Charles Ruggles

His parents were Charles Sherman (a traveling pharmaceutical salesman) and Theresa Maria (Heinsch) Ruggles, and he was the elder of two sons. Charles began working for the same pharmaceutical company that his father worked in 1904 directly after his high school graduation but did not enjoy it and left not long after.

Charles Ruggles had one of the longest careers in Hollywood, lasting more than 50 years and encompassing more than 100 films. He made his film debut in 1914 in The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) and worked steadily after that.

His mother was shot and killed instantly at her home when she stepped between her husband and another man in 1924.

His step-father was run down and killed by a streetcar in 1925.

He was memorably paired with Mary Boland in a series of comedies in the early 1930s, and was one of the standouts in the all-star comedy If I Had a Million (1932), as a harried, much-put-upon man who finally goes berserk in a china shop. Ruggles' slight stature and distinctive mannerisms - his fluttery, jumpy manner of speaking, his often befuddled look whenever events seemed about to overwhelm him, which was often - endeared him to generations of moviegoers. Memorable as Maj.

Applegate the big-game hunter in the classic screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (1938).

His second wife, Marion La Barba, whom he married in 1942, was the former wife of featherweight boxing champ Fidel LaBarba. The couple were both animal lovers and at one point during their marriage had amassed 94 pets.

President of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1953.

Won the Tony award (1959) as Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in "The Pleasure of His Company," a role he repeated in the 1961 film version.