Befuddled but Dignified

There are certain actresses you know by face but never by name. Ruth McDevitt is one of those actresses. her stock character was a befuddled and some what confused lady and she played them to the hilt. Her film career started after the death of her husband in the 1930's.

She was born in Michigan in 1895 with the name Ruth Thane Shoecraft and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts fully intending a career as an actress. She met and married her widowed husband after graduating and decided to devote her time to being a wife. It was after he died she slowly got back into acting first in small theater and eventually taking a role in "Arsenic and Old Lace" on Broadway. She is in her late 40's and early 50's when her career really took off. She was cast as Wally Cox's mother on his TV sitcom "Mr. Peepers".
She appeared on television and in movies until her death in the 1970's. She moved to Los Angeles and found she was constantly cast in roles. She played the pet shop owner in Hitchcock's "The Birds" as well as several films with Don Knotts. She also appeared in "The Parent Trap" and "Mame".
Ruth McDevitt died at the age of 80 in Hollywood in 1976.