Albert Ruddy

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Albert S. Ruddy

Born March 28, 1930 (1930-03-28) (age 78)
Canada
Occupation Film producer
Years active 1965-present

Albert S. Ruddy (born March 28, 1930) is a two time Academy Award winning Canada-born producer.

Ruddy was born in Montreal and raised in New York City. Ruddy attended Brooklyn Tech before earning a scholarship to allow him to study chemical engineering at City College of New York. He graduated from the School of Architecture at the University of California and then he worked in the construction industry on the east coast.

After a short stint at Warner Brothers, brought about by a chance meeting with Jack Warner, Ruddy moved on to become a programmer trainee at the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California. Returning to entertainment, Ruddy was a television writer at Universal Studios, but left when Marlon Brando Sr., father of the legendary actor, hired him to produce Wild Seed in 1965.

With this one film completed, Ruddy co-created Hogan's Heroes (CBS, 1965-1971), and when the show's five year run was over, Ruddy produced his second film, Making It (1970), about a sexually triumphant high school student who beds the gerontophobic wife of his gym teacher. In 1972 he produced The Godfather and won his first of two Oscars for Best Picture. In 1974, Ruddy produced The Longest Yard, which was also successful.

The following year, Ruddy produced director/animator Ralph Bakshi's satirical film Coonskin. The film was extremely controversial and initially received negative reviews, although it would eventually earn critical acclaim and develop a following with African American viewers.

Ruddy went on to produce a long string of movies that, in most cases, failed to either make money or please critics, or in some cases both. Though successful at the box office, The Cannonball Run (1981) was not well received by critics. Following two financially unsuccessful action flicks, Death Hunt (1981) and Megaforce (1982), Ruddy returned to produce Cannonball Run II (1984), which was not commercially successful.

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