Melville Ruick (July 8, 1898 – December 24, 1972) was an American actor.
Early years
Ruick was born in
Boise, Idaho
Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown ar ...
in 1898. His father was a U.S. district attorney in Idaho,
[ and Ruick studied law at the University of California.
]
Military service
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
changed Ruick from a student lawyer to a student pilot. Ruick won his wings in the Air Service, Signal Corps, two weeks before the end of the war. He was the United States' youngest flier in the war at age 17 and became a lieutenant at age 18.[ ]
During World War II, Ruick returned to uniform as a captain in the USAFF, attached to the Radio Production Unit as a producer-director.
Career
Ruick worked five years as master of ceremonies for the Fanchon and Marco shows.CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
to work as a local radio announcer while Ruick was leading a dance band in Los Angeles. He later won an audition for the spot of announcer on the CBS radio show ''Lux Radio Theater
''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company ...
'',Leo Carrillo
Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo (; August 6, 1880 – September 10, 1961), known professionally as Leo Carrillo, was an American actor, vaudevillian, political cartoonist, and conservationist.
He was best known for playing Pancho in the television ...
in a revival of ''The Bad Man''. While trying his luck on Broadway, Ruick received an offer to direct Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist.
As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, W ...
’s radio show for the National Guard
National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
Nat ...
.
Ruick starred as Chief John Randolph on the NBC adventure series ''The Door with No Name'' (1951) and as Dr. Barton Crane on the dramatic series '' City Hospital'' (1951) on ABC-TVThe Invaders
''The Invaders'' is an American science-fiction television series created by Larry Cohen that aired on ABC for two seasons, from 1967 to 1968. Roy Thinnes stars as David Vincent, who after stumbling across evidence of an in-progress invas ...
''.
Personal life
He was married to actresses Lurene Tuttle and Claire Niesen (the former of whom he had a daughter with, actress Barbara Ruick
Barbara Ruick (December 23, 1930 – March 3, 1974) was an American actress and singer.
Early years
Ruick was the daughter of actors Lurene Tuttle and Melville Ruick, and grew up acting out scenes with dolls, employing her mother as an ...
).[ ] He was also the father-in-law of composer-conductor John Williams and the maternal grandfather of Joseph Williams.
Death
Ruick died in Los Angeles on December 24, 1972, aged 74.
References
External links
*
1898 births
1972 deaths
University of California, Berkeley alumni
People from Boise, Idaho
Male actors from Idaho
Military personnel from Idaho
American male television actors
20th-century American male actors
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