Thelma Ruby (born "Thelma Wigoder" on 23rd March 1925 in Chapel Allerton, Leeds) appeared on Coronation Street between June and July 1996 as Lily Dempsey, a friend of Phyllis Pearce, who was also a resident of Mayfield Court.
She trained to be an actress at Finch Junior College in New York where she and her mother lived for four years during World War II. Her first job was entertaining wounded servicemen in hospitals all over England with ENSA until June 1945. Her first real acting job was in repertory, with Harry Hanson's Court Players a year later.
Her other television credits include roles in The Army Game, Witch Hunt, Before the Fringe, Nicholas Nickleby, Rogues' Gallery, Alexander the Greatest, Neighbours, Bluebell, So Haunt Me, Doctors, Bad Move and Dad's Army: The Lost Episodes.
Film roles include Where There's a Will, Johnny You're Wanted, Room at the Top, The Man Who Liked Funerals, Invasion Quartet, The Wild and the Willing, Live Now - Pay Later, A Home of Your Own, The Sell Out, Leon the Pig Farmer and Back to Black.
On stage, she appeared in productions of Three Waltzes, Harlequinade, Ring Round the Moon, The Buccaneer, For Amusement Only, The Hamlet of Stepney Green, Once Upon a Mattress, Stop the World I Want to Get Off, The Rose and the Ring, Jorrocks, Fiddler on the Roof, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, So Who Needs Men!, Kvetch, Allegro, Leave It To Me, Out of This World, Spread a Little Happiness, Finian's Rainbow and Many Roads to Paradise.