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Ruth Bickelhaupt was born on December 23, 1921, in Limbach-Oberfrohna, Saxony, and grew up in Limbach, where her parents owned a hotel. She began working in her parents' business at a young age, helping in the kitchen, taking care of the bowling alley, the rooms and the guests' dogs. From 1930 onwards - encouraged and supported by her grandfather - she took ballet lessons at the municipal music school. She made her first major solo appearance in 1939 at the Limbach Municipal Theater - one day before the outbreak of World War II, which put an end to her plans for a career as a dancer.
In 1942 Ruth Bickelhaupt married a pharmacist, Hans, with whom she had a daughter after his return from Russian captivity. Since her husband studied law and later architecture and worked as a draftsman, the family moved 27 times between 1946 and 1967. From 1967 they lived in Berlin, where Hans worked at the GDR's Bauakademie and Ruth at the Gesellschaft für Deutsch-Sowjetische Freundschaft (Society for German-Soviet Friendship). There, until her retirement in 1983, she was primarily responsible for overseeing cultural projects, concerts and art exchanges between the Soviet Union and the GDR.
In 1983, her youngest grandson Axel Ranisch was born and grew up largely with his grandparents. After the death of her husband in 2000, the 79-year-old went through a phase of processing and mourning that lasted several years - followed by new, sheer irrepressible energy: At 83, Ruth Bickelhaupt learned to swim, at 84 to drive go-karts - and at 85, she stood in front of the camera for the first time as an actress: Her grandson Axel Ranisch had cast her alongside Charly Hübner in a supporting role in his 40-minute student film "Der will nur spielen!" (2006), which premiered at the Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival in early 2008.
After further short film roles, she made her debut in a feature film in "Dicke Mädchen" ("Heavy Girls", 2011), again directed by her grandson. In it, she played the lead role of a woman suffering from dementia who is lovingly cared for by her son (Heiko Pinkowski). This performancec marked the beginning of a late career as an actress for Ruth Bickelhaupt. She was a fairy godmother in Ranisch's children's film "Reuber" (2013) and was part of the ensemble of his award-winning tragicomedy "Alki Alki" (2015). Dietrich Brüggemann cast her as a Nazi grandma in his right-wing extremism satire "Heil" (2015), and Philipp Eichholtz as the quick-witted grandma of the title character in the social drama "Luca tanzt leise" ("Dancing Quietly",2016).
Bickelhaupt has also appeared in commercials and music videos and modeled for French street art and photo artist JR. Directed by Corinna Harfouch, she was seen in the dance theater production "Dreizehn Dreizehn" at the Ruhrfestspiele in 2014.
Once again with her grandson as director, the then 95-year-old played an aged actress involved in a murder case in the "Tatort" episode "Waldlust" (2017), followed by a smaller role as a grandmother in Philipp Eichholtz's feature film "Rückenwind von vorn" ("Away You Go", 2018). She also had a supporting role as a grandmother in Ulrich Köhler's "In My Room" (2018); Ina Weisse cast her in a smaller part as an aunt in the family drama "Das Vorspiel" ("The Audition", DE/FR 2019).
When Axel Ranisch was awarded the Prize of the City of Hof for his services to German film at the Hof Film Festival in October 2020, he dedicated the award to Ruth Bickelhaupt.