Ruth Fisher

Infobox SFU character
Title=Ruth Fisher


Name=Ruth O'Connor Fisher Sibley
Age=61
Birth=February 21, 1946
Death=March 15, 2025
Place=Pasadena, California
Profession=Homemaker/Flower Arranger
Actor=Frances Conroy

Ruth Fisher is a fictional character on the HBO television series "Six Feet Under" played by Frances Conroy. She is very bitter about her past, neurotic and obsessive.

Biography

Ruth O'Connor Fisher Sibley (1946–2025) is the widow of Nathaniel and mother of three: Nate, David and Claire.

Prior to Pilot

Ruth Fisher was born in Pasadena in 1946. She graduated from Pasadena High School in 1963 and never had the chance to go to college or enjoy her youth because she had to take care of her double amputee grandmother. She married Nathaniel Fisher in 1965 after becoming pregnant and raised their children — Nate, David and Claire — while helping him build up his mortuary business. Ruth felt Nathaniel was distant and near the end of their marriage she began to have an affair with a hairdresser, Hiram (Ed Begley Jr.) who taught her how to explore her sexuality.

During the series

When Nathaniel was suddenly killed, Ruth constantly feared being alone and struggled to accept Nate's relationship with Brenda, Claire's need for independence, and David's homosexuality. She gave David and Nate money to keep the business afloat, and for a time stayed away from Hiram. They reunited (in one memorable episode, she accidentally took Ecstasy, chased mascots, and had the best sex of her life), but when he wanted to date another woman, she happily let him go. To get out of the house, she worked at a florist's shop and dated her boss, Nikolai, but after she paid off his mob debts, he grew distant and she left. She attended a self-help seminar called "The Plan" around this time but soon grew sick of it, but not before using its techniques to reconcile with her free-spirited sister Sarah.

Ruth was delighted to become a grandmother (to Nate's daughter Maya) but still felt alone, and began a friendship with her sister's adventurous caretaker, Bettina. She thought assistant Arthur was interested in her, until his lack of physical attraction to her sent her on a rebound marriage to George Sibley, whom she hardly knew. She learned his secrets, including the existence of a long-lost son she forced him to reestablish communication with, his six previous marriages, and his profound psychological problems stemming from his own mother's bizarre and cruel behavior.

After George suffered a mental breakdown due to his mother's suicide during his early childhood, Ruth felt smothered taking care of him and enlisted the help of his daughter Maggie Sibley to help her. After George recovered, the two separated. Ruth called up Hiram again to go camping, but found she was no longer attracted to him. Nate suffered an AVM seizure while Ruth was hitchhiking home. By the time she arrived, Nate had already died from complications. She lashed out at David and implied it was his fault that Nate had died, but broke into tears when David angrily exclaimed "At least I was there!"

Ruth was devastated by the loss of her eldest son, but when she learned his final moments with Maggie Sibley were happy, she found some comfort. She later resumed a relationship with George, who helped her deal with Nate's death, and helped her look after Maya when Brenda asked her to take care of the toddler for a while. Ruth and George planned to move in together, but Ruth changed her mind at the last minute, preferring her independence. Ruth and George remained in separate residences but stayed together for the rest of her life. Ruth was devastated again when Brenda angrily decided to take Maya and go live with her mom (because she was taking out her anger over Nate's abandoning her right before his death) and along with Claire's desire to move away Ruth fell into a dangerous depression. But she resolved this by unfreezing a trust fund that had been set up for Claire and encouraging her daughter's independence, and later Brenda came to her for help and Ruth promised to be there for her grandchildren.

Ruth's future and death

Following the events of the series finale, Ruth lets David and Keith have her home, moves in with Sarah in Topanga Canyon and opens the Four Paws Pet Retreat with Bettina's help. Ruth died in 2025 at Good Samaritan Hospital of Glendale at age 79 with David, Claire and a sobbing George at her bedside. The last things she saw were Nathaniel, her former husband, and then Nate.