'Barbie' Movie: Rhea Pearlman's Role as Creator Ruth Handler Explained

etonline.com:

movie was chock-full of Barbies and Kens — and even a Skipper, an Allan, and a Midge! However, one cameo fans may not have been expecting came during a climactic chase scene when Margot Robbie's Stereotypical Barbie is trying to escape Mattel headquarters.Barbie stumbles upon an odd room somewhere in the bowels of the office building, and finds a woman, played by actress Rhea Pearlman, seated at a table in a nostalgic-looking kitchen set.

The pair share some words and the mysterious woman aids in Barbie's escape — only to turn up at the end of the movie to help Barbie complete her journey into the Real World as a human being.The woman Pearlman is playing isn't a random character, however.

She's the spirit of Ruth Handler, the creator of the Barbie doll and co-founder of Mattel, who brought the iconic toys to households all over the world.Ruth was born Ruth Marianna Mosko on Nov.

4, 1916, in Denver, Colorado, the daughter of Polish-Jewish immigrants. She married her high school sweetheart, Elliot Handler, in 1938, and the pair moved to Los Angeles, where Elliot got into the furniture business.Ruth and Elliot Handler.There are multiple versions of the story about how Ruth was inspired to create the Barbie doll — some say she wanted to create a three-dimensional version of her daughter's paper dolls, others say she was inspired by a busty, adult-looking doll on a trip to Europe at a time when baby dolls were all the rage.However it came to be, it was a success.