Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985), better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as the oversolicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, the eccentric life-loving Maude in Harold and Maude and as the mother of Orville Boggs in the Every Which Way films. In addition to her acting career, Gordon wrote numerous well-known plays, film scripts and books. Oscar nominated for both writing and acting, Gordon won an Oscar, an Emmy and two Golden Globe awards for her acting.

Gordon was born at 41 Winthrop Avenue in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was the only child of Annie Ziegler Jones and Clinton Jones, a factory foreman who had been a ship's captain. Prior to graduating from Quincy High School, she wrote to several of her favorite actresses for an autographed picture. A personal reply she received from Hazel Dawn (whom she had seen in a stage production of The Pink Lady) inspired her to go into acting. Although her father was skeptical of her chances of success in a difficult profession, he took his daughter to New York in 1914, where he enrolled her in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

In 1915, Gordon appeared as an extra in silent films that were shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey, including as a dancer in The Whirl of Life, a film based on the lives of Vernon and Irene Castle.