Ruta Lee, Hollywood Legend and Icon,

Ruta Lee is one of its most multifaceted and top-notched civic contributors. While at Hollywood High, Lee's career in show business began at Grauman's Chinese Theatre…as an usherette, then candy girl. She was quickly promoted to box office cashier and just as quickly fired. Her dancing was better than her math. She vowed to return to that famous courtyard (years later, talent and serendipity placed her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, directly in front of that box office from which she was fired). Soon after, she was signed by MGM as the youngest of the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and subsequently in Funny Face with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn, as Tyrone Power's secret love in Witness for the Prosecution, and Frank Sinatra's leading lady in Sergeant's Three, to name but a few of the many films in her credits.
Simultaneously, Lee launched into television, with over 2000 appearances on shows from Perry Mason to Power Rangers, Twilight Zone to Murder She Wrote, Hogan's Heroes to Love Boat, and Roseanne. Lee also co-hosted on NBC's High Rollers with Alex Trebek, a regular on Hollywood Squares with Peter Marshall and made several television movies. She had series leads in CBS' Coming of Age and HBO's 1st and Ten. Her stints on the Bonnie Hunt Show remain among her favorites. 
As a young starlet, Ruta made international headlines when she convinced Khrushchev to release her 90-year-old grandmother from the Soviet Union. She brought her to the U.S. where she lived her remaining years in the sunshine of freedom. She is grateful to all for the prayers that helped in that effort. Lee has headlined around the country in many musicals as Dolly, Annie, Molly, Peter Pan, Mame, Irene, Nelly, Irma, Rose, The Woman of the Year, and Madame in the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, these are just a few of her leading lady roles.