Al Ruddy, the Oscar Award-winning producer behind The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby, has died at age 94. He passed away Saturday at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, according to a statement by a family spokesperson. The cause of his death was described as a “brief illness”. Ruddy leaves behind Hollywood career spanning over fifty years, where he was the producer behind several big-name projects that have since become household names and cinematic classics.
Al Ruddy entered the production scene back in 1965 with Wild Seed, which he produced with Marlon Brando, Sr. Following it’s release, Ruddy would move on to television, teaming up with Bernard Fein to create Hogan’s Heroes, a CBS sitcom that proved to be a hit and would run for six seasons until the curtains closed in 1971. Al Ruddy would return to producing movies in the early 70s, just in time to make the biggest break of his career as he was hired to produce an adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather.
Behind the Man Behind ‘The Godfather’: Who Was Al Ruddy?
In 1972, Al Ruddy would board The Godfather as it’s sole producer. The film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starred Marlon Brando Jr., Al Pacino, and James Caan, to name a few. Brando stars as Vito Corleone, the don of the Corleone crime family, with Caan and Pacino as two of his sons – Sonny and the eventual heir Michael, respectively. The movie follows the Corleone family as war erupts between the Five Families, filled with backstabbing, betrayal, death, and secrecy. The Godfather would become the highest-grossing movie of 1972, and it’s gone down in history as a must-see classic, especially in the crime genre.
Following his work on The Godfather, Al Ruddy would win his first Oscar for Best Picture, along with a Golden Globe for Best Picture. Recently, the story behind the making of The Godfather was brought to center stage with the miniseries The Offer, where Miles Teller plays a younger version of Al Ruddy on the hunt for his big break. Ruddy himself served as an executive producer on the series, which was released in 2022.
After The Godfather: It’s Only Upwards From Here
After the landmark success of The Godfather, Al Ruddy would go on to produce an original story of his with The Longest Yard, a widely successful sports movie that has since been remade twice, with Ruddy in the producer’s chair each time. In the 1980s, he would produce Cannonball Run and its sequel, which have become legendary among fans of the “Rat Pack”, or Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.
Al Ruddy would help create Walker, Texas Ranger in the 90s, and then in 2005, he would win a second Best Picture Oscar for Million Dollar Baby. The movie starred Hilary Swank as Maggie Fitzgerald, an up-and-coming underdog boxer trained by gruff Irishman Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood). While it’s not surprising that Ruddy won another Oscar, the 32-year gap between the awards is worth noting.
By all accounts, Al Ruddy was going strong up until his death. He worked on The Offer with Paramount Plus in 2022, marking his first collaboration with his daughter and producing partner Alexandria Ruddy. Along with Alexandria, Al Ruddy is survived by his wife, Giorgio Armani executive Wanda McDaniel, his son John, and his son-in-law Abdullah Saeed.
