Often cast as street-savvy, lippy characters, Mercedes Ruehl was born Feb. 28, 1948, in Queens, N.Y. She began her acting career in regional theater productions and by the 1970s had graduated to New York plays, including "I'm Not Rappaport."Ruehl debuted on film in The Warriors (1979) and continued to find steady employment in such movies as Four Friends (1981) and Heartburn (1986). In 1988, she appeared in the box-office smash Big and gained notoriety as a mafioso's hellcat wife in Married to the Mob (1988). Playing opposite Jeff Bridges in The Fisher King (1991), Ruehl collected a richly deserved Oscar and a Golden Globe for her potent supporting turn.
For the rest of the '90s, Ruehl alternated between feature films and television. Her big-screen works included Last Action Hero (1993) and The Minus Man (1999), and her TV credits included the made-for-cable film Gia (1998).
Lost in YonkersRichard Dreyfuss and Mercedes Ruehl star in this heartwarming story from Neil Simon that elicits both laughs and tears. In 1942, a widower being hunted by loan sharks decides to leave his two boys at the home of their sweet aunt and domineering grandma. The boys struggle to adapt, while their father... Read More
Indictment: The McMartin TrialThis docudrama traces the events that followed when, in 1983, a worried mother phoned the police claiming her boy had been abused at his daycare center. The simple call led to an invasive investigation of the McMartin family, who ran the center. But it turned out the accuser had a prior history of... Read More
The Lost ChildMercedes Ruehl gives a tremendous performance in this deep and rich drama. Adopted while very young, an adult Rebecca (Ruehl) decides to find her birth parents after her adoptive parents have passed away. Her search brings her to the Navajo nation, where she joyfully discovers her cultural ancestry... Read More
For RoseannaWhen loving hubby Marcello (Jean Reno) learns that his wife, Roseanna (Mercedes Ruehl), has scant weeks to live, he's determined to fulfill her last wish: to be interred beside her dead daughter. Trouble is, the local boneyard has only three vacant plots, which are first come, first served. While... Read More
WidowsAdapted for American television by Lynda LaPlante from her own 1983 British miniseries, Widows is set in motion by a bungled art heist in which three thieves are betrayed and killed. Rather than grieve over their fallen husbands, the three widows -- Dolly (Mercedes Ruehl), Linda (Rosie Perez) and... Read More
NR | ||
Mom at Sixteen (2005) | NR | |
Running with the Hitman (2004) | NR | |
Bad Apple (2004) | PG-13 | |
Guilt by Association (2002) | NR | |
Widows (2002) | PG-13 | |
What's Cooking? (2000) | PG-13 | |
More Dogs Than Bones (2000) | R | |
The Lost Child (2000) | NR | |
Spooky House (2000) | PG | |
The Minus Man (1999) | R | |
Out of the Cold (1999) | R | |
Gia (1998) | UR | |
PG-13 | ||
Subway Stories (1997) | R | |
R | ||
Last Action Hero (1993) | PG-13 | |
Lost in Yonkers (1993) | PG | |
The Fisher King (1991) | R | |
Another You (1991) | R | |
Crazy People (1990) | R | |
Slaves of New York (1989) | R | |
Big (1988) | PG | |
Married to the Mob (1988) | R | |
PG-13 | ||
Heartburn (1986) | R | |
84 Charing Cross Road (1986) | PG | |
R | ||
The Warriors (1979) | R | |
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