Thelma Ruby

Thelma Ruby (born Thelma Wigoder; 23 March 1925) is a British actress. In addition to her long stage career, she has also appeared in radio, television and film.

Ruby is best known for her theatre roles, including Shakespearean parts, Fiddler on the Roof and Cabaret with Judi Dench,

She has had stints in television soap operas and serials such as Coronation Street and EastEnders and the sitcom Dad's Army. She grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Leeds. Her mother, Paula Ruby, was a singer and also an actress, and, after evacuation with her mother to the United States during the Second World War, at Finch College in New York City.

She also had a role in the British film Live Now, Pay Later in 1962.

Her West End theatre roles included performing as Golde in Fiddler on the Roof alongside Topol in 1984.

Television and later theatre In 1996, Ruby appeared in ITV's Coronation Street as Lily Dempsey, a friend of Phyllis Pearce.

In 2017 she played Alice in the ITV sitcom Bad Move. In 2024, she appeared in the Amy Winehouse biopic film Back to Black.

Personal life Ruby lives in Wimbledon, London and is a member of Wimbledon Synagogue. and subsequently to Canadian-born actor Peter Frye from 1970 until his death in 1991. She has a step-daughter from Frye's first marriage. She said she would chain herself to a tree in protest.

Ruby turned 100 on 23 March 2025.

Publications Ruby-Frye, Thelma; Frye, Peter (1997) Double or Nothing: Two Lives in the Theatre. The Autobiography of Thelma Ruby and Peter Frye. Janus Publishing Company, 336 pp.