In addition to his Academy Awards, he won two Golden Globes, the Producers Guild of America Award (2004), the Western Heritage Award, as well as awards from France, Italy, and Mexico. His rock solid belief in his own instinct for what audiences want, what story to tell, and how to get a project produced and marketed, is legendary.

No one had wanted to make The Godfather movie nor to star in it. No one. In Hollywood, it was considered “just another gangster film.” The rights to Mario Puzo’s book were owned by the almost-bankrupt Paramount Studios, a division of Gulf and Western (G&W). Paramount was hemorrhaging money and Al had produced the studio’s only film in seven years that was on budget, on time, and made money.

“I got a call on a Sunday, ’Do you want to do 'The Godfather?’ I thought they were kidding me. ‘Right,’ I said, 'Yes, of course, I love that book', which I had never read.” He quickly condensed it into a 150-page script outline and flew east to present it to the G&W executives and its president Charles Bluhdorn, nicknamed the Mad Austrian by Life magazine. After all were seated, Bluhdorn charged into the meeting. “Why do you want to make this movie?” he demanded of Ruddy. “I assessed him and his twitchy eyes and knew if I started talking about the script, I was lost. He could concentrate intensely for about one minute. I told him, ‘I want to make an ice-blue terrifying movie about people you love.’ Bluhdorn bangs the freaking table, ‘That’s brilliant!’ and runs out of the office.” The deal was made.

The Offer, a 10-episode biographical drama TV miniseries about Ruddy and the development of the landmark film, widely considered to be one of the best in cinematic history, premiered in April 2022 on Paramount+.