Eleanor Woodruff

Active - 1914 - 1914  |   Born - Sep 12, 1891   |   Died - Oct 7, 1980   |   Genres - Drama

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Biography by AllMovie

Promoted as "The Ethel Barrymore of the Screen," dark-haired Eleanor Woodruff starred in The Stain (1914), the melodrama that introduced Theda Bara to the screen, and played Pearl White's rival in the groundbreaking serial The Perils of Pauline (1914). Those were perhaps the highlights of a screen career begun in 1912 after a stint as leading lady with the Orpheum Stock Company of Philadelphia. Although popular in World War I potboilers (including the 1914 pro-German propaganda piece The Last Volunteer), Woodruff was persuaded to return to the legitimate stage as Otis Skinner's leading lady in Booth Tarkington's Mister Antonio (1916). The return proved triumphant and she rarely filmed again, concentrating instead of becoming one of Broadway's busiest leading ladies. Woodruff went on to appear in the original production of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author; was featured in the London production of George M. Cohan's So This Is London; and starred in Back to Methuselah before retiring to marry stock broker Dorsey Richardson in 1931. An honorary member of New York's Women's Republican Club, Woodruff later became a noted interior decorator.