DENVER (KDVR) — It took many people to create the big-budget movie “Barbie,” the first live-action film in the doll’s history. But the doll itself came from the mind of just one woman from Denver, Ruth Handler.

Ruth and her husband, Elliot Handler, formed the Mattel company with business partner Harold Matson in 1945 after moving to California.

The Handlers had two children, Barbara and Kenneth. While on a family trip to Europe in 1956, looking in a store window, Ruth and Barbara saw dolls modeled after a woman, each with its own outfit.

Ruth and Elliot Handler pose before a display case in their office showing toys they have developed, Aug. 2, 1951. (AP Photo)

“She couldn’t make up her mind which one she wanted because each ski outfit was different,” Ruth Handler told the BCC in 1997.

When the store would not let her buy a single doll with multiple outfits, “my mind had clicked,” Handler said.

Named after Handler’s daughter, the Barbie doll and her variety of clothing and accessories hit the market in 1959. Ken, named after her son, arrived in 1961.

One of Ruth Handler’s first Barbie dolls is displayed at the American Enterprise exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History on the National Mall, Tuesday, June 16, 2015, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Handler, who died in 2002, had a life and career touched by tragedy and scandal. But her work is still part of American life today, and her impact gets a spotlight in the new film.

Ruth Handler’s early life in Denver

Handler was born Ruth Mosko in 1916, the youngest of 10 children. Her parents both emigrated from Poland. Her father arrived in Denver in 1907, followed by her mother and the couple’s first six children in 1908.

After her mother became ill, Handler was raised by her sister and brother-in-law, Sarah and Louie Greenwald.

Through her family, Handler got a first taste of business working at Greenwald’s Soda Fountain. It was inside Home Public Market, an indoor marketplace that stood at 14th and California streets, near the current-day Colorado Convention Center.

Barbie creator Ruth Handler is third from the right in this photo from the 1930s of Greenwald’s Soda Fountain at Home Public Market in Denver. (Photo: Denver Public Library Special Collections, X-24098)

Handler attended East High School, and it was there she met her future husband. She went on to enroll at the University of Denver. But on a trip to California during her sophomore year, she got a job on the West Coast.

Ruth and Elliot married in 1938, later beginning their family and business at a home in California.

Ruth Handler as a character in ‘Barbie’ movie

The film stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken. The pair go on a journey to the real world after leaving Barbie Land.

Ruth Handler appears as a character in the movie, portrayed by Rhea Perlman, the actress best known for her role as waitress Carla Tortelli on “Cheers.”

Rhea Perlman, portraying Ruth Handler, on the set of “Barbie.” (Warner Bros.)

“I didn’t know anything about Ruth Handler until I looked her up when I heard I was playing her. She was quite a fascinating woman. Probably brilliant, really,” Perlman said in an interview released by Warner Bros.

Director and co-writer Greta Gerwig revealed a moment in the film, talking with USA Today, where Barbie meets her creator. Rhea Perlman’s Ruth Handler gives a cup of tea to Barbie, and their hands meet in the style of Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam,” as painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Gerwig was fascinated by Handler’s story, she said in an interview released by the studio. “She had this insight into girls playing,” Gerwig said.

(L-R) Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie and Director/Writer Greta Gerwig on the set of “Barbie.” (Photo: Warner Bros.)

“Girls loved it,” Gerwig said of the doll’s creation. “They loved having the ability… to play with a doll that allowed them to access the imaginary life of an adult.”

After Barbie: Ruth Handler’s later career and life

Ruth Handler took over Harold Matson’s stake in Mattel soon after the company was formed, after he became ill. She served as the company’s president.

During the 1970s, the Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating Mattel. Executives were alleged to have falsified financial documents.

Handler was among those indicted. She had already resigned from the company when in 1978 when she pleaded no contest to charges of fraud and false reporting to the SEC. She maintained her innocence, saying another executive was to blame.

The next phase of her career came out of a significant experience in her personal life. In 1970, Handler was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she underwent a mastectomy the following year.

After her mastectomy, Handler could not find a prosthetic breast that met her standards. She went on to start a new company, Nearly Me, creating prosthetics that were more comfortable and realistic. Betty Ford was among those fitted by Handler herself.

“When I conceived Barbie, I believed it was important to a little girl’s self-esteem to play with a doll that has breasts. Now I find it even more important to return that self-esteem to women who have lost theirs,” she told a reporter.

In 1994, Handler was brought back to Mattel as a company spokesperson, and she released an autobiography. As her professional life and image were rising again, she was also coping with loss. That same year, her son Kenneth died of a brain tumor.

Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler, signs autographs in her hometown of Denver on November 22, 1994, to celebrate 35 years of Barbie. She met fans at Southwest State Bank. (Photo: KWGN)

Throughout her final years, Handler was celebrated by the company she co-founded and by Barbie fans. She appeared at events like an autograph signing in her hometown of Denver in 1994, and at a ringing of the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in 1999.

Handler died of complications following colon cancer surgery on April 27, 2002, at age 85.