Gregory Ratoff

Gregory Ratoff (born Grigory Vasilyevich Ratner; c. April 20 1893 – December 14 1960) was a Russian‑American film director, actor and producer whose career spanned the silent‑era Yiddish stage to Hollywood’s golden age, leaving an indelible mark on both the theatrical and cinematic worlds. Born in Samara, Russia to Jewish parents, he pursued a law degree at the University of St. Petersburg before World I service interrupted his studies, after which he joined the Moscow Art Theatre and honed his craft as an actor. The upheaval of the Bolshevik Revolution forced Ratoff and his family to flee in 1922, first to Paris where he met future wife Eugenie Leontovich, and then to New York when a Broadway‑bound revue arrived with the Shubert troupe; the couple married in 1923 and quickly immersed themselves in the bustling Yiddish theater scene, where Ratoff produced, directed and performed, establishing a reputation as a versatile impresario. When the Great Depression crippled Broadway, he migrated to Hollywood in 1931, landing a breakthrough role in Gregory La Cava’s Symphony of Six Million that showcased his authentic Yiddish accent and led to a string of character parts throughout the 1930s, often type‑cast as a foreigner or comic villain in pre‑Code dramas and comedies, including a memorable lawyer in Mae West’s I’m No Angel. By 1936 he turned behind the camera, co‑directing Sins of Man and subsequently directing such films as Intermezzo (1939), which introduced Ingrid Bergman to American audiences, as well as a series of studio‑assigned comedies, musicals and war pictures that, while solid, never vaulted him to the top tier of Hollywood directors. Later, after a health‑related collapse on the set of Song of Russia (1944) and the subsequent blacklisting pressures of the HUAC era, Ratoff returned to acting, delivering his most celebrated performance as the befuddled producer Max Fabian in All About Eve (1950). He continued to work sporadically in the 1950s, producing, directing and starring in the ill‑fated Abdulla the Great (1955) and the critically noted Oscar Wilde (1960). In recognition of his contributions, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 1960, just months before succumbing to leukemia in Solothurn, Switzerland; his body was returned to New York for burial at Mount Hebron Cemetery.