Bakker, who was married to the television evangelist Jim Bakker) and John Wayne Bobbitt (whose wife, Lorena, cut off his penis with a kitchen knife).Even the unsinkable Ms. Webb could not place everyone. Mr. Kaelin was with the agency only briefly. (“He can’t act,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1994.) Mr. Bobbitt had trouble scheduling an audition because he was expected to be in jail that day. (The agency dropped him after he made a pornographic film.) Ms. Harding was offered a Woody Allen movie but turned it down, saying she abhorred the director’s morals.For many years, Ms. Webb ran her business from her home in the Hollywood Hills. She adored working in her bedroom, where the bedposts were dr*ped with feather boas; the walls were crowded with movie-star photographs (as well as posters for Broadway shows starring her clients, ringed by flashing light bulbs); and every horizontal surface seemed to hold a plush toy, invariably a raccoon.There, in a cloud of white satin bedsheets, Ms. Webb tirelessly worked the phones, persuading and cajoling, often nursing a live baby raccoon from a bottle. Besides the live ones, which she tenderly rescued, Ms. Webb had more than 1,500 stuffed raccoons and countless raccoon figurines. It was her favorite animal. She also owned seven cats, a macaw and a live peac*ck.Ruth Thea Ford was born in New York on March 17, 1918. In the 1940s, she appeared in several Broadway productions, among them “Marinka,” “Early to Bed” and “On the Town.” She also sang in New York nightclubs like the Latin Quarter and Cafe Society Downtown.Ms. Webb was married twice to actors, once to a lobster salesman and once to a man whose line of work (something to do with making bottle caps) resulted, she often said, in the Mafia’s putting a price on her head. (“The mob put out a contract on me, and my husband put out a contract on the guy who put out the contract on me,” she told The Washington Post in 1995). All four marriages ended in annulment or divorce.She is survived by two sons, Michael Benajam of Los Angeles and Jack Webb of Miami; three grandchildren; and a great-grandchild. Also surviving are Ms. Webb’s companion of 35 years, Jamie Stellos, and Mr. Stellos’s wife, Nancy.In recent years, Ms. Webb’s agency has concentrated on more wholesome clients, notably stars of reality shows like “Survivor” and
