J. WALTER RUBEN

Original 10 inch x 8 inch Black and White Portrait of RKO Film Director J. WALTER RUBEN by Robert W. Coburn

Born in 1900 a boyhood interest in photography took Coburn to Hollywood in 1917 where he became an assistant cameraman and photographer. From 1925 to 1928 he was chief stills photographer for Cecil B DeMille. Coburn assisted Ernest Bachrach at RKO Studios from 1929 to 1934, then moved to MGM and in 1940 became Head of Stills at Columbia Studios, where he remained until 1960. He died in 1990.

A graduate of Columbia University, J. Walter Ruben worked briefly as a stage actor, publicity flack, and vaudeville gagwriter before becoming a regional distributor for the newly formed MGM in 1924. Ruben graduated to screenwriting in 1927, and to directing in 1931. In the first years of the talkies, he was contracted to RKO Radio, where he directed Richard Dix in The Public Defender (1931) and Secret Service (1931). In 1935, he returned to MGM, where after directing a handful of films (Riff Raff, Trouble for Two, Bad Man of Brimstone) he joined the studio’s staff of producers. Aligned with MGM until his death in 1942, J. Walter Ruben was responsible for several Wallace Beery vehicles, and was also on hand for Her Cardboard Lover (1942), Norma Shearer’s final film.

The portrait is in very good condition with minor surface marks.