Canadian-American film and TV producer Albert S Ruddy, who won Oscars for The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby, has 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.
Al 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, 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 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 on 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). His survivors include onetime journalist Wanda McDaniel, his wife since 1981, who for years was in charge of image management in Hollywood for Giorgio Armani. His children, John and Alexandra, his producing partner and principal at Albert S. Ruddy Productions; and his son-in-law, screenwriter Abdullah Saeed.
"To his contemporaries in the business, Ruddy is best remembered for his easy-going nature, his undeniable comedic sense and his undying interest in people and the stories we tell," his family said.
"Among his last words [were], 'The game is over, but we won the game,'" according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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