Ruth Gabriel Ruth Gabriel is a Spanish actress who played Ruth in the Spanish " Sesame Street " co - production " Barrio Sésamo " . Ruth Sánchez Bueno was born on July 10th , 1975 in San Fernando , Cádiz ( Spain ) . When she was five , during a visit to Prado del Rey with her class , she happened to be overheard quoting the sentence from Marilyn Monroe in " Bus Stop " : " My mouth was dry enough to spit cotton " . She was cast in the 1981 TV series " La Cometa Blanca , " along with Mari Luz Olier and Alfonso Vallejo . At that time , Ruth ' s stage name was Ruth Abellán , and her character shared her first name . Lolo Rico , director of " La Cometa Blanca " , inserted sketches from " Sesame Street " in the series , in order to provide the young target audiences with a reference . In 1983 , " Sesame Street " had its second chance in Televisión Española . Ruth Abellán reprised her role from " La Cometa Blanca " during the entire run of the series , from 1983 to 1987 . Afterwards Ruth Sánchez Bueno simply disappeared from the public eye . She reappeared seven years later , now as a beautiful 19 - year - old actress . She was at a night club and dressed as one of the characters in Neil Jordan ' s " The Crying Game " ( 1992 ) , because she wanted to play a joke on a friend of hers , by making him think that she was a transvestite . Coincidentally , Spanish celebrities Montxo Armendáriz , Javier Gurruchaga and Imanol Uribe were having drinks at the same pub . Uribe noticed Ruth ' s rear end in her very tight clothes and decided that it was one of the physical features he needed for Charo , the main female character in his next movie , " Días Contados " ( 1994 ) ( Internationally known as " Numbered Days " , " Running Out of Time " or " With the Days Numbered " in Hong Kong ) . Uribe , co - writer , co - producer and director of the movie , rechristened her Ruth Gabriel and immediately cast her as Charo , a heroine - addicted teenage prostitute living in Madrid who meets and begins a relationship with an ETA member ( Carmelo Gómez ) who has come to Madrid to commit terrorist acts . The movie is a thriller about hopelessness and heterogeneous relationships , showing characters without a future , and it was an immediate success . For Ruth Gabriel it was a risky role because it required full nudity . For her work on the film , Ruth Gabriel won the Newcomer Award of the Spanish Actors Union , defeating Elvira Mínguez and Candela Peña ( for the same movie ) , and also won the Ondas Award , tied with both of her partners for the movie . She was nominated for both Best New Actress and Lead Actress Award of the IX edition of the Goyas , the most prestigious film awards in Spain . Again , she won Best New Actress defeating Mínguez and Peña , and was given her award by Sergio Cabrera and Cristina Marcos . She lost the lead actress award to Cristina Marcos who was nominated for " Todos los hombres sois iguales " ( 1994 ) . Suddenly a star , Ruth Gabriel was offered many roles . During 1995 she worked in " Sinais of fogo " , a coproduction of Spain , Portugal and France , and also under Antonio Eceiva in " Felicidades Tovarich " , which allowed her to meet and work with prestigious Spanish actor Francisco Rabal . She worked from 1996 to 1998 in the TV series " Querido maestro " , with more veteran stars such as Imanol Arias , Ana Duato or Emma Suárez . She had hoped to star in the movie " Perdita Durango " ( 1997 ) when it was to be directed by Bigas Luna . However , the movie eventually passed to director Álex de la Iglesia ' s hands , who chose Rosie Perez for the main role . During 1997 , she managed to work on another TV show , the mini series " Nostromo " , featuring Colin Firth . Joseph Conrad ' s " Nostromo " was nominated for the ALMA Award for Outstanding Latino / a Cast in a Made - for - Television Movie or Mini - Series . In the same year , she also appeared in a role in Enrico Colletti ' s " Il Tocco : la sfida " ( aka " Rack Up " or " The Cuemaster " ) , a Spanish - Italian coproduction starring Franco Nero . She also had a chance to work with acclaimed director Agustí Villaronga in " 99 . 9 " , a thriller using paranormal activities , witchcraft and primitive Spain as a background . It was one of her few movies that went to cinema screens instead of TV . The movie was a critical success both because of the director and the cinematography . In 1998 she worked in the drama " Doña Bárbara " , a classic work by Rómulo Gallegos , directed by Betty Kaplan and starring Jorge Perugorría . Gabriel played Marisela , the daughter of Doña Bárbara . She has also had an appearance as herself in " According to Occam ' s Razor " ( 1999 ) . After this time she had mostly secondary roles , not achieving the success that her early awards suggested . She worked again with Villaronga for " Sinfín " ( 2002 ) , a thriller also featuring María Barranco and Terele Pávez . In 2003 she appeared in projects such as mini series " La Mari " ( nominated for the best TV movie to the " Premios de la Academia de las Ciencias y las Artes de Televisión " ) and " Historia de Estrella " ( same nomination ) . She also worked under Rafael Alcázer for " Besos de gato " , nominated for best direction at the Málaga Film Festival .