Sig Ruman

Sig Ruman
100px Ruman as Herman Gottlieb in A Night at the Opera.
Born	Siegfried Albon Rumann (1884-10-11)October 11, 1884 Hamburg, Germany
Died	Julian, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1928–66

Sig Ruman (October 11, 1884 – February 14, 1967) was a German-American actor known for his comic portrayals of pompous and often stereotypically Teutonic officials or villains.

Life and career

Born as Siegfried Albon Rumann in Hamburg, German Empire, he studied Electrical Engineering before serving with the Imperial German Army during World War I. After his emigration to the United States in 1924, his acting career blossomed. Befriending playwright George S. Kaufman and theater critic Alexander Woollcott, he enjoyed success in many Broadway productions.

Ruman became a favorite of the Marx Brothers, appearing in A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, and A Night in Casablanca. His German accent and large stature kept him busy during World War II, playing sinister Nazi characters in a series of wartime thrillers. During this period, he also appeared in several films by Ernst Lubitsch, a fellow German émigré, including Ninotchka (1939) and To Be or Not to Be (1942). He played the role of Professor Herman Von Reiter in Shining Victory (1941), an adaptation of an A. J. Cronin play. Ruman continued his trend of playing over-the-top German characters later in his career for Lubitsch's protege Billy Wilder, appearing in Wilder's films The Emperor Waltz (1948), Stalag 17 (1953) and The Fortune Cookie (1966).

According to Leonard Maltin in the DVD commentary for A Night at the Opera, Ruman had modified his screen name from Siegfried Rumann to Sig Ruman in an attempt to make it a little less German-sounding, to lessen potential anti-German prejudice against him.

Despite declining health during the 1950s and 1960s, Ruman continued to find work, making many guest appearances on television. He died of a heart attack on February 14, 1967, in Julian, California.

Partial filmography

• All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) (uncredited)
• The World Moves On (1934)
• Servants' Entrance (1934)
• The Wedding Night (1935)
• A Night at the Opera (1935)
• The Princess Comes Across (1936)
• The Bold Cabarello (1936)
• On the Avenue (1937)
• Seventh Heaven (1937)
• This Is My Affair (1937)
• A Day at the Races (1937)
• Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937)
• The Great Hospital Mystery (1937)
• Thin Ice (1937)
• Lancer Spy (1937)
• Nothing Sacred (1937)
• Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937)
• Paradise for Three (1938)
• The Saint in New York (1938)
• Suez (1938)
• Girls on Probation (1938)
• Honolulu (1939)
• Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)
• Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
• Ninotchka (1939)
• Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940)
• Four Sons (1940)
• Bitter Sweet (1940)
• Comrade X (1940)
• That Uncertain Feeling (1941)
• The Wagons Roll at Night (1941)
• Love Crazy (1941)
• Shining Victory (1941)
• This Woman Is Mine (1941)
• To Be or Not to Be (1942)
• Crossroads (1942)

• Berlin Correspondent (1942)
• Desperate Journey (1942)
• China Girl (1942)
• Tarzan Triumphs (1943)
• Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943)
• The Song of Bernadette (1943)
• It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
• House of Frankenstein (1944)
• A Royal Scandal (1945)
• The Dolly Sisters (1945)
• The Hitler Gang (1945)
• A Night in Casablanca (1946)
• Night and Day (1946)
• Mother Wore Tights (1947)
• The Emperor Waltz (1948)
• Border Incident (1949)
• Father Is a Bachelor (1950)
• On the Riviera (1951)
• The World in His Arms (1952)
• Stalag 17 (1953)
• Houdini (1953)
• Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation (1953)
• Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach (1953)
• The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
• Living It Up (1954)
• 3 Ring Circus (1954)
• Carolina Cannonball (1955)
• Spy Chasers (1955)
• The Wings of Eagles (1957)
• The Errand Boy (1961)
• Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)
• 36 Hours (1965)
• The Fortune Cookie (1966)
• Way...Way Out (1966)

External links

• Sig Ruman at Find a Grave
• Sig Ruman at the Internet Movie Database
• Sig Ruman at the Internet Broadway Database