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 Whartons novel The Age of Innocence 1924 before he won acclaim with Cimarron in 1931 The adaptation of Edna Ferbers 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 Im 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 cinemas first attempt at a Technicolor musical extravaganza is notable as being one of the biggest critical and commercial failures in that countrys 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 US 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 CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia