Oscar-winning The Godfather producer Al Ruddy has died at the age of 94 after a brief illness. Ruddy also co-created CBS sitcom Hogan’s Heroes and produced best picture academy award-winner Million Dollar Baby. The filmmaker passed away at on May 25 at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center after a brief illness, a family spokesman announced to US publications.
‘To his contemporaries in the business, Ruddy is best remembered for his easy-going nature, his undeniable comedic sense and his undying interest in people and the stories we tell,’ his family told The Hollywood Reporter . ‘Among his last words [were], “The game is over, but we won the game”.’ Ruddy was recently portrayed in the Paramount+ miniseries The Offer, played by Miles Teller, in a dramatisation about the making of The Godfather (1972) which saw the producer’s life threatened by real life gangsters.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video After hearing gunshots outside his home and having his car windows shot out with a warning note on his dashboard, Ruddy saved the film by meeting with crime boss Joseph Colombo to discuss the script. After agreeing to remove one use of the word ‘mafia’, Colombo was so delighted with the film he asked Ruddy to stand alongside him at a conference announcing his endorsement of it. For this Ruddy was fired, but director Francis Coppola got him rehired and the mobsters ended up starring in the film .