User:Deepak G Goswami/Ruby Patel

Ruby Patel (1933–18 May 2020) was an Indian theatre and film actor, prominently worked with Parsi theatre.

Personal life
Patel was born in 1933 in Mumbai (then known as Bombay). She was married to another prominent Parsi theatre actor Burjor Patel. In 1988, they moved to Dubai where Burjor joined the Khaleej Times and headed its marketing operations. The family returned to Mumbai in 2009. In an interview in 2012, Burjor expressed his regret for becoming a reason of depriving his wife of her career in acting for over 20 years. The couple had three children and their middle daughter, Shernaz Patel, is a film and theatre actor.

Career
Renowed Parsi theatre director Adi Pherozeshah Marzban helped Patel start her career in theatre at the age of 16 when he watched her performing at a school drama competition. She debuted in Gujarati theatre in 1954 through Marzban's play Pheroja Bhavan in which she was cast with Brujor Patel, who would later become her husband. It was their first play together and subsequently they acted in many Parsi–Gujarati comedies under Marzban direction until the mid 1960s. They became members of the Parsi wing of the Indian National Theatre in 1968 and worked in many plays including Gher Ghungro Ne Ghotalo, Tirangi Tehmul, Hello Inspector and Oogi Dahpun Ni Dadh for the next 10 years. At INT, the couple also performed in Parsi–Gujarati adaptations of Abe Burrows's Cactus Flower and Sumner Arthur Long's Never Too Late. They established Burjor Patel Productions in 1978 and produced several Gujarati and English plays under it. They toured countries in East Africa and the United States receiving critical acclaim.

It launched the stage careers of Rahul da Cunha, Rajit Kapur and their daughter, Shernaz. According to producer and director Vivek Vaswani, "most successful creative partnerships" of Patel were with her husband and actor Hosi Vasunia.

She starred in only one feature film—Percy, a 1989 National Film Development Corporation of India-produced film that won the Best Feature Film in Gujarati at the 37th National Film Awards in New Delhi.

Death
Patel died on 18 May 2020 at the age of 86 in Mumbai.