Born Ruth Gordon Jones inside Quincy, Massachusetts, Gordon also starred when Maude within Hal Ashby's indie comedy Harold and Maude and as Mary Todd Lincoln in Abe Lincoln in Illinois. She experienced the bit part when Clint Eastwood's mother in his films Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can.

Additionally, Gordon wrote a screenplay for the Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy film ''Adam's Rib.She won an Emmy for a guest appearance in a 1978 episode of Taxi.

Gordon was married twice, a 2nd period to the tremendously-younger writer Garson Kanin, who survived her, however her lone toddler, the boy, was from either an away from marriage relationship.

Harold & Maude & Adam's Rib'' keep close at hand each been selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

Gordon was a oldest unsuspecting hosts of Saturday Night Live.

She died of the stroke around Edgartown, Massachusetts at the age of 88 within 1985.