The Longest Yard

The Longest Yard may refer to:

Burt Reynolds

Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds (born February 11, 1936) is an American actor, director and producer. He starred in many television series and feature films, such as Deliverance, The Longest Yard as well as its 2005 remake, Smokey and the Bandit and The Cannonball Run. He also won two Golden Globe Awards, one for Best Actor in a Television Series Musical or Comedy for Evening Shade and one for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Boogie Nights.

Early life

Reynolds is the son of Fern H. (née Miller; 1902–92) and Burton Milo Reynolds (1906–2002). He has English, Scottish, Scots-Irish, and Dutch ancestry, and is also said to have Cherokee roots. Reynolds was born in Lansing, Michigan, on February 11, 1936, and in his autobiography stated that his family was living in Lansing when his father was drafted into the United States Army. Reynolds, his mother, and sister joined his father at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and lived there for two years. When Reynolds' father was sent to Europe, the family moved to Lake City, Michigan, where his mother had been raised. In 1946, the family moved to Riviera Beach, Florida. His father became Chief of Police of Riviera Beach, which is adjacent to the north of West Palm Beach, Florida.

Albert S. Ruddy

Albert S. Ruddy (born March 28, 1930) is a Canadian-born film and television producer.

Life and career

Ruddy was born to a Jewish family in Montreal and raised in New York City, by his mother. Ruddy attended Brooklyn Technical High School before earning a scholarship to allow him to study chemical engineering at City College of New York. He graduated from the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California and then he worked in the construction industry on the East Coast.

After a short stint at Warner Brothers, brought about by a chance meeting with Jack L. Warner, Ruddy moved on to become a programmer trainee at the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California. Returning to entertainment, Ruddy was a television writer at Universal Studios, but left when Marlon Brando Sr., father of the legendary actor, hired him to produce Wild Seed in 1965.

With this one film completed, Ruddy co-created Hogan's Heroes (CBS, 1965–1971), which was a critical success and ran for six seasons. As the show wound down its run, Ruddy returned to films, producing two comedies: Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970), about two motorcycle racers, and Making It (1971), about a sexually triumphant high school student who beds the gerontophobic wife of his gym teacher. In 1972, he produced The Godfather and won his first of two Oscars for Best Picture. In 1974, Ruddy produced The Longest Yard, which has been described as "the first successful modern sports movie". The movie was very successful financially and was subsequently remade twice with Ruddy as executive producer (as Mean Machine in 2001 and as The Longest Yard in 2005).

Eddie Albert

Edward Albert Heimberger (April 22, 1906 – May 26, 2005), known professionally as Eddie Albert, was an American actor and activist. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.

Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, traveling salesman Ali Hakim in the musical Oklahoma!, and the sadistic prison warden in 1974's The Longest Yard. He starred as Oliver Wendell Douglas in the 1960s television situation comedy Green Acres and as Frank MacBride in the 1970s crime drama Switch. He also had a recurring role as Carlton Travis on Falcon Crest, opposite Jane Wyman.

Early life

Edward Albert Heimberger was born in Rock Island, Illinois, on April 22, 1906, the oldest of the five children of Frank Daniel Heimberger, a realtor, and his wife Julia Jones. His year of birth is often given as 1908, but this is incorrect. His parents were not married when Albert was born, and his mother altered his birth certificate after her marriage.

Robert Aldrich

Robert Burgess Aldrich (August 9, 1918 – December 5, 1983) was an American film director, writer and producer, notable for such films as Vera Cruz (1954), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967) and The Longest Yard (1974). Film critic John Patterson summarized his career in 2012: "He was a punchy, caustic, macho and pessimistic director (the end of Kiss Me Deadly is the end of the world), who depicted corruption and evil unflinchingly, and pushed limits on violence throughout his career. His aggressive and pugnacious film-making style, often crass and crude, but never less than utterly vital and alive, warrants – and will richly reward – your immediate attention."

Biography

Aldrich was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, the son of Lora Lawson and newspaper publisher Edward Burgess Aldrich. He was a grandson of U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich and a cousin to Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller. He was educated at the Moses Brown School in Providence, and studied economics at the University of Virginia where he also was a letterman on the 1940 football team. In 1941, he dropped out of college for a minor, $50-a-week clerical job at RKO Radio Pictures. In doing so, he was also dropped by his family, and lost a potential stake in Chase Bank he would have inherited. Indeed, it's been said that "No American film director was born as wealthy as Aldrich—and then so thoroughly cut off from family money."