Internationally acclaimed sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who tore down taboos with her open, nonjudgmental and good-humored public conversations about human intimacy, has died. She was 96 years old.
According to her longtime publicist Pierre Lehu, Westheimer died peacefully on Friday at her home in New York City. The cause of death was not publicly shared.
Westheimer became a household name in the early 1980s when she was in her 50s, for her frank approach to discussing sex on her popular late-night radio show, “Sexually Speaking”.
She continued her work on TV with ‘The Dr. Ruth Show’, which by 1985 attracted 2 million viewers a week. She also shared her knowledge in dozens of books including “Dr. Ruth’s Guide to Good Sex” and “Sex for Dummies”, on the web and in the classroom. She taught at Yale, Princeton and Columbia Universities as well as Hunter College.
When she wasn’t telling people to “get some”, she was racking up Toobworld appearances, enough to qualify her for membership in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame as a member of the League of Themselves.
From Wikipedia:
Karola Ruth Westheimer (née Siegel; June 4, 1928 – July 12, 2024), better known as Dr. Ruth, was a German and American sex therapist and talk show host.
Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish family. As the Nazis came to power, her parents sent the 10-year-old girl to a school in Switzerland for safety while they remained behind because of her elderly grandmother. Both were killed in concentration camps. After World War II, she emigrated to British-controlled Mandatory Palestine. At 4 feet 7 inches (140 cm) tall and 17 years of age, she joined the Haganah, and was trained as a sniper. On her 20th birthday, she was wounded in action by an exploding shell during mortar fire on Jerusalem during the 1947–1949 Israeli War of Independence, and almost lost both feet.
In 1984 The New York Times noted that she had risen "from obscurity to almost instant stardom." She hosted several series on the Lifetime Channel and other cable television networks from 1984 to 1993. She became a household name and major cultural figure, appeared on several network TV shows, co-starred in a movie with Gérard Depardieu, appeared on the cover of People, sang on a Tom Chapin album, appeared in several commercials, and hosted Playboy videos.
Here are Dr. Ruth’s TVXOHOF-worthy credits. (Unfortunately I haven't found enough pictures to represent them all....)
THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW
S20E27 (1982)
Charles Grodin, Kaye Ballard, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Anita Morris
O’Bservation:
This talk show had a televersion, thanks to an episode of ‘Seinfeld,’ so Dr. Ruth’s televersion would have appeared on it.
9 EPISODES (1982–1986)
MOONLIGHTING
When a con woman escapes from the custody of a crooked detective she accidentally stops an assassin killing an American senator. Addison has the bright idea of employing Camille to raise the profile of the company.
MELROSE PLACE
FRIENDS & LOVERS (1992)
Billy finds romance in his new job; Jake is arrested. Dr. Ruth has a cameo.
QUANTUM LEAP
LIBERATION - OCTOBER 16, 1968 (1993)
At the end of the episode, Sam leaps into Dr. Ruth Westheimer in the teaser for Dr. Ruth - April 25, 1985 (1993).
This was the only time that he leaped into two women in a row.
Sam Beckett as Dr. Ruth Westheimer
DR. RUTH – APRIL 25, 1985 (1993)
Sam leaps into the sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, plays matchmaker for a couple on the staff of her radio show and helps a woman deal with sexual harassment.
Sam leaps into Dr. Ruth Westheimer the well-known sex therapist just as she is in the middle of her radio call-in show. Al tells him he's there to help two of Dr. Ruth's staff, Doug and Debbie, to stick together. Sam thinks he's there to help a young woman, Annie Wilkins, who called into the show to say she was being pressured by her boss, Jonathan, to have sex. Sam convinces her to quit her job and Jonathan says Annie is just fantasizing. In the blue room meanwhile, the real Dr. Ruth has advice for Al who, she says, seems to go out of his way to sabotage all of his relationships.
One of several episodes of the fifth season where Sam's mind merges with the person he's leaped into, but the only time it doesn't prove a hindrance.
The only episode (apart from the finale) where Sam isn't seen leaping at the end; instead, they show Dr. Ruth in the waiting room being leaped into by a man wearing fangs, presumably a vampire. This is the only episode in which the leapee is seen being replaced in the Waiting Room by another leapee rather than Sam's next leap.
LOVE BOAT: THE NEXT WAVE
BLIND LOVE (1999)
ALLY McBEAL
SEX, LIES, AND POLITICS (1999)
Although Ally has finalized things with Billy, now she's trying to patch things up with Greg, but the jealousy gets to both of them. John and Ling are in court together in a case against a Senator, and John trains Ling on his usual tricks.
HOLLYWOOD SQUARES
10 EPISODES (2003–2004)
HEAD CASES
PILOT (2005)
Rebounding from a nervous breakdown, Attorney Jason Payne ventures forward with his own firm.
TODAY
2 EPISODE (2015 & 2019)
O’Bservation:
The ‘Today’ show is not in the TVXOHOF… yet. But one day it will be, and that can be traced to its fictional televersion, following the path set by ‘The Merv Griffin Show’ – appearing in a ‘Seinfeld’ episode.
THE VIEW
1 EPISODE (2019)
And here is Dr. Ruth with other members of the Hall:
With Regis Philbin
With Shari Lewis & Lambchop
With Joan Rivers & Miss Piggy (future member)
Probably photoshopped
Welcome to the Crossover Hall, Dr. Ruth.Hopefully I will find more pictures to grace your tribute....
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