It was Ruddy and director Francis Ford Coppola’s decision to reach out to Marlon Brando to star as Don Vito Corleone, and the producer famously negotiated with the Italian-American Civil Rights League that led to the agreement that the words “mafia” and “cosa nostra” would not be uttered in The Godfather.
Al Pacino, who played Michael Corleone in the film for the first of his nine career Oscar nominations, said in a statement that Ruddy “was absolutely beautiful to me the whole time on The Godfather; even when they didn’t want me, he wanted me. He gave me the gift of encouragement when I needed it most, and I’ll never forget it.”
At the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 27, 1973, Ruddy bounded up on the stage to accept the Academy Award for best picture. “The American dream and what we all want, for me at least, is represented by this [holding up the Oscar],” he said. “It’s there for everybody if we want to work, dream and try to get it.”
Clint Eastwood presented Ruddy with the statuette, and things came full circle when Ruddy offered Eastwood the opportunity to direct and star as the trainer in the boxing classic Million Dollar Baby (2004).
Paul Haggis had written the screenplay based on a pair of short stories from the collection Rope Burns by F.X. Toole. Anjelica Huston brought Toole’s work to Ruddy, who optioned it, but investors and talent didn’t see it as a movie — it seemed far too depressing.
“Who wants to do a movie about a girl boxer who dies with two old guys?” was the typical response Ruddy heard.
Well, Eastwood did; he came on as a producer, scored the film and then won the Oscar for directing. Meanwhile, Hilary Swank was named best actress and Morgan Freeman best supporting actor.
On the Paramount+ series The Offer, about the making of The Godfather, he was portrayed by Miles Teller. “It was an honor and a privilege to portray Al,” Teller said. “Al lived a life most could only dream of and all would envy.”
The Offer has some fun moments, and an enjoyable Mad Men-inspired production design. But it’s really a mini-series that was designed so that Ruddy could go out leaving the impression that everything that went right in The Godfather was as the result of his skill as a producer, and ends up leaving the actors playing Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo as little more than comic relief. For a much better look at who did what on the film, as I wrote in 2022: ‘The Godfather’ at 50: Skip ‘The Offer,’ Take ‘The Cannoli.’