Sig Ruman (Siegfried Albonn Rumann), who was born in Hamburg, was one of Hollywood's unforgettable support actors of the Thirties and Forties. Remember him as the pawnbroker in The Glenn Miller Story?
Ruman had acted on stage in Germany before arriving in the US in the Twenties. He then joined a German language theatre company in New York.
From there, he appeared on Broadway and, five years later, went to Hollywood. Often playing a flustered, blustering type, he filled the role to perfection, especially as a foil to the Marx Brothers in A Night At The Opera (1939) and A Day At The Races (1937).
Also a minor trapeze artist in vaudeville for a while, he covered many facets of showbusiness. Sig was outstanding in Ninotchka (1939) as a Russian commissar who seemed at odds with Paris. In Lubitsch's black comedy To Be Or Not To Be (1942), starring Jack Benny, Sig Ruman was hilarious.
Working until the Sixties, Ruman was much loved by fans. He died of heart problems in 1967, aged 83.
-Gordon Dean, Lancing
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