Ruby Payne

Ruby was born at 8 Lane Ends, Hapton in Lancashire, England to her parents William and Maria Haworth Brown. She was the youngest of five children - Minnie, Bill, Victor and Harold. While her older siblings worked in the cotton-weaving industry from when they were children, the family was able to allow Ruby to attend school rather than work. At the age of 10, she had her first real acting role as Puck in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." In 1932 Victor helped Maria, Harold, and Ruby move to America to find better employment. In 1937 Ruby married Albert Edward Payne, formerly of the English Navy, but at the time a bartender in New York City. Albert, whom she called Danny, was 18 years her senior. They made their home on City Island in the Bronx and had four children - Thea, Richard, Jeane, and Susan. As her children got older, Ruby pursued an acting career and trained with Maria Ley Piscator, John Astin, Susan Oliver, and Hugh Morrison. She also attended Westminster College in Oxford, England, Alston Hall in Lancashire, England, Queens College in New York, and The New School in New York. In these first years she primarily acted on stage and worked first with local groups - City Island Theatre, U.N. Players, Lyric Players, Town Dock Theatre, Clark Center's Resident Acting Company, Circle-in-the-Square and Theatre-in-the-Hospital. She often acted as major organizing force for these groups and in addition to acting, she also directed and produced shows. Some shows from these efforts were "The Glass Menagerie", "Dr. Faustus", and "The Time of Your Life", as well as plays written by her friends Peter John Stevens and Jean Raymond Maljean. During this time she twice won the Siobhan McKenna Award in 1960 for One Act Plays and in 1961 for Acting. In the 1970s and into the early 1980s Ruby began working in theaters in Oklahoma, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Vermont, Florida and then in Off-Broadway productions in New York. Some of the non-New York work included "Charley's Aunt", Butterflies are Free", "Blithe Spirit", and "Absence of a Cello". Her Off-Broadway work was at the NYC's Royal Playhouse, Elysian Theater, Soho Theatre, Billymunk Theatre, Lincoln Square Theatre, and Quaigh Theatre. Productions from this time included "Dracula", "A Far Country", "The Mousetrap", "The Hostage", "Not Enough Rope", "Dead End", "Second Chance", "Rime Ice", "Who's There?", "Dierdre of Sorrows", "Richard III", "Ladies in Retirement", "Heartbreak House", "Pygmalion", and "Dear Brutus". Continuing into the 1980s and 1990s she played memorable older ladies in a variety of commercials including J.C. Penney's "Christmas in July", Campbell Soup's "What's Missing?", Chemlawn's "Circle of Experts", and Honey Nut Cheerios "Traffic Jam". Her 1994 Pizza Hut Commercial was named that year's "World's Funniest Commercial". She also did small pieces on soap operas such as "As the World Turns", "Loving", and "One Life to Live." Also in the 1980s she worked in small parts in student, TV, and big-screen films. Her student films include "Teresa" by Teresa Cassaniti and "Totem" by Rick Nahmias in which she played the main character. Her TV movies included work with actors Barbara Feldon, Hal Linden, Anne Meara, Margo Skinner, and Jerry Stiller in _Unforgivable Secret, The (1982) (TV)_, The Other Woman (1983), and The Return Ticket (1988). Ruby later worked in films with actors Al Pacino, Dyan Cannon, Katharine Hepburn, Nick Nolte, Amy Irving, David Hyde Pierce, Mia Farrow, and Woody Allen in Author! Author! (1982), _Grace Quigley (1984)_, Crossing Delancey (1988), and Radio Days (1987). Ruby was a long-time member and supporter of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA), and the Actor's Equity Association (AEA). She spent her last years at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, close to her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.