Charles Ruggles

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Charles Sherman "Charlie" Ruggles (born February 8, 1886 in Los Angeles , California , † December 23, 1970 in Hollywood ) was an American actor and brother of the director Wesley Ruggles . Above all, he embodied fearful or dumb men in comical roles.

Life

Charlie Ruggles originally wanted to become a doctor, but played his first roles in the theater as early as 1905. He decided to become an actor and worked in 1913 in the premiere of the musical by The Tik-Tok Man of Oz with texts by Frank L. Baum and compositions by Louis F. Gottschalk. A year later, Ruggles went to Broadway , where he was able to celebrate some great successes over the next few years, such as in The Passing Show of 1918 . Charles Ruggles made his screen debut in 1915, to the numerous silent films in which he appeared, was a film adaptation of Peer Gynt at the side of Alma Rubens . But it was only with the introduction of talkies that his real film career began. From 1929 to 1935 under contract with Paramount Pictures , Ruggles made several films, among other things, directed by Ernst Lubitsch , including Trouble in Paradise . Ruggles formed a popular screen couple with Mary Boland at the time in a number of inexpensive comedies. While Boland usually adopted the domineering wife type, Ruggles played the long-suffering, oppressed husband. In 1933, he was one of the numerous Paramount stars that the studio gathered to a star cast to bring Alice in Wonderland to the big screen. Ruggles played the March hare . His better-known roles included appearing alongside Charles Laughton in A Butler in America , which his brother Wesley directed in 1935.

After 1936, Ruggles starred in a variety of comedies without a permanent studio engagement, including 1938 alongside Katharine Hepburn as a scattered big game hunter Applegate in Leopards Don't Kiss and 1939 in Invitation to Happiness , again directed by Wesley Ruggles. From 1949 he mainly had television and theater appearances. From 1949 to 1952 he was in The Ruggles , one of the first sitcoms on television. Numerous guest roles and appearances in TV shows followed by the end of the 1960s. Ruggles returned to the big screen in the early 1960s. In 1961 he repeated his stage role in the film adaptation of the comedy In agreeable company at the side of Fred Astaire and Lilli Palmer , for which he was awarded the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1959 . In 1963 Charles Ruggles was in Papa's Delicate Condition , the film adaptation of Corinne Griffith's eponymous autobiography about her childhood and youth in Texas, as her grandfather. After a few appearances in productions by Walt Disney Pictures , including The Marriage of Her Parents Known as the Grandfather of Hayley Mills as well as The Timpanist Can't Keep It and Forty Daredevils , each alongside Fred MacMurray , the actor retired from the big screen in the mid-1960s.

In the course of his career, which included over 100 films and numerous stage and television appearances, Charles Ruggles specialized in the portrayal of rather fearful, less self-confident men who were mostly helpless in the face of hostility from the outside world.

Charlie Ruggles died at the age of 84 and was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park . He was married twice. From 1914 to 1921 with Adele Rowland and in second marriage since 1942 with Marion LaBarba. A total of three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame commemorate the actor's activities in the fields of film, television and radio.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charles Ruggles. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved October 28, 2018 .
  2. ^ Ephraim Katz , Ronald Dean Nolen: The Film Encyclopedia. The complete Guide to Film and the Film Industry. 7th edition. HarperCollins, New York NY 2012, ISBN 978-0-06-202615-6 , p. 1880.
personal data
SURNAME Ruggles, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ruggles, Charles Sherman (full name); Ruggles, Charlie (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and brother of director Wesley Ruggles
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California , United States
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1970
Place of death Hollywood , California , United States