Gregory Ratoff Movies and Career Information

Gregory Ratoff (20 April 1897 - 14 December 1960) was a Russian-born American film director, actor and producer. His most famous role as an actor was as producer Max Fabian who feuds with star Margo Channing (Bette Davis) in All About Eve (1950). Ratoff was born in Samara, Russia. The Russian Jewish actor first came to the United States in 1922. He married the Russian actress Eugenie Leontovich in 1923 (they divorced in 1949). He returned to the United States, passing through Ellis Island in July 1925. On the steerage passenger list of the SS Mauretania he was listed as Gregoire Ratoff; for next of kin he listed his mother, Mme. Sophie Ratner of Paris. Ratoff is most noted for having directed the pro-Soviet propaganda film Song of Russia (1944) and for being one of the two producers to have purchased and developed the original rights to the James Bond franchise from Ian Fleming in 1955. Ratoff died on 14 December 1960 of leukemia in Solothurn, Switzerland, aged 63. His body was returned to the United States for burial at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, New York. Although divorced from Leontovich, Ratoff was buried under a gravestone marked 'Beloved Husband'.