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Ruth Sobotka (born in Vienna, Austria, September 4, 1925 - died in New York City, June 17, 1967); dancer, costume designer, art director, painter, and actress. The daughter of prominent Austrian architect and interior designer, Walter Sobotka (1888-1972) and Viennese actress, Gisela Schönau; niece of noted scientist, Harold Sobotka (d. 1965), Ruth Sobotka immigrated to the United States from Vienna in 1938. She studied set design at The University of Pennsylvania and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. After studying at the School of American Ballet, Sobotka became a member of George Balanchine's Ballet Society (1946-1948) and a soloist with The New York City Ballet from 1949-1961. She also designed the costumes for the Jerome Robbins' controversial ballet The Cage (1951) and played Robbins' wife in Tyl Eulenspiegel (1951). Sobotka appeared in many successful Balanchine ballets including The Four Temperaments (1946); Serenade, Apollo, Symphony in C (1946); Swan Lake (pas de quatre) (1951); The Nutcracker (1954); Ivesiana (1954) Agon (1958) and The Figure in the Carpet (1961). Sobotka also danced in James Waring's company and for other major American choreographers. She appeared as "The Girl" in Man Ray's segment "Ruth, Roses and Revolvers" in the groundbreaking avant-garde film by Hans Richter, Dreams That Money Can Buy (1946). Ruth Sobotka was second wife of film director Stanley Kubrick. She and Kubrick met in 1952; they married in January 1955; separated in 1958, and divorced in 1961. Sobotka appeared in a cameo role in Kubrick's "Killer's Kiss" (1954) and served as art director on the sets of Killer's Kiss and Kubrick's subsequent feature, The Killing (1956). After her resignation from the NYC Ballet in 1961, Sobotka studied acting under Herbert Bergoff, Uta Hagen and later Lee Strasberg at The Actor's Studio. She appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions and was a member of the Seattle Repertory Theatre during their first season in 1963, playing Cordelia in King Lear . Sobotka died after a brief illness in 1967.

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