In his 1953 testimony, the
actor Lee J. Cobb, identified Ruskin as a member of the communist party. When
called before the committee Ruskin danced around the question “Are you a member
of the communist party?”
He likened the committee
members to Nazi’s and was dismissed after, perhaps, ten minutes or less before
the committee.
From 1938 through 1953,
Ruskin was in a total of 45 films and two television series. He was uncredited
in 37 of them. In the remaining 6, he had no speaking role was but given screen
credit.
In 1965, Ruskin and 10
Hollywood writers, directors and actors shared in an $80,000 out‐of‐court settlement of a suit
that had charged the Motion Picture Association of America and all its
corporate members except United Artists, with maintaining a blacklist.