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Ruth Bartlett |
Refugee from the US fought for justice
RUTH BARTLETT fled her home and settled in London as a political refugee.
The year was 1956, and the country she was escaping from was not on the usual list of unstable regimes where people sought haven from.
Instead she was from a well off and established American family: but she had been blacklisted for her left-wing views and fallen foul of Senator Joe McCarthy’s witchhunts.
A writer, her plays were closed down for spurious reasons. Her husband, Aaron Scharf, an academic, was refused entry to American universities because of his beliefs.
Ruth, who died two weeks ago, combined many talents: an actress, writer and teacher, her life was shaped by her political views – her funeral service was completely free of any religious sentiment and she was even buried in a wicker coffin with a hammer and sickle on it.
She was born in 1921 to a wealthy New York family who developed heating systems.
Her mother Helen and brother Francis – a psychiatrist and union organiser – used their inherited wealth to help provide funds to set up America’s Communist Party.
Before she moved to London, Ruth had owned and run The Beachcomber, a small theatre on Muscle Beach in Santa Monica.
But her life turned upside down when the McCarthyite witchhunts became an excuse for the authorities to hassle anyone with left-wing persuasions.
She had been a friend and pupil of the Hollywood writer John Howard Lawson, one of the so-called “Hollywood Ten”, and this made her suspect.
But they had a route out: her husband was told by a friend to
contact the academic Anthony Blunt – later
to be unmasked as a member of the Cambridge spy ring.
Blunt helped Aaron to get a place at the Courtauld Institute of Art to pursue a doctorate. He was to work at St Martins and became the Open University’s first professor of fine art.
Ruth, who had settled in Hampstead, lent her talents to the British left. She gave her time to helping CND, the Anti-Aparthied movement, Movement for Colonial Freedom, and the British Communist Party.
With her theatrical background, she gravitated towards the Socialist Unity Theatre group based in Somers Town.
Under her stage name of Helena Stevens she appeared in TV favourites such as Inspector Morse and the Highlander film, and continued to write screen plays and for the theatre. She is survived by her children Tom, Linda and Wendy.
DAN CARRIER |
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