From Vienna to Movies:
Costume Designer Ruth Morley at 100, a birthday commemoration.
Presentation by Melissa Hacker and Susan Gammie

Ruth Morley (1925-1991) fled her childhood home in Vienna on a Kindertransport as an unaccompanied child refugee, arrived in New York City as a teenager, and became a noted costume designer whose career spanned decades and disciplines, including dance, opera, theater, film and television. Her film credits include American classics Tootsie, Annie Hall, Taxi Driver, The Chosen, Kramer vs Kramer and The Hustler; her theater, opera and dance credits include Death of Salesman (with Dustin Hoffman), The Threepenny Opera, Deathtrap, Miracle Worker (stage and film, for the film, she received an Oscar nomination), Billy Budd, the Golem, and many more. Television includes Playing for Time with Vanessa Redgrave and Mussolini with George C Scott and Robert Downey Jr. Over her expansive career of nearly 40 years, she was an inspiration to the many young designers she taught (at New York University and Brandeis) and mentored. While her career was cut short when she died of breast cancer in 1991 at age 65, her contribution to costume design has not ended. In her centennial year, the time is right for commemorating and honoring her legacy.

Image: Ruth Morley at her Desk, not dated.

Melissa Hacker is the daughter of a Kindertransport survivor from Vienna, Austria, and the Executive Director of the Kindertransport Association. Melissa is a filmmaker who made her directing debut with the documentary My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports, which was short-listed for Academy Award nomination and shown worldwide. Honors received For Ex Libris, A Life in Bookplates, Melissa’s current work in progress, include a Fulbright Artist-in-Residence award in Vienna, and residencies at Yaddo, VCCA, Playa, Willapa Bay AIR, Saltonstall, Millay, and the LABA Laboratory for Jewish Culture.

Melissa has spoken internationally on the Kindertransports, consulted on exhibits including Rescuing Children on the Brink of War created at the Center for Jewish History in New York and opening at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum in September 2025, and Without a Home: Kindertransports from Vienna, at the Vienna Jewish Museum. Melissa is the editor of two Academy Award nominated documentary films, a wandering professor, most recently in Yangon, Myanmar, and serves on the Governing Board of the World Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants.

Susan Gammie:  Susan is grateful for Ruth’s influence in her life, first as her assistant and then as her protégé and close friend.  She was Ruth’s assistant for 5 years working in both film and theatre, on films including “Tootsie” and “The Money Pit” and the Broadway production of Death of a Salesman starring Dustin Hoffman that was later adapted for film. Her years as Ruth’s assistant left her well-prepared for her own work in independent film, as costume designer on My Little Girl” (James Earl Jones, Geraldine Page), “A Gathering of Old Men” (Holly Hunter, Lou Gossett Jr.), “Georgia O’Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz: A Marriage” (Jane Alexander and Christopher Plummer), and Lee Grant’s “Hard Promises” (Sissy Spacek and William Petersen).  

Her career took an unexpected turn when ABC television sought to modernize the production values on its long running soap opera One Life to Live and Susan was hired to create a more character- driven look for the show. Susan stayed at One Life for 21 years, and designed over 5000 episodes, receiving 10 Emmy nominations and 3 Emmy awards along the way. A lifelong political and community activist, Susan’s career took one more turn when, in 2015 she became the head of the Film and Television Department at United Scenic Artists, IATSE Local USA 829. She retired from her job at the Union in 2022, but still serves the Local in an elected capacity, as an Eastern Region Board Member Rep. She also has served for 10 years on Manhattan Community Board 2, where she is Vice Chair of its Landmarks and Public Aesthetics Committee.