We're grateful that Ruta Lee made time to talk to Pop Culture Classics about her remarkable life and career.

POP CULTURE CLASSICS:
I love your new memoir, "Consider Your Ass Kissed." The process of working on the autobiography, did it give you a different perspective on your life and career?

RUTA

LEE:

You know I look back and sometimes I forget I've done something and somebody sends it to me or I pull it out, because I've got it and I look at myself and I say, "For a kid who was just starting and didn't know anything about anything, I was pretty damn good." And so that's kind of nice. I have a little more respect for what I did and how I did it and when I did it than I think I had before.

PCC:
You've accomplished so much and your energy never seems to wane. You're about to start shooting a new movie?

LEE:
Yes, but it's been postponed, because of Covid and I have no idea what the start date is going to be. But we're assuming that it's going to take place. So I have no idea when the film is going to start.

PCC:
What kind of role is it?

LEE:
A very unusual one, but one that I will be somewhat familiar with now, having been through this with my husband for a couple of years. She is a Broadway star who has gone into dementia. So it's going to be kind of interesting. It will be slightly more challenging than a lot of the stuff that I've been doing lately. But listen, work is work and whatever it is, it's okay with me.

PCC:
And you always seem to be up for a challenge.

LEE:
Well, Lord knows I'll try.

PCC:
What do you think has been the key to the incredible career longevity?

LEE:
Maybe the fact that I am a pro about working. I show up on time. I know my material. I know my lines. I insist on having a very good time and I bring laughter to the set, if it's not there already. I just love working that way and I think all people like to work that way. And producers like working with somebody that doesn't make waves, but just does their work and gets it done nice and is a happy camper and takes along the rest of the company to make it a happy camper.

PCC:
You got your SAG card by guesting on the Burns and Allen show. Watching that, it seems like you already had great comic timing, despite being so young. Do you think that was inherent in you?

LEE:
I think so. I think a lot of it was. A lot of it, I learned on my feet, working, on the job training so to speak. But I have always loved laughter. To me, the most beautiful music in the world is the sound of laughter. So I think, somewhere down the line, I must have learned how to tell a story so that it didn't lose the laughter. And that's what great timing is.

PCC:
Were you conscious of trying to learn, when you were working with legends like George and Gracie?

LEE:
Absolutely not. I wasn't conscious of doing anything except being there and observing and getting it through my pores, I guess. But I was never aware of, "Oh, I have to watch exactly how she does that and how many beats it takes or blah-blah-blah." I think that I just listened and absorbed, like I said, what was going on.

PCC:
Did they try to be helpful to you, as a young performer, though?

LEE:
Maybe they did, I wouldn't know. I mean, they certainly didn't bend over backwards and do anything three or four times to help me. At least not that I'm aware of, let's put it that way.

PCC:
Another of your early credits was "Adventures of Superman." George Reeves had struggled as a movie contract player and was just gaining TV superstardom. How did he seem to be dealing with that?

LEE:
I would not have been aware. I was way too young and too stupid to recognize or be aware of anything like that. I had very little to do with him. I think he came onto the set a couple of times. But so what? It's Superman, you know. [Laughs] I worked more with the other cast members -- Noel Neill and Jack Larson.

Jack I would see every once in a while at the big Superman reunions that they did. Noel was already gone. Every year or two they would have these. I think I went to two of them. And it was so much fun to see the kind of following that this crazy cartoon character had going. It was amazing to me, and lovely that the show and the stars of the show were so well remembered.

PCC:
And then you had such an auspicious film debut in "Seven Brides and Seven Brothers." Stanley Donen was certainly one of the great musical directors. What do you think made him so effective?

LEE:
The man, first of all, had the best friendship in the world with Gene Kelly. And so he knew what hoofing was. He grew up in the business, on Broadway, or near Broadway or whatever. And so when he came out to California, I think he had already a kind of built-in style and a sense of style and what would happen.

And it's so interesting that "Seven Brides" was such a big hit for him, when he was more of a Broadway hoofer. And he applied that same style, when he was doing films with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant ["Charade"], whoever they were working with. That sort of pizzazz that he had was really quite amazing. And it really showed for me in "Funny Face," where I worked for him again, maybe a year or two later.

That was an amazing experience for me, too, watching someone like Audrey Hepburn, who had great, classic style, which she learned along the way, too.

PCC:
And Fred Astaire, another of the "Funny Face" stars -- you became friends with him?

LEE:
Very good friends, yes. He really was one of those people that would send me little notes on what he'd seen and what he liked or what he didn't like. And, like an idiot, did I keep any of them? Of course not.

PCC:
Was it on "Seven Brides" that you had the epiphany that more important than technical perfection is the ability to, as you put it, "Sell it!"

LEE:
I think "epiphany" is the right word, because I was there with some of the best dancers in America. And we had at least six weeks of intense rehearsals, six days a week, not five-day weeks, in those days, they were six-day weeks. And I would suddenly say to myself, "Oh, my God, I can't do that. Look what they're doing. Can I do that?"

Of course, I was young and stupid, so I did it. But I realized that you really don't have to be all that perfect technically, that if your personality and your smile and whatever helps carry it, boy it carries it a long way.

PCC:
On "Seven Brides" there was a co-star with an equal amount of tremendous energy -- Russ Tamblyn.

LEE:
Oh, my God, yeah. He was one of my good buddies. And he still has that kind of energy.

PCC:
Another of your classic films was "Witness for the Prosecution." Tyrone Power was such a charismatic presence. Did he have a magnetism off screen, as well?

LEE:
You know, what I didn't feel was the magnetism or any of that. What I felt was the generosity. He was a very easy-to-love man, because he was calm and rather simple in his approach to things. And very kind, very sweet. Didn't carry on like I was a lost soul. I was accepted and brought into the fold, which was lovely, because Marlene [Dietrich] was a bit of an ice queen.

She was not exactly the warmest human being I've ever known. But I admired her tremendously for her knowledge. In fact, I write about it in the book. I was dazzled by the fact that she would ask for a certain light that she knew was good for her. And that she knew what was good for her was the amazing part. And the cinematographer said, "No, we don't have that little inky-dinky that you're asking for." She would say, "Don't worry. I do." And she carried a trunk that was lined with foam and all of that. And she had every kind of special light imaginable. So nobody could say, "No, I don't have it."

PCC:
You also wrote about how Charlies Laughton and his wife Elsa Lanchester were very helpful, especially in terms of nailing that tricky accent you had to use in the movie.

LEE:
They were absolutely phenomenal. I love the fact that I had been warned about him, that he was a nasty old fag and he didn't like young women, blah blah blah. And then to have him smack me on the ass, across the room, and to turn around and find out it was Laughton. And he became like my best buddy. And we really had the best time. And I loved him so. And I loved her. And I'm sorry they're gone.

PCC:
You had a chance to work with Gene Kelly on "Marjorie Morningstar."

LEE:
Yes, on "Marjorie Morningstar." And then of course, he was our honoree at The Thalians one year. And I would see him occasionally at Dominic's, a restaurant that I like to frequent. And he was often there.

PCC:
Did you get much chance to interact with Natalie Wood on "Marjorie Morningstar"?

LEE:
Not a hell of a lot. But I'd see her at Warner Brothers, because I might have been under contract at Warner Brothers -- I worked there a lot, on all of their westerns and detective shows and everything else. And so I'd see her on the set or on the lot or at lunch or something. So we would kibbitz a little bit. She of course having Russian heritage and me being Lithuanian, we laughed and scratched a little bit about that. And she was good with accents, too.

PCC:
She ended up portraying Gypsy Rose Lee, who was a friend of yours.

LEE:
Gypsy was a friend of mine. And Baby June was played by Ann Jillian, who is like my sister. That's how close we have become. I didn't know her then, of course. She's younger than I am. Well, hell, the whole world is younger than I am.

I've been blessed in that older women, older than I was at the time, whether it was Gypsy Rose Lee or whether it was Gail Patrick Jackson or almost anybody, Lucille Ball, sort of liked me and, not that they took me under wing, like I needed it emotionally or in the business, but sort of included me in social things and game-playing, whatever the case may be.

And Gypsy used to have me come up to San Francisco to do her show, because she liked me. Of course, I'm easy to get along with. As a I made very clear, I only like to work, if I'm having a good time. So because I like to work, I insist on having a good time [laughs].

PCC:
Gypsy seemed like a wonderfully colorful person.

LEE:
She was fabulous. She had such stories to tell. And she had such a mouth. And she was just wonderful. I just adored her.

PCC:
And then did you have fun with the movie "Hootenanny Hoot"? [1963, featuring Johnny Cash, The Brothers Four, Sheb Wooley, Judy Henske, George Hamilton IV] It came out of the folk craze at the time. There's a lot of great musical artists in the lineup.

LEE:
And who the hell knew they were going to be memorable artists? I didn't know who the hell any of those people were. And they probably didn't know who I was. But when I look back, I say, "Johnny Cash was in it?" And I'd totally forgotten about that.

PCC:
Not to mention Peter Breck.

LEE:
Yes, Peter Breck was darling. I liked him. And I'm so glad that he had the nice, long run on "The Big Valley."

PCC:
Doing the movie "Sergeants 3," that must have been pretty wild, hanging out with the Rat Pack.

LEE:
I've never laughed harder, or more, in my life. I mean it was just plain great fun. Let's not kid ourselves, the guys, when they work, they work. And they work hard and the hours can be long. But Frank made it very easy. He just insisted that everybody be comfortable and happy. And God, did we laugh.

I think we spent more time in Vegas than we did on the set, because Kanab, Utah is what, a half-hour flight or something to Vegas. And the contract had been worked out. And even though Frank was the producer, and his partner Howard Koch, the contract had been worked out that each of the guys -- Frank, Dean, Sammy, Joey -- all played Vegas for a week or two weeks or whatever. So we'd go down from the location for the opening of Frank and then we'd go down for the closing of Frank. And then we'd go down for the opening of Dean and go down for the closing on Dean. So we did a lot of time in Vegas.

And I was never dressed for it, because I thought I was going to be on location in Kanab, Utah, where the classiest thing you've got to do on Saturday night is go watch them serve Dairy Queens. That was about it. So I never had the proper wardrobe. I had one little cotton dress that I brought up for dinner [Laughs]. But it's just amazing how much fun you can have, despite the fact that you're not prepared.

PCC:
And you remained pals with Frank for many years. But you describe in the book the one time he tried to seduce you and you turned him down. Were you worried that might have been the end of the friendship?

LEE:
I probably worried about it at the time. But it obviously didn't change anything. The next day, it's like nothing ever happened. And that went on forever. He did get mad at me one time for no reason at all. But then Frank was quick to do that. He was very volatile. And if he misread or mistook or misunderstood something, he'd blow. And he blew at me. And it had nothing to do with me. But eventually that all got worked out too. And it was just fine.

PCC:
And he did view you as a confidante, so he could even talk to you about his heartbreak over Ava Gardner.

LEE:
Yes, he did. I'd go out to the house. I'm in Laurel Canyon and he's in Coldwater Canyon, or above it. He'd call me up and say, "Loudy [the nickname the Rat Pack had affectionately given her], come over. Let's have dinner." And I'd go over and visit and we'd sit and talk. And it was kind of awesome that he talked so openly about things. Why he trusted me, I don't know. But he did.

And it was very interesting to see the vulnerable side he had. And it was heartbreaking that Ava, who just ruled his heart, never -- well, maybe she did appreciate him at some point, I'm sure she did at the end of her life -- But it just broke my heart that they couldn't make that work out.

PCC:
You've done so much terrific work on television. You seemed very much at home in westerns over the years, handling guns and horses.

LEE:
I think I say in the book that I owe any of that comfort zone to the wranglers, the guys that handle the horses and the cows and the whatever. They literally taught me to get on and off a horse properly, because I'm short. I'm only 5'3" and the horses were usually huge, I don't know how many hands high. And to get on properly, I needed a step before I could reach the stirrup. And they taught me all of those tricks -- pull the horse up to a staircase and step down on the stair. Or pull the horse up to a rock that you could use to ease yourself down.

And they taught me how to use guns, how to shoot them, how to fan the gun. And to this day, I appreciate every one of those guys who ever took the time. And there seemed to be time on the sets to do things. You sat around and swapped stories. I often would sit not with the stars of the show, but with the grips or the wranglers while a shot was being put up. And I learned a lot. A lot of it was -- appreciate what you have and appreciate the people around you.

PCC:
You did a couple of "Rawhide" episodes. What was Clint Eastwood like in those early days.

LEE:
Fabulous, like he always is -- cute, darling, just wonderful. He was married at the time, so there was no even thinking of romance. Although I rarely did think romance of any kind, when I was working with anybody. Work was work.

I did date Eric Fleming [trail boss Gil Favor on "Rawhide"], but it wasn't romance. It was just sort of fun to be together or to do something, go somewhere for the news or the press. But he was darling. And I think I wrote about in the book -- he died a rather awful death. Our friend Nico Minardos [who co-starred with Fleming in the jungle adventure film that killed him] said they didn't talk about it, but it was piranha.

PCC:
Yes, horrible. All I had read previously said simply that he had drowned, without the gory details. He was underrated as an actor. He did a lot of fine work on the series.

LEE:
He did. You know, he had a rebuilt face. He talked about that, that the good looks that he had, he may have had somewhere to start with, but a heavy iron something fell on his head, his face, so it had to be rebuilt. But he sure came out handsome.

PCC:
And you did a "Restless Gun" with John Payne, who had been such a major film star in the 30s and 40s.

LEE:
Yes, in fact, I don't think we got the cover of TV Guide, but we got a lovely, big spread with the foremost leading ladies who did a lot of westerns in those days. I think there were four of us. It was such fun. It was one of those things where, if I didn't get the part, then Fay Spain got it. Or if she didn't get it, somebody else got it. It was usually the same group of girls.

PCC:
On "Wagon Train," you worked with a couple of other veteran movie stars -- Virginia Grey on one episode and Joan Blondell on another.

LEE:
Yes, yes. I barely remember the parts. I remember on one of them, I was injured and Bobby Fuller was playing my husband and we had been friends for a long time, and we're still friends. I still see him every once at a while, at the Gathering of Guns or some sort of a western get-together. And he's still full of piss and vinegar and just as adorable as always.

And you know, his father was one of the big dancers in town. He worked in all the musicals. And I just wonder how come Bobby never learned to tap dance and do all that stuff. Maybe he does, but I guess he does it in western boots.

PCC:
And "The Alaskans," with Roger Moore?

LEE:
Yes. Not too long before he died, you know, he lived in Monaco, and we were on a friend's yacht. He came down and spent every day with us. And it was such fun to sit and schmooze about those early days, before he was an international star, when he was at Warner Brothers. And we laughed about the fact that I chose not to go under contract there, when I was offered a series. I was getting paid more as a guest star than I would under contract. And so the numbers counted.

But he was madly in love with, oh, my God, that pretty little blonde girl, who was in that "Roaring 20's" series.

PCC:
Dorothy Provine?

LEE:
Dorothy Provine. They were madly in love. And I can't remember what happened. She went off and did something else and broke his heart.

PCC:
And "Wild Wild West" -- you had worked with Robert Conrad before on "Hawaiian Eye."

LEE:
I did. I did "Hawaiian Eye" and I did a couple of "Wild Wild Wests." And they were always fun to do. I especially loved the one where I got to play the gypsy with a traveling animal show. And it was such fun, because of all the animals on that one. But the one, the really fabulous actor, fabulous raconteur, and just fabulous human being, was Ross Martin. Oh, boy was he wonderful. He was a good buddy for years and years and years. Bob Conrad was a little more difficult. I think he took himself a little more seriously. But you know, that's the short man's syndrome anyway. But he was so pretty. God, he was beautiful. He was still so pretty in recent years. I did his radio show. But before that, I think it was the Gathering of Guns, where I saw him, in Nashville, I think. And he looked good. And he did still have a sense of humor. He was in a wheelchair, but that's the way it is.

PCC:
You did "The Rebel" with Nick Adams, another good actor who had a bad ending.

LEE:
Oh, yes. God, isn't that sad? We were all kids growing up together. So everybody was equal and even though he was starring in a show -- that was always the nice thing about those early days in television was that nobody took themselves too seriously. Everybody was still beginning and happy to be working. Wow. He was a good actor, too.

PCC:
And it seems like it would have been a lot of fun to do those "Maverick" episodes.

LEE:
Oh, Lord, yes! And I worked with both of them [James Garner and Jack Kelly]. And then who was the third one? There was one more that they brought in.

PCC:
Well, Roger Moore joined the show for a while as their cousin.

LEE:
Oh, was there another one?

PCC:
Oh, yes. Robert Colbert.

LEE:
There you go, Bob Colbert, right. And he was fun, too. Goddamn, everybody was fun. But Jack {Kelly] had a horrendous experience. I don't know whether I talk about this in the book or not. They were up waterskiing at Tahoe and because the Lake gets so busy during the summer, the people that are propelling the ski boats are taught not to cut motor, but to loop around and protect your skier that fell. And Jack fell and the ropes, as he fell, got knotted around his ankle. And he got dragged at full speed as the guy was coming back to cover him, under water, and it cut right through to the bone. And he was in a cast and being repaired for months afterwards.

PCC:
You had a pretty bad accident with James Arness on "Gunsmoke," which you describe in the book.

LEE:
[Laughs] Well, it was kind of fun.

PCC:
He actually knocked you cold?

LEE:
He surely did. He knocked me out... in more ways than one.

PCC:
And then you worked with Audie Murphy [1964's "Bullet for a Badman"]. I guess that was kind of on the downside of his career at that point.

LEE:
Well, he was still kind of the strong leading man. But I guess he was always that way. I didn't know him at all. And what's more, having done a film on location, you usually get to be best buddies from the time you say hello, because you're forced together morning, noon and night and meals and transportation and everything else. But he was such a remote person. He didn't play with everybody else. And he was not quick to laugh. Oh, he'd smile and say hello. But he wasn't the guy you wanted to hang out with and swap dirty stories with, you know? I'm sorry, but I gather that he was a very shy person.

PCC:
As comfortable as you were in westerns, you seemed equally at home in dramatic roles, comedy, as well as musical situations. You could play everything from ingenues to vixens. What enabled you to have that versatility?

LEE:
I don't know. I think because whatever I read in the script, I make myself believe and use old memories or experiences, whether real or imaged or seen elsewhere, on the screen or talked about. I feel like that's probably what helped me, because I believe in what I'm doing and I think it translates to the performance, if you believe what you're doing.

PCC:
You had the opportunity to play one of those vixen characters in a classic "Twilight Zone" episode.

LEE:
That was one of my favorite parts. Those sexy little bitches are so much more fun to play than the goody-two-shoes. And I loved that role. I loved working with Patrick [O'Neal]. I loved our writer [Rod Serling]. But damn it, he smoked, smoked, smoked that cigarette.

PCC:
He had a great sense of humor, too.

LEE:
Wonderful. And talk about a sparkling imagination! I would see him every once in a while, when we were in New York at the same time. We'd have dinner. But it would kill me, because he'd be smoking all through dinner. And I'd be fanning away with the menu.

PCC:
But probably the best writer television has ever seen.

LEE:
Yes. Absolutely.

PCC:
You had guest shots on almost every classic TV series, on many of them, you had roles in several episodes, playing different characters. You did five "Perry Mason" episodes. Did you ever have the big moment where Perry breaks you down on the stand and makes you confess to the murder?

LEE:
Yes... or he didn't have to do it. He was drilling somebody else and then I jumped up and confessed. I don't remember the scripts, but I do remember that Gail Patrick Jackson, who was the producer and had been a big star in her own right in the 30s and the 40s, was one of those women who took me under wing, hired me a lot. And not just hired me, but would have me join herself and her husband and their guests at dinner parties and whatnot. I don't mean every 20 minutes, but once in a while. And it was awesome to me that this big star would give a damn about me. And very, very humbling. And very gratifying.

PCC:
You were in a couple of "Hogan's Hero" episodes. What were your impressions of Bob Crane?

LEE:
Loved him. Of course, I knew nothing about any other kind of life that he might have been living at the time... or not yet living, I don't know. And we would see each other occasionally on the road. I'd be in a play that was coming either before him or after him. And so we would have a little time to have a drink or have a bite to eat or something together. And he was always jovial and wonderful and so eager to laugh. And I think that's why he liked me around, was that we laughed our way through everything.

That whole company was a company of laughter. Wonderful, wonderful people. I had worked with Werner [Klemperer] before he got the series, on a film, in fact the first film to get residuals, when it played on television, a thing called "Operation Eichmann." And he did a very good job of playing Eichmann.

PCC:
And then, doing "The Lucy Show," I guess Lucille Ball could be pretty demanding while working, but fun at home, playing games.

LEE:
Oh, yeah. She was a taskmaster. She brooked no foolishness on the set. That doesn't mean that she didn't have laughs every once in a while. But she liked people who worked furiously and hard and didn't go into way overtime crap. And she appreciated that. And I think that's why I worked with her a lot.

PCC:
Another comedic talent, John Ritter, you worked with on "Three's Company."

LEE:
Yeah, I did. I liked him a lot. He was darling. They were all cute kids. And I, of course, didn't see much of them after that. But I think he went to Hollywood High, as I did.

PCC:
You mention in the book riding the Hollywood High School bus with David and Ricky Nelson.

LEE:
Oh, yeah.That was fun, too. They were already on their parents' series. God, cute people. Wonderful people. Wow! The people I've known. That's great.

PCC:
You worked with Rod Taylor a couple of times.

LEE:
Yes, but I'll be damned, if I can remember in what. A western?

PCC:
There were episodes of "Outlaws" and "Suspicion."

LEE:
There you go. Now I remember. He was wonderful. But he as also a very big drinker. So if you got to spend some time with him before his third or fourth martini, then you had fun. And then beyond that, somehow it was a Jekyll/Hyde sort of situation, where a different personality came into being, that wasn't as kind or funny or loving as the first personality. But he was a wonderful actor and I loved him. We used to spend time together here in Palm Springs. He had a house around the corner from me.

PCC:
And David Janssen, you worked with him on "Richard Diamond" and "The Fugitive." Did he fall into a similar category?

LEE:
Not as far as I know. I know that he liked drinking, too. But I never saw him do anything rude or untoward. And I really liked him a lot. He was one of the first members of The Thalians, after I joined up. And it was such fun, because we'd see each other at events. He was then married to a lovely woman and they were a very cute couple and they'd have us young kids over for drinks or whatever.

PCC:
And you had a chance to work with John Cassavetes on "Johnny Staccato."

LEE:
Yes, but I never got to work with him as an actress working for a director. And I would have liked that. I would have loved him as a director. I'm totally mad for his wife [Gena Rowlands]. Oh, God. I think she is a superior actor. She's just wonderful. And to this day, one of my favorite films is "Gloria." Oh, God she was good in that. What happened to that kid? Did he ever do anything marvelous? Because do you remember how wonderful he was? [John Adames played the young boy, Phil Dawn. He never made another film.]

PCC:
Yes, he made quite an impression. And John Cassavetes himself was such a terrific actor -- the intensity, the edginess, the off-beat humor.

LEE:
Oh, yes.

PCC:
And Mike Connors, he was certainly a strong presence on "Tightrope" and "Mannix."

LEE:
The nicest, sweetest guy. Just the loveliest. And I think the first time I worked with him was on a movie, a thousand years earlier, that was called "The Twinkle in God's Eye." It starred, and I think it was produced, by Mickey Rooney. And it seems to me that I met all kinds of people that I was going to work with later in life -- The Rifleman, Chuck Connors, Michael Connors. Michael Landon. I had absolutely nothing to do in the picture. I played a little chorus girl who danced and carried on. And there was a part that I sort of felt like I should have had and I didn't get it. I got something else. And the girl that got it, I don't know where her career went, but I never heard of her again. One of those things.

PCC:
You auditioned for the role of Ginger on "Gilligan's Island."

LEE:
[Laughs] Yes!

PCC:
That would have changed the course of things.

LEE:
It sure would have. I would have been probably a lot richer. Although, I don't know, those days, people weren't making the kind of money that stars of successful series are now making. I would think that, if she was getting $1,500 a week, it would have been a big deal, you know?

PCC:
Darren McGavin you worked with on a number of projects. I guess he became a close friend, too?

LEE:
Very close friends. We really did become very, very good friends. And I really loved him. As I wrote in the book, without asking, he made a deposit on a house for me [laughs]. And thank God he did. So I always call the house in Palm Springs, "The House that Jack Built," meaning Jack Warner. But I really should have said, "The House that Darren Did."

PCC:
What do you remember about doing "Mod Squad"?

LEE:
The thing that I remember most about that, I didn't go to work one day, which is unbelievable. But I'd spent the night with my head in the toilet, with a 24-hour flu. I was due on the set at six and at five, I called in and said, "I can't make it. I can't stop throwing up. I can't make it."

Well, as luck would have it, a couple of hours later, I was all over it. I was fine. I was great. And that night, I went to a party at Sammy Davis's. And who do I run into but Aaron Spelling, the producer. And he said, "You didn't come to work today. You were sick." I said, "That was this morning. Now I'm fine." [Laughs]. And I thought, "I'll probably never work for him again." But he did continue to hire me. He was also a very good friend that I worked for a lot.

PCC:
And Charles Bronson you worked with a couple of times. Was he the strong, silent type off camera?

LEE:
Yeah, he was strong and silent. But we had a lot to talk about, because of our Lithuanian heritage. And I loved him. And he and his wife then, Jill Ireland, were big supporters of The Thalians. I really liked him.

PCC:
On "Judd For The Defense," you worked with Carl Betz.

LEE:
Wow, he was wonderful. And the one that I really fell in love with on that one -- it was a long one, a two-parter or something -- but I got to work with a fabulously talented guy, Tom Troupe. He played a deaf and dumb person. And ever since then, I've called him "Dummy." And he is married to Carole Cook, who was Lucy's great protege and very much like her. Carole is now 94 or something, but looks fabulous and can still get up and sing the hell out of a song and just give a great performance. They're a totally amazing couple.

PCC:
Your Thalians co-founder, Debbie Reynolds, you're both such high-energy, resilient women. Why do you think you had such a strong bond with her?

LEE:
Because we're both energetic and resilient women [laughs]. She's a Texas gal. And I sort of feel like most people think I was born in Texas. I wasn't. I was born in Montreal, Canada, 100,000 moons away. But she is one of those people that took the lyrics literally out of "Molly Brown" -- "I ain't down yet." And I'm the same. Nothing really gets me down. I seem to want to laugh my way through anything. If it's an old lady falling in the street, I'm going to find something funny about it. And I think that Debbie, in many ways, did the same thing.

And she was exceedingly warm-hearted and generous. Whatever you needed, if she had it, you can have it. She'll give it to you. She'll loan it to you. She'll do whatever it takes to make things work for you. And I learned a lot from her. I learned how to sometimes conserve that little bit of energy, if you have to, because you've got a long, hard show to do, ahead of you, or you've got chores that are going to be difficult. And Lord knows, she never complained. She just plunged ahead.

When I stop and think how I and all those around me and Debbie would have helped her get through stuff, she never called for help. She somehow just managed to work it through. And she was the first to give compliments, when or where they were needed... or even if they weren't needed.

She was always the first to say, "If it hadn't been for Ruta, there wouldn't be a Thalians anymore." Because she had to go on the road and tap dance her ass off to support the debts that her husbands left her, she couldn't deal with The Thalians then. And I became both Chairman of the Board and President for a lot of years. And she was the first to acknowledge and say wonderful things, whether it was to the press or to whoever she was talking to. She was my dearest friend and, of course, I miss her terribly. But I assume that we will catch up someday.

PCC:
We've lost so many of the great stars you knew. Do you take comfort from what you describe in the book, seeing the tapestry of life, meaning we're perhaps we're all still connected even after passing on?

LEE:
Oh, I think we are. I cannot help but, every once in a while, if we're with friends and we mention Debbie or I tell a story about her or one she loved or a song that she loved or whatever, I tend to raise a glass and wink, because I sort of feel her wonderful presence. Debbie loved her wine. Never ever, when she was working. But when the curtain was down, she loved to have a bottle or two of wine [laughs]. And we spent many an hour schmoozing and talking. And I always feel about her presence.

PCC:
And what do you remember most fondly about Carrie Fisher?

LEE:
Carrie was not an integral part of my life. She was, because she was her mother's daughter. But there were periods of time where there was no communication between mother and daughter. But then Debbie was very quick to forget those and get past them.

I would see Carrie. She would come to see her mom and we would sit and have a cup of tea or schmooze or whatever. And she lived on the property. Debbie had the small house, I called it "the gate house." And Carrie had the house that I knew from when Edith Head, the designer at Paramount lived there and I used to do events for her, so I'd go up for fittings and things. But Carrie was not a very inside part of my life. She was always on the periphery.

PCC:
All your tireless efforts on behalf of The Thalians, what has been the most gratifying aspect of that?

LEE:
It somewhat involves Debbie. We could be somewhere or I'll be somewhere or she would be somewhere and somebody would walk up and say, "Excuse me, but I have to tell you that, if it weren't for you and the Thalians, I wouldn't have a son or a daughter," because of the drug situation they were. Or someone would come and say, "Thank you for housing and taking care of my aged mother, when she was suicidal and needed help."

When you get those kinds of pats on the back, totally unexpected, you realize that you are dealing with helping, in some way, the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, whose names we will never know, but hopefully in whose prayers we are. And those kinds of little asides that happen, when someone is thanking you, that's pretty wonderful.

PCC:
You wrote, "I can't look back too often, as I'm driving at a fairly high rate of speed into the future." You find it important to focus on what's ahead?

LEE:
Oh, yeah, because here I am, at my age, 86, and I feel like I'm 42 -- or maybe even less -- and to have that kind of energy.... Looking back has been wonderful, because it's a reminder of some of the neat things that happened that I totally forgot about. But I've got many more adventures to have. And too many places to go and things to do and people to meet and joy to be shared and too many laughs still to be had.

You can find much more about this amazing performer at www.rutalee.com