---
name: "Roy Del Ruth"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/roy-del-ruth"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "18 October 1893"
died: "27 April 1961"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-19T22:51:25.594715+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Roy Del Ruth

Director. Born 18 October 1893 in New Castle, Delaware, USA. Died 27 April 1961.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 18 October 1893, New Castle, Delaware, USA
- **Died:** 27 April 1961
- **Also known as:** Thomas LeRoy Ruth
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Del_Ruth, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q918762, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0215877/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/94218

## Fi1m on Roy Del Ruth

> Roy Del Ruth spent four decades getting out of the way. His films move fast, trust their stars and stop the moment the number is over, which makes them as good as whoever is in front of the camera and rarely better.

In *Broadway Melody of 1936* (1935) there is a producer, a rich backer, a gossip columnist making trouble and a girl from out of town who can dance, and Roy Del Ruth directs the lot as though the plot were a corridor between rooms. The rooms are where the numbers are. When Eleanor Powell starts to tap he stops hurrying and lets her go. We sat through the story with the patience you keep for a warm-up act, and then Powell danced and we forgot there had been a story; she is the reason to see the film, and Del Ruth's contribution is to know it.

That is the whole of his method, and it was learned early. He wrote gags for Mack Sennett from 1915 and was directing comedy shorts by 1919, and a man trained that way knows a scene has one job and should leave once it has done it. Warner Bros. took him on for features in 1925 and he made more than fifteen in four years, including early sound musicals. Through the 1930s, at Warners and then MGM, he turned out pre-Code comedies, crime pictures and musicals at a rate that would look careless if the films did not move so cleanly. He directed James Cagney four times, in *Blonde Crazy* (1931) among others, and made the first screen version of *The Maltese Falcon* (1931), with Ricardo Cortez, a decade before John Huston's. *Employees' Entrance* (1933) is the pre-Code drama of his that people still talk about.

The move to MGM meant Powell, three films' worth, including *Born to Dance* (1936), with Cole Porter's songs and James Stewart in the cast. The musicals show both sides of him. He does not decorate a number or cut across it; he frames the dancer and stands back, which is the right decision and also the only one he seems to have. When the star is Powell that is plenty. When the material is thin, nothing of his own arrives to fill the gap, and the films are exactly as good as the people in them.

The later years thin out. *It Happened on Fifth Avenue* (1947) is a holiday comedy with some warmth in it, often set beside *It's a Wonderful Life*. *The Babe Ruth Story* (1948) has a reputation for being rushed and loose with the facts that we have not felt moved to test. There was low-budget horror, *The Alligator People* (1959), and then *Why Must I Die?* (1960), after which he stopped.

He was a studio director in the plain sense: fast, tidy, unbothered by posterity. Start with *Broadway Melody of 1936*, and if you find yourself reaching for the remote during the dialogue, he would not have blamed you; on the evidence, he felt much the same.

## Biography

Roy Del Ruth (also credited as Thomas LeRoy Ruth) was an American film director. He began his Hollywood career in 1915 as a gag writer for Mack Sennett and directed his first short films in the late 1910s before moving to feature films in the 1920s.

He directed musicals and comedies at Warner Bros. and MGM, including *Broadway Melody of 1936* (1935), *Born to Dance* (1936) and *Broadway Melody of 1938* (1937). Other credits include the 1931 version of *The Maltese Falcon* and segments of *Ziegfeld Follies* (1945). He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Del Ruth died on 27 April 1961 in Sherman Oaks, California.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, catalog.afi.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Broadway Melody of 1936* (1935), Fi1m 72, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/broadway-melody-of-1936.md)

## Complete filmography (104)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Why Must I Die* (1960), Director
- *Adventures in Paradise* (1959), series, Director
- *The Alligator People* (1959), Director
- *Richard Diamond, Private Detective* (1957), series, Director
- *The 20th Century Fox Hour* (1955), series, Director
- *Phantom of the Rue Morgue* (1954), Director
- *Three Sailors and a Girl* (1953), Director
- *Stop, You're Killing Me* (1952), Director
- *Here We Go Again* (1952), Director
- *About Face* (1952), Director
- *Starlift* (1951), Director
- *On Moonlight Bay* (1951), Director
- *The West Point Story* (1950), Director
- *Always Leave Them Laughing* (1949), Director
- *Red Light* (1949), Director, Producer
- *The Babe Ruth Story* (1948), Director, Producer
- *It Happened on Fifth Avenue* (1947), Director, Producer
- *Ziegfeld Follies* (1945), Director
- *Barbary Coast Gent* (1944), Director
- *Broadway Rhythm* (1944), Director
- *Du Barry Was a Lady* (1943), Director
- *I Married an Angel* (1942), Director
- *Maisie Gets Her Man* (1942), Director
- *The Chocolate Soldier* (1941), Director
- *Topper Returns* (1941), Director
- *He Married His Wife* (1940), Director
- *Here I Am a Stranger* (1939), Director
- *The Star Maker* (1939), Director
- *Tail Spin* (1939), Director
- *My Lucky Star* (1938), Director
- *Happy Landing* (1938), Director
- *Broadway Melody of 1938* (1937), Director
- *On the Avenue* (1937), Director
- *Born to Dance* (1936), Director
- *Private Number* (1936), Director
- *It Had to Happen* (1936), Director
- *Thanks a Million* (1935), Director
- *Broadway Melody of 1936* (1935), Director — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/broadway-melody-of-1936.md)
- *Folies Bergère* (1935), Director
- *Folies Bergère de Paris* (1935), Director
- *Kid Millions* (1934), Director
- *Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back* (1934), Director
- *Upperworld* (1934), Director
- *Lady Killer* (1933), Director
- *Bureau of Missing Persons* (1933), Director
- *Captured!* (1933), Director
- *The Little Giant* (1933), Director
- *The Mind Reader* (1933), Director
- *Employees' Entrance* (1933), Director
- *Blessed Event* (1932), Director
- *Winner Take All* (1932), Director, Producer
- *Beauty and the Boss* (1932), Director
- *Taxi!* (1932), Director
- *Side Show* (1931), Director
- *Blonde Crazy* (1931), Director
- *The Maltese Falcon* (1931), Director
- *My Past* (1931), Director
- *Divorce Among Friends* (1930), Director
- *The Life of the Party* (1930), Director
- *Three Faces East* (1930), Director
- *The Second Floor Mystery* (1930), Director
- *Hold Everything* (1930), Director
- *The Aviator* (1929), Director
- *Gold Diggers of Broadway* (1929), Director
- *The Hottentot* (1929), Director
- *The Desert Song* (1929), Director
- *Conquest* (1928), Director
- *Beware of Bachelors* (1928), Director
- *The Terror* (1928), Director
- *Five and Ten Cent Annie* (1928), Director
- *Powder My Back* (1928), Director
- *If I Were Single* (1927), Director
- *Ham and Eggs at the Front* (1927), Director
- *The First Auto* (1927), Director
- *Wolf's Clothing* (1927), Director
- *Across the Pacific* (1926), Director
- *Footloose Widows* (1926), Director
- *The Little Irish Girl* (1926), Director
- *The Man Upstairs* (1926), Director
- *Hogan's Alley* (1925), Director
- *Three Weeks in Paris* (1925), Director
- *Eve's Lover* (1925), Director
- *A Deep Sea Panic* (1924), Director
- *His New Mamma* (1924), Director
- *The Cat's Meow* (1924), Director
- *The Hollywood Kid* (1924), Director
- *Shanghaied Lovers* (1924), Director
- *Smile Please* (1924), Director
- *Flip Flops* (1923), Director
- *One Cylinder Love* (1923), Writer
- *Asleep at the Switch* (1923), Director
- *Skylarking* (1923), Director
- *Nip and Tuck* (1923), Director
- *When Summer Comes* (1922), Director
- *Gymnasium Jim* (1922), Director
- *On Patrol* (1922), Director
- *The Duck Hunter* (1922), Director
- *Bright Eyes* (1921), Director
- *Be Reasonable* (1921), Director
- *Love and Doughnuts* (1921), Director
- *Hard Knocks and Love Taps* (1921), Director
- *His Noisy Still* (1920), Director
- *The Heart Snatcher* (1920), Director
- *Wife and Auto Trouble* (1916), Scenario Writer

## Gallery

- ![Nancy Welford and Conway Tearle in reel 9 of the 1929 Warner Bros. film “Gold Diggers of Broadway”](https://film.one/media/person/1227956/gallery-e5487bf8ac3e.jpg) Nancy Welford and Conway Tearle in reel 9 of the 1929 Warner Bros. film “Gold Diggers of Broadway” — Warner Bros., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Nancy_Welford_and_Conway_Tearle_in_Gold_Diggers_of_Broadway.jpg/1280px-Nancy_Welford_and_Conway_Tearle_in_Gold_Diggers_of_Broadway.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Roy Del Ruth](https://film.one/media/person/1227956/gallery-e2498e66c7b9.jpg) Roy Del Ruth — Image via TMDB

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/roy-del-ruth