Six Feet Under

Ruth O'Connor Fisher (1946–2025), played by Frances Conroy, is the widow of Nathaniel and mother of three.

Ruth tends to keep her emotions bottled away and assume a subservient role; growing up, Ruth was obliged to serve as caretaker for her crippled grandmother, who was verbally abusive. Ruth dresses plainly and is often considered "out of touch" and naive by others, frequently taking people at face value.

Ruth marries Nathaniel Fisher in 1965 after becoming pregnant with her first child, Nate, who is born while Nathaniel is serving in Vietnam. Four years later she gives birth to another son, David. Their third and final child, Claire, is born much later, in 1983. Trapped in a maternal role at a young age, Ruth felt resentment toward her younger sister Sarah, an artist who Ruth sees as a free spirit. This was worsened by an incident in which her son Nate lost his virginity while under his aunt Sarah's supervision; Ruth and Sarah were estranged for years afterward.

Shortly before the series begins, Ruth has an affair with her hairdresser, Hiram Gunderson, who takes her camping. After Nathaniel's sudden death, she calls off the affair to mourn but rekindles the relationship months later. Seeing as her responsibilities as a housewife are now relieved, Ruth takes a job at a flower shop where the owner Nikolai becomes infatuated with her. Hiram then breaks up with Ruth and she begins seeing Nikolai. Their relationship ends when Nikolai is robbed and beaten by a Russian mob and Ruth offers to pay off his debt. Ruth ends their relationship when Nikolai becomes bored with Ruth and is ungrateful for what she did.

Ruth finds herself at odds with the women in Nate's life, and also has strained relations with her own children most of the time. Ruth becomes obsessed with her granddaughter Maya after her birth and starts a friendship with a new friend Bettina, Sarah's caretaker.

During her daughter-in-law's disappearance, Ruth struggles with her emotions and her self-imposed role of matriarch-in-control. During this time, she meets and marries geologist George Sibley after only six weeks of courtship. Ruth discovers unpleasant facts about her new husband's past, including multiple wives and an estranged son. Over time, George becomes increasingly paranoid, particularly with beliefs regarding an inevitable nuclear apocalypse, forcing Ruth to admit him for treatments including electro-convulsive therapy. Finding it hard to deal with his subsequent memory loss and emotional instability, Ruth decides to set George up with a life separate from hers before eventually divorcing him.

After Nate Jr's death, Ruth decides she needs a change in her life and moves in with her sister and Bettina. Ruth dies in 2025 of old age at a hospital with George and her surviving children at her bedside.