Ruby Hoffman on AllMovie

A dark-haired stock company actress from Philadelphia, Ruby Hoffman made her mark on the early silent screen as one of the era's best villainesses. As the Duchess of Portsmouth she was mean to Mary Pickford's Nell Gwynn in Mistress Nell (1915) and downright vituperative toward poor Pearl White in no less than two of that athletic actress' best serials: The House of Hate and The Lightning Raider (both 1918). On screen from the very early 1910s, Hoffman retired after yet another serial, Trailed By Three (1920), this time as a thorn in the eye of the less memorable Frances Mann, who had replaced a defected Miss White.