Stage and screen actor Joseph Ruskin died of natural causes at UCLA Santa Monica on December 28. He was 89.
Ruskin was a long serving actors’ union member and officer. In 1979 he became the first Western Regional Vice President of Actors Equity Association, was on the board of the Screen Actors Guild from 1976-1999 with eight of those years serving as 1st National Vice President and served a decade on AFTRA’s National Board. He was honored for distinguished service by AEA with the Lucy Jordan Award in 2003 and the Patrick Quinn Award in 2013, and by SAG with the Ralph Morgan Award in 2011.
Born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, Ruskin attended high school in Cleveland and enlisted in the Navy in 1942. He returned to study drama at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon University) and began his professional career at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and the Rochester Arena Stage. His list of 124 television More