Ruta Lee (born Ruta Mary Kilmonis on May 30, 1936 in Montreal, Canada) is a Canadian-born actress and dancer of Lithuanian extraction, who appeared as one of the brides in the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
She is also best known for a being a "regular" on a number of game shows, including Hollywood Squares, What's My Line?, and as Alex Trebek's co-host on High Rollers.
She also appeared in the movies Funny Face and Witness for the Prosecution, as well as appearing many times on TV in Hogan's Heroes, Maverick, The Lucy Show, The Twilight Zone and in many other programs, including Roseanne, wherein she played Estelle Parsons' lover, after Parsons' character (Roseanne's mother) outed herself.
Ruta Lee is also remembered as a tireless defendant of human rights. When Soviet leader Khrushchev was on a visit to the United States, Ruta burst through a crowd, approached the leader, and demanded that her Grandmother be allowed to leave Soviet occupied Lithuania, and be free to come to the United States. Lee's Grandmother had been deported by cattle-train to Siberia, along with thousands of other Lithuanians, in the early years following the Second World War.
Ruta Lee received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in October 2006.
