- Wesley Ruggles
Wesley Ruggles (
June 11 ,1889 –January 8 ,1972 ) was an Americanfilm 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 sosilent film s, on occasion withCharles Chaplin .In 1917, he turned his attention to directing, making more than 50 mostly forgettable films — including a
silent film version ofEdith Wharton 's novel "The Age of Innocence" (1924) — before he won acclaim with "Cimarron" in 1931. The adaptation ofEdna Ferber 's novel "Cimarron ", about homesteaders settling in the prairies ofOklahoma , was the first Western to win an Academy Award asBest Picture .Although Ruggles followed this success with the light comedy "No Man of Her Own" (1932) with
Clark Gable andCarole Lombard , the comedy "I'm No Angel " (1933) withMae West andCary Grant , "College Humor" (1933) withBing Crosby , and "Bolero" (1934) withGeorge Raft andCarole 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 " withSid Field andPetula Clark , based on a story he wrote. The film — British cinema's first attempt at aTechnicolor 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 " byUnited Artists in 1953.Ruggles died in 1972 in Santa Monica and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in
Glendale, California .External links
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