Albert S. Ruddy

Albert S. Ruddy (born March 28, 1930) is a Canadian-born filmmaker. Born in Montreal, but raised in New York, Ruddy attended Brooklyn Tech before earning a scholarship to study chemical engineering at City College of New York. After graduating from the School of Architecture at the University of California, he went back east to work in the construction industry.

After working at Warner Brothers, thanks to a chance meeting with Jack Warner, Ruddy started working as a programmer trainee at the Rand Corporation. He returned to entertainment, becoming a television writer at Universal Studios, but left when he was hired by Marlon Brando, Sr., the father of the legendary actor, to produce the film, Wild Seed in 1965.

After the film's completion, Ruddy helped create the 1960s television sitcom, Hogan's Heroes with Bernard Fein (CBS, 1965-1971). When the show ended six years later, he produced his second film, Making It, the story of a sexually triumphant high school student who had sex with the gerontophobic wife of his gym teacher. In 1972, Ruddy produced the first of The Godfather films and won the first of his two Oscars for best picture.

After the success of the original Godfather film, Ruddy produced a string of films that, in most cases, either failed to make money, or were unliked by the critics, usually both. His next major film success was with Cannonball Run, although it was a poor film bogged down by pointless cameos and listless performances from the film's two main stars. After the dismal failures of two action flicks, Death Hunt and Megaforce, the later of which received a nomination for the Worst Picture of the year in 1983 from the Golden Raspberry Awards, he produced Cannonball Run 2, which mimicked its predecessor in artistic quality, thus receiving a total of eight Razzies nominations, including one for Worst Picture. After producing Speed Zone! and Miracle in the Wilderness, Ruddy was involved in the television action series, Walker, Texas Ranger, for which he was both co-creator and executive producer.

After making Bad Girls, which was a failure in the box office, he produced a few more films and television movies, before producing, with Clint Eastwood as director, the critically acclaimed Million Dollar Baby. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture for 2004. The following year, he produced the box office hit, The Longest Yard, a remark of a similar film made in 1974. The latest film that he had produced was Cloud Nine.

Awards

 * Won: 2005 Academy Awards Academy Award for Best Picture Million Dollar Baby
 * Won: 1973 Academy Awards Academy Award for Best Picture The Godfather
 * Nomination: 1985 Golden Raspberry Awards Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture Cannonball Run 2
 * Nomination: 1985 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay Cannonball Run 2 (with Hal Needham, Harvey Miller)
 * Nomination: 1983 Golden Raspberry Awards Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture Megaforce

Filmography

 * Wild Seed (1965) (producer)
 * Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970) (producer)
 * Making It (1971) (producer)
 * The Godfather (1972) (producer)
 * The Longest Yard (1974) (producer)
 * Coonskin (1975) (producer)
 * The Macahans (1976) (TV) (producer)
 * Matilda (1978) (producer)
 * Death Hunt (1981) (executive producer)
 * Cannonball Run (1981) (producer)
 * Megaforce (1982) (producer)
 * Lassiter (1984) (producer)
 * Cannonball Run II (1984) (producer)
 * Speed Zone! (1989) (executive producer)
 * Impulse (1990) (producer)
 * Miracle in the Wilderness (1992) (TV) (executive producer)
 * The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 (1992) (V) (producer)
 * Ladybugs (1992) (producer)
 * Walker, Texas Ranger (1993) TV Series (executive producer) (1993)
 * Bad Girls (1994) (producer)
 * The Scout (1994) (producer)
 * Heaven's Prisoners (1996) (producer)
 * Married to a Stranger (1997) (TV) (executive producer)
 * Running Mates (2000) (TV) (executive producer)
 * Mean Machine (2001) (executive producer)
 * Flatland (2002) (TV) (executive producer)
 * Million Dollar Baby (2004) (producer)
 * The Longest Yard (2005) (executive producer)
 * Cloud Nine (2006) (producer)

Writer

 * Hogan's Heroes (1965) (TV)
 * The Longest Yard (1974)
 * Revenge for a Rape (1976) (TV)
 * Matilda (1978)
 * Megaforce (1982)
 * Cannonball Run 2 (1984)
 * Walker, Texas Ranger (1993) (TV)
 * Bad Girls (1994)
 * The Longest Yard (2005)
 * Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire (2005) (TV)
 * Cloud Nine (2006)

Actor

 * Running Mates (2000) (TV)

Art Director

 * The Beast with a Million Eyes (1956)

Miscellaneous

 * Wild Seed (1965) (lyricist) (uncredited)
 * How the West Was Won (1977) (mini) TV
 * How the West Was Won (1978) (mini) TV
 * How the West Was Won (1979) (mini) TV

Notable TV Guest Appearances

 * The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson playing "Himself" 25 April 1972