Albert S. Ruddy (1930-2024)
h/t to Kimberly Last (@klast00 on X (formerly Twitter)
Albert S. Ruddy, whose career encompassed the high brow (Oscar wins for producing The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby) and the low brow (co-creating the Hogan’s Heroes TV series), has died at 94, The Associated Press reported.
Ruddy also mounted a 1992 attempt to launch a James Bond television show while the film series made by Eon Productions was on hiatus, according to a United Press Syndicate article of the era. @klast00 on X/Twitter alerted me to a PDF of the article.
The United Press Syndicate story quoted Ruddy as saying his project would be based on “elements” of Thunderball. The article says Ruddy acquired the Thunderball rights from Kevin McClory, who originally tried to develop a movie with Ian Fleming and writer Jack Whittingham.
The James Bond author turned that work into his 1961 Thunderball novel. That prompted a lawsuit by McClory. The case was settled with Fleming continuing to publish the book while McClory had the film rights. McClory cut a deal with Eon Productions for the 1965 movie but McClory would continue to attempt to make future Bond projects. Eon finally secured the rights once and for all from the McClory estate in 2013.
In the 1990s article, Ruddy made it sound like Bond would go up against Smersh, the Soviet spies of Fleming’s early novels. But Ruddy’s description sounds more like SPECTRE. Ruddy is quoted as saying his would-be TV show “would focus on the international crime cartels.”
Regardless, nothing came of Ruddy’s plans. Eventually, the Eon film series got back underway with 1995’s GoldenEye.
Hogan’s Heroes, which ran from 1965 to 1971, was an unusual comedy in which the Allies are operating an espionage operation from inside a German POW camp. The lead character, Col. Robert Hogan (Bob Crane) was named after actor Robert Hogan, a friend of Ruddy’s.
Ruddy helped write the pilot but was content to collect residual payments after that. As a movie producer, The Godfather was his highlight.
Ruddy also produced popular movies such as The Longest Yard and The Cannonball Run.
Filed under: James Bond Films | Tagged: Albert S. Ruddy, Hogan's Heroes, Million Dollar Baby, The Godfather |
The Spy Command 
Very interesting …. Had no idea he attempted this Bond series.
The thing is, knowing this man’s body of work, it’s plain to see that he had a high IQ for good stories, whether highbrow, like Godfather, or popcorn films like Cannon Ball Run or fun TV like Hogan’s….
so, I think if anyone could’ve pulled off an interesting and entertaining Bond series, it’d have been Al Ruddy (and he obviously had swagger too, perfect for 007).