Background
Gillmore was the daughter of Frank Gillmore, former president of Actors" Equity, and the actress Laura MacGillivray, and the sister of actress Margalo Gillmore.
Gillmore was the daughter of Frank Gillmore, former president of Actors" Equity, and the actress Laura MacGillivray, and the sister of actress Margalo Gillmore.
Her great-aunt was the British actor-manager Sarah Thorne, and her great-uncles were the actors Thomas Thorne and George Thorne. A fourth-generation actor on her father"s side, Gillmore"s first professional appearance was as an unborn child in Maurice Maeterlinck"s The Betrothal in New York in 1918. Her later theatrical appearances included Edie Upton in The Robbery (1921), Jeanne in The Nest (1922), The "49ers (1922), Number Sirree! (1922), Gail Carlton in Number More Frontiers (1931), and Mrs Howard in The Farmer Takes a Wife (1934-1935).
They met when he produced the 1931 play Number More Frontiers, in which she had appeared.
Together they translated the Italian plays Finding Oneself (1933) by Luigi Pirandello, and Giovacchino Forzano"s Gutlibi and The Bells of San Lucio. Their daughter was Mildred Sonino (18 February 1936–January 1986).
Ruth Gillmore died in New York in February 1976 aged 76.