Wesley Ruggles
Directing
Born: June 10, 1889 · Los Angeles, California, USA
Died: January 8, 1972 (aged 82)
Highest Rated
Biography
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
Known for
Cimarron
1931
The Pawnshop
1916
The Floorwalker
1916
Behind the Screen
1916
A Night in the Show
1915
Police
1916
Shanghaied
1915
I'm No Angel
1933
Triple Trouble
1918
Arizona
1940
No Man of Her Own
1932
True Confession
1937
Photos (2)
Movies (14)
Shanghaied
Shipowner
Triple Trouble
Crook
The Pawnshop
Ring Client (uncredited)
Behind the Screen
Actor (uncredited)
Police
Jailbird and Thief
Her Torpedoed Love
Messenger Inside the House
A Night in the Show
Second Man in Balcony Front Row
The Floorwalker
Policeman (uncredited)
Her Painted Hero
Effeminate Party Guest (uncredited)
A Lover's Lost Control
Shoe Clerk
A Submarine Pirate
His accomplice / Sub Officer
Gussle's Wayward Path
Clergyman
A Burlesque on the Opera "Carmen"
1951
Beatrice Fairfax
#15 Wristwatches
Self / Appearances (1)
Directing (59)
Arizona
Director
Cimarron
Director
College Humor
Director
I'm No Angel
Director
The Gilded Lily
Director
Somewhere I'll Find You
Director
See Here, Private Hargrove
Director
Too Many Husbands
Director
Silk Stockings
Director
Slightly Dangerous
Director
For France
Director
Invitation to Happiness
Director
Mississippi
Co-Director
No Man of Her Own
Director
True Confession
Director
Condemned!
Director
You Belong to Me
Director
Shoot the Works
Director
I Met Him in Paris
Director
Hooked at the Altar
Director
Over the Wire
Director
The Plastic Age
Director
The Plastic Age
Continuity
Street Girl
Director
The Bride Comes Home
Director
Bolero
Director
Wild Honey
Director
London Town
Director
Roar of the Dragon
Director
The Remittance Woman
Director
The Sea Bat
Director
If I Were Queen
Director
The Heart Raider
Director
Valiant Is the Word for Carrie
Director
Sing, You Sinners
Director
Accent on Youth
Director
The Leopard Woman
Director
Girl Overboard
Director
Are These Our Children?
Director
The Age of Innocence
Director
The Monkey's Paw
Director
Love
Director
The Desperate Hero
Director
The Collegians
Director
Flashing Oars
Director
Scandal
Director
Piccadilly Jim
Director
Uncharted Seas
Director
Finders Keepers
Director
A Broadway Lady
Director
Sooner or Later
Director
Mr. Billings Spends His Dime
Director
Slippy McGee
Director
Beware of Widows
Director
The Relay
Director
Honey
Director
Outcast
Assistant Director
The Cinder Path
Director
The Cross Country Run
Director
Writing (3)
Producing (13)
Arizona
Producer
Cimarron
Producer
Too Many Husbands
Producer
Invitation to Happiness
Producer
The Incredible World of James Bond
Associate Producer
You Belong to Me
Producer
I Met Him in Paris
Producer
Street Girl
Producer
The Bride Comes Home
Producer
London Town
Producer
The Sea Bat
Producer
Valiant Is the Word for Carrie
Producer
Sing, You Sinners
Producer