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Wesley Ruggles

Wesley Ruggles (June 11, 1889 – January 8, 1972) was an American film director. He was born in Los Angeles, a younger brother of actor Charles Ruggles. He began his career in 1915 as an actor, appearing in a dozen or so silent films, on occasion with Charles Chaplin. In 1917, he turned his attention to directing, making more than 50 mostly forgettable films — including a silent film version of Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence (1924) — before he won acclaim with Cimarron in 1931. The adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel Cimarron, about homesteaders settling in the prairies of Oklahoma, was the first Western to win an Academy Award as Best Picture. Although Ruggles followed this success with the light comedy No Man of Her Own (1932) with Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, the comedy I'm No Angel (1933) with Mae West and Cary Grant , College Humor (1933) with Bing Crosby, and Bolero (1934) with George Raft and Carole Lombard, few of his later films were in any way memorable (an exception is Arizona). His career was on the downslide when he teamed with the Rank Organisation in 1946 to produce and direct London Town with Sid Field and Petula Clark, based on a story he wrote. The film — British cinema's first attempt at a Technicolor musical extravaganza — is notable as being one of the biggest critical and commercial failures in that country's film history. Ironically, Ruggles had been hired to helm it because as an American, it was thought, he was better equipped to handle a musical — despite the fact that nothing in his past had prepared him to work in the genre. It was his last film. An abridged version was released in the U.S. under the title My Heart Goes Crazy by United Artists in 1953. Ruggles died in 1972 in Santa Monica and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Description above from the Wikipedia article Wesley Ruggles, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia


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Born:
Jun 11, 1889 In Los Angeles, California, USA
Movie/TV Credits:
17
First Appeared:
In the movie Caught in a Park 1915-02-06
Latest Project:
Movie A Burlesque on the Opera Carmen 1951-03-01
Known For
Poster of A Lover's Lost Control
Filmography
Movie A Burlesque on the Opera Carmen 1951-03-01
Movie A Trip Through the World's Greatest Motion Picture Studios Himself 1920-08-15
Movie Triple Trouble Crook 1918-08-11
Movie Her Torpedoed Love Messenger Inside the House 1917-05-13
Movie Police Jailbird and Thief 1916-05-27
Movie Beatrice Fairfax #15 Wristwatches 1916-08-07
Movie The Floorwalker Policeman (uncredited) 1916-05-15
Movie The Pawnshop Ring Client (uncredited) 1916-10-02
Movie Behind the Screen Actor (uncredited) 1916-11-13
Movie Gussle Rivals Jonah Ship Steward / Ship Passenger 1915-04-25
Movie Caught in a Park The Cop 1915-02-06
Movie A Lover's Lost Control Shoe Clerk 1915-08-02
Movie Gussle's Wayward Path Clergyman 1915-04-09
Movie Her Painted Hero Effeminate Party Guest (uncredited) 1915-11-20
Movie A Submarine Pirate His accomplice / Sub Officer 1915-12-26
Movie A Night in the Show Second Man in Balcony Front Row 1915-11-20
Movie Shanghaied Shipowner 1915-10-04