Albert S. Ruddy

Albert Stotland Ruddy (born March 28, 1930) is a Canadian-American film and television producer. He is known for producing The Godfather (1972) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), both of which won him the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as co-creating the CBS sitcom Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971). Early life Albert S. Ruddy was born to Ruth (née Ruddy) Hertz and Hy Stotland, a Jewish family in Montreal, and raised in New York City and in Miami Beach, Florida, by his mother. Ruddy attended Brooklyn Technical High School before earning a scholarship to allow him to study chemical engineering at City College of New York. In 1956, he graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in architectural design. Career Ruddy worked designing homes for a construction company, in Hackensack, New Jersey. After a short stint at Warner Brothers, brought about by a chance meeting with studio chief Jack L. Warner, Ruddy moved on to become a programmer trainee at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. Returning to entertainment, Ruddy was a television writer at Universal Studios, but left when Marlon Brando Sr., father of the legendary actor, hired him to produce Wild Seed (1965).