Background
Born Ruth Anne Berry on 13 April 1913 in Worcester, Worcestershire, Kettlewell was the second daughter of a clergyman and was educated at Casterton School.
Born Ruth Anne Berry on 13 April 1913 in Worcester, Worcestershire, Kettlewell was the second daughter of a clergyman and was educated at Casterton School.
She was, by her own admission, a "character bag". That is, a recognisable face to regular television viewers, but not a household name. From there she went on to art college, herself marrying a curate at the age of 18, and often playing small parts in amateur dramatic productions.
Her husband died from scarlet fever caught while serving as a wartime army padre.
She herself served in the Women"s Land Army from 1942 to 1946. Kettlewell began her career in repertory theatre and by the late 1950s had managed to secure small West End roles.
In 1959 she had her first film role in Room at the Top. She even acted in Norwegian for a Scandinavian children"s film.
In the 1960s Kettlewell"s television career unfolded and she worked alongside the likes of Harry Worth, Joan Sims and Deryck Guyler.
She is perhaps best known for her role in the early episodes of where she played Mrs Grace Pugh-Critchley the Dean"s wife. In 1966, she had a small role in the seminal Cathy Come Home. In the early 1970s she played alongside Scottish comedy double-act Mike Hope and Albie Keen in British Broadcasting Corporation television"s "Hope and Keens Crazy House" later reprised as "Hope and Keen"s Crazy Business".
Like many actors she continued to work well into her eighties.
In her obituary, The Independent noted "By her own admission..Ruth Kettlewell often played battleaxes, but it kept her in regular work..for half a century, sometimes only in fleeting roles. A lifelong Christian, she even felt sympathy for those on the receiving end of her characters" stern actions." She died on 17 July 2007 in London.
A devout Anglo-Catholic and active member of the Actors’ Church Union, she directed many amateur productions with a devotional theme for her church, Street Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, where she also served as churchwarden and sacristan.