Charlie Ruggles
| Charles Ruggles | |
|---|---|
Publicity photo of Ruggles from his guest appearance on Dick Powell Theatre (1963)
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| Born |
Charles Sherman Ruggles February 8, 1886 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | December 23, 1970 (aged 84) Santa Monica, California |
| Cause of death | Cancer |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale |
| Years active | 1905–1968 |
| Spouse(s) |
Adele Rowland (1914–1916) (divorced) Marion LaBarba (1942–1970) |
Charles Sherman “Charlie” Ruggles (February 8, 1886 – December 23, 1970) was a comic American character actor. In a career spanning six decades, Ruggles appeared in close to 100 feature films, often in mild-mannered and comic roles. He was also the elder brother of director, producer, and silent actor Wesley Ruggles (1889–1972).
Charlie Ruggles was born in Los Angeles, California in 1886. Despite training to be a doctor, Ruggles soon found himself on the stage, appearing in a stock production of Nathan Hale in 1905. At Los Angeles's Majestic Theatre, he played the romantic lead Private Jo Files in L. Frank Baum and Louis F. Gottschalk's musical, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz in 1913. He moved to Broadway to appear in Help Wanted in 1914. His first screen role came in the silent Peer Gynt the following year. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s Ruggles continued to appear in silent movies, though his passion remained the stage, appearing in long-running productions such as The Passing Show of 1918, The Demi-Virgin and Battling Butler. His most famous stage hit was one of his last before a twenty-year hiatus, Queen High, produced in 1926.
From 1929, Ruggles appeared in talking pictures. His first was Gentleman of the Press in which he played a comic, alcoholic newspaper reporter. Throughout the 1930s he was teamed with comic actress Mary Boland in a string of domestic farces, notably If I Had a Million, Six of a Kind, Ruggles of Red Gap, and People Will Talk; Boland was the domineering wife and Ruggles the mild-mannered husband. Ruggles is best remembered today as the big-game hunter in Bringing Up Baby and billionaire Michael J. 'Mike' O'Connor in It Happened on Fifth Avenue . In other films he often played the "comic relief" character in otherwise straight films. In all, he appeared in about 100 movies.
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