Ruth Maleczech

Ruth Sophia Reinprecht (January 8, 1939 – September 30, 2013), professionally known as Ruth Maleczech, was an American avant-garde stage actress. She won three Obie Awards for Best Actress in her career, for Hajj (1983), Through the Leaves, (1984) and Lear (1990) and an Obie Award for Design, shared with Julie Archer, for Vanishing Pictures (1980), which she also directed. Her portrayal of King Lear as an imperious Southern matriarch in Lear was widely acclaimed. Life and career Ruth Sophia Reinprecht was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Elizabeth (, later Maletich; 1914–1996) and Frank Reinprecht (1912–1982), who had emigrated from Yugoslavia. Her parents were a steel worker and seamstress, respectively. She had two siblings, Frank and Patricia, with whom she was raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Maleczech was the first in her family to attend college, beginning theater studies at UCLA at 16. From there she went to San Francisco to work, where she met Mabou Mines co-founder Lee Breuer. The two became a couple and, in 1964, they went to Paris and for six years earned money dubbing films, sufficient to fund their burgeoning theatrical experiments.