[3] He had studied English in secondary school, but found it difficult to understand native speakers, so he spent six months living in London in order to develop an ear for the language.

[3] Ruben stayed with Bernhardt for the next four years, playing in a large repertoire of French-language productions throughout France, England, and other parts of Europe.

[3] Beginning with L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand in Chicago on October 31, 1910,[4] the tour performed a different production from its repertoire of twenty plays each night.

Lost among a troupe of forty-six, with the critics attention focused almost exclusively on Bernhardt, it is not possible to detail Ruben's contribution to the tour, which finished up with Camille in New York City on June 21, 1911.

[6] When teaching at Barnard College in 1944, a school reporter asked him about Sarah Bernhardt, to which he "reluctantly" replied: "She was a great actress in that time, but I dread to think of how audiences would react to her today".

[7] Through Bernhardt's American business manager Ruben met producer George C. Tyler,[fn 1] who in turn introduced him to Robert Hichens and Mary Anderson.

[8] Ruben was one of only two supporting actors singled out for praise by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reviewer, and also earned commendation from the New York World critic.

While the animals were housed in a nearby stable, those cast members actually from North Africa were accommodated in a warehouse, since no Chicago hotel would accept them as guests.

During the early fall of 1914, Madame Yorska's troupe toured on a vaudeville circuit in a one-act play called Days of War, with Ruben as the male lead.

With his fourth Biograph short, Ashes of Inspiration, Ruben became the central figure in the storyline, an artist torn between his wife and his muse.

[25] His first longer work was a Biograph special three-reeler, produced in association with Klaw and Erlanger, titled His Hand and Seal,[26] from a story by Carolyn Wells.

It was perhaps a measure of desperation that saw him join the Washington Square Players (WSP), a semi-amateur troupe that drew lots of critical attention but which couldn't afford to match professional Broadway salaries.

[35] Midway thru this four-month run Ruben played the lead in a special matinee for WSP subscribers only,[36] and was also the subject of a profile in The New York Times.

[45][46] The reviewer for Brooklyn Life said Ruben's acting "is not eclipsed even by that of so great an actress as Mrs. Fiske, and he far surpasses any member of her supporting company".

[55] Ruben had more success partnering with Olive Wyndham in an English translation of Georges Courteline's The Fine System, which played on the B. F. Keith vaudeville circuit during May and June 1918.

[69] Ruben applied for his first passport as a US Citizen on May 1, 1920,[70] giving his destination as England and his reason for travelling as "To visit my wife Mary Nash now playing in London".

[76] Ruben played a deformed, malignant smuggler in the Spanish Pyrenees, who stabs his wife Guerita (Mary Nash) when she betrays him with a young soldier (Curtis Cooksey).

[84] He had begun another film, When Knighthood Was in Flower, earlier in the year but suffered a serious eye injury on the set that forced him to stop all performing work.

[109] A cynical satire on war profiteers and sham patriots by Marcel Pagnol and Paul Nivoix, its humor didn't translate well from the original French.

[110] That spring Ruben reprised his portrayal of Oswald Alving in Ghosts, a production of the Actors' Theatre that co-starred Lucile Watson.

[115] Ruben appeared briefly in a successful gangster melodrama called Speakeasy in late summer 1927,[116] but then had to return to Closed Doors, now renamed Jacob Slovak, when it resumed production in October 1927.

[119] This period also saw the production of Alice Takat, adapted by Ruben from a Hungarian story by Dezső Szomory, which opened on Broadway on February 10, 1936.

During the fall of 1943 the "Wigs and Cues" student drama club at Barnard College mounted a production of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II.

[122] Ruben was asked by English department head Dr. Minor Latham to direct the student-chosen production,[7] which was performed on December 16–17, 1943 at the college's Brinckerhoff Theatre.

[130] During 1944, Ruben branched out to staging operas and related musical performances, starting with the Belmont Operetta Company at New York City Center.

[2] The New York Daily News ran a 16-line obituary that concluded with this career highlight: "In 1916, he played in a performance which marked the stage debut of Katherine [sic] Cornell".

[2] According to both his Petition for Naturalization (1913) and his Passport Application (1920), Ruben stood 5'7" (170.2 cm) and weighed 150 pounds (68 kg), with dark hair and blue eyes.

[2] While teaching at Barnard College in 1944, Ruben was interviewed by a reporter for the school paper, who said he "spoke British",[7] presumably meaning his English followed Received Pronunciation.

She also described him at age 60: "...smokes with an amber cigarette holder: wears neat, gentle clothes, horn-rimmed glasses, and uses the bilinguist's rather vivid vocabulary".

[7] Victoria "Torrie" Wehrum (1909-1990),[149] head of the Book Department of Bloomingdale's,[150] and Ruben were married on September 29, 1949, in Manhattan,[151] and remained so at his death in 1969.