Ranald MacDougall

Known For	Writing
Birthday	Mar 10, 1915
Died	Dec 12, 1973 (58)
Birthplace	Schenectady, New York, USA
Popularity	0.8 (history)
Updated	Sep 17, 2025
Entry Date	Apr 13, 2024
Links	TMDb IMDb

Biography

Ranald MacDougall (March 10, 1915 – December 12, 1973) was an American screenwriter who scripted such films as Mildred Pierce (1945), The Unsuspected (1947), June Bride (1948), and The Naked Jungle (1954), and shared screenwriting credit for 1963's Cleopatra. He also directed a number of films, incl ... uding 1957's Man on Fire with Bing Crosby and 1959's The World, the Flesh and the Devil, both of which featured actress Inger Stevens. Born in Schenectady, New York, MacDougall came from an impoverished working-class family. His father was a crane operator and union organizer, whose frequent strikes forced MacDougall to leave school before finishing the eighth grade to help support the family. He held a variety of odd jobs and during the Great Depression found work as an usher at Radio City Music Hall. He saw greater potential across the street in Rockefeller Center, where he was hired as a page, working alongside Gregory Peck. As a page MacDougall had the opportunity to closely observe the radio industry, and in his spare time he wrote and submitted scripts to his boss under pseudonyms, and was finally hired as a staff writer for NBC Radio despite being underage at the time.