Albert S Ruddy leaves the world at 94

Canadian American film and TV producer Albert S Ruddy, who won Oscars for ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Million Dollar Baby’, passed away at the age of 94, according to ‘The Hollywood Reporter’. Ruddy was also credited as one of the creators of the long-running CBS police drama ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’.

Ruddy took his last breath at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles after being admitted for the treatment of a brief illness, his family announced through a publicist.

Albert Ruddy has some major credits to his name, such as the CBS sitcom ‘Hogan Heroes’, which he co-created. The producer is also known for the long-running CBS drama ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ and ‘The Longest Yard’. Burt Reynolds and the producer, after ‘The Longest Yard’, reunited in ‘The Cannonball Run’ and its sequel in 1984.

According to his family, he also produced films such as ‘Bad Girls’ (1994), the first western with all-female leads (Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore); the baseball comedy ‘The Scout’ (1994), starring Albert Brooks and Brendan Fraser and ‘Matilda’ (1978), a comedy that featured Elliott Gould and a boxing kangaroo that Ruddy wrote as well.

Ruddy ran into problems with his next ‘Paramount’ feature, the animated/live-action comedy ‘Coonskin’ (1975), following his great success with ‘The Godfather’ and ‘The Longest Yard’. The Harlem-set picture, a parody of racial relations written and directed by Ralph Bakshi, sparked protests and was labelled racist, thus ‘Paramount’ decided not to distribute it.

Ruddy’s other producing efforts included ‘Death Hunt’ (1981), ‘Megaforce’ (1982), ‘Lassiter’ (1984), starring Tom Selleck; the Rodney Dangerfield soccer movie ‘Ladybugs’ (1992), ‘Prisoners’ (1996), ‘Mean Machine’ (2001), ‘Camille’ (2008), ‘Sabotage’ (2014) and ‘Cry Macho’ (2021). He also wrote and produced ‘Cloud Nine’ (2006).