Thelma Ruby

Thelma Ruby (born 23 March 1925^[1]) is a British actress, best known for her long stage career and for co-adapting and starring in the one-woman show Momma Golda, about Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.^[2]

Thelma Ruby
Born	Thelma Wigoder (1925-03-23) 23 March 1925 (age 100) Chapel Allerton, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1944–present
Known for	Performing in Fiddler on the Roof at London's West End theatre
Spouse	Peter Frye ​ ​ (m. 1971; died 1991)​

Early life and education

Ruby was born Thelma Wigoder at Chapel Allerton in Leeds.^[3] She grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Leeds. Her mother, Ruby, was an actress;^[4] her father, Louis, from Lithuania, was a dentist. She was educated at Leeds Girls' High School^[3][5] and, after evacuation with her mother to the United States during the Second World War, at Finch College in New York City.^[4]

Career

Returning to Britain in 1944, Ruby joined the Entertainments National Service Association and performed to British troops.^[4]

In 1958 she acted in Bernard Kops' play, The Hamlet of Stepney Green, at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in London, with Harold Lang, John Fraser, John Barrard and George Selway also in the cast.^[6] She also had a role in the British film Live Now, Pay Later in 1962.^[7] Her West End theatre roles included performing as Golde in Fiddler on the Roof alongside Topol in 1984.^[8][9]

In 1996 she appeared in ITV's Coronation Street as Lily Dempsey, a friend of Phyllis Pearce.^[3]

From 1980, she and her husband, Peter Frye, adapted and performed in the play Momma Golda about the life of Golda Meir, Israel's first and only woman Prime Minister.^[4][8] In 2018, at the age of 93, she performed extracts from Momma Golda in a one-woman show at the King's Head Theatre in London.^[8]

In 2017 she played Alice in the ITV sitcom Bad Move.^[10] In 2024, she appeared in the Back to Black film about Amy Winehouse.^[11]

Personal life

Ruby lives in Wimbledon, London^[12] and is a member of Wimbledon Synagogue.^[9]

She was married to Jay Lewis,^[13] and subsequently to Canadian-born actor Peter Frye from 1970 until his death in 1991.^[4] She has a step-daughter from Peter Frye's first marriage.^[9]

In 2024, Ruby publicly criticised the proposed felling of trees at, and the expansion of the site of, the Wimbledon tennis championships which she lives nearby.^[14] She said she would chain herself to a tree in protest.^[15]

She turned 100 on 23 March 2025.

Publications

Ruby-Frye, Thelma; Frye, Peter (1997) Double or Nothing: Two Lives in the Theatre. The Autobiography of Thelma Ruby and Peter Frye. Janus Publishing Company, 336 pp. ISBN 9781857562149