With this one film completed, Ruddy co-created Hogan’s Heroes (CBS, 1965–1971), which was a critical success and ran for six seasons. As the sitcom wound down its run, Ruddy returned to films, producing two comedies: Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970), about two motorcycle racers, and Making It (1971), about a sexually triumphant high school student who beds the gerontophobic wife of his gym Teacher. In 1972, he produced The Godfather and won his first of two Oscars for Best Picture. In 1974, Ruddy produced The Longest Yard, which has been described as “the first successful modern Sports movie”. The movie was very successful financially and was subsequently remade twice with Ruddy as executive Producer (as Mean Machine (2001) and as The Longest Yard (2005)).

For some time, Ruddy worked with writer-philosopher Ayn Rand to produce her epic dystopic novel Atlas Shrugged as a movie, the rights to which he purchased in the mid-1970s, but the movie never moved beyond the planning stages. Rand demanded unprecedented final script approval, which Ruddy agreed to. However, her friends pointed out that Ruddy could shoot the approved script but still leave all her speeches on the cutting room floor. Rand asked for final editing approval, which neither Ruddy nor the Director had the power to give her so she responded by withdrawing her support from the film and vowing to ensure that Ruddy was never involved in any adaptation of her novel.

The following year, Ruddy produced Director and Animator Ralph Bakshi’s satirical film Coonskin (1975). The film was extremely controversial and initially received negative reviews, but it would eventually earn critical acclaim and develop a cult following with cinema devotees around the globe. It remains one of Director Quentin Tarantino’s favorite movies, which he regularly screens.

Ruddy appears to have been the source name for Edward George Ruddy, the President of the Union Broadcasting System, in the Paddy Chayefsky film Network (1976).

Ruddy has been married since 1981 to Wanda McDaniel. The couple has two children, Writer John Ruddy and Actress Alexandra Ruddy.

In the early 2000s, he helps create the successful series Walker, Texas Ranger.

In 2004, he produced Million Dollar Baby, which earned him his second Oscar for Best Picture. He shared the award with Clint Eastwood, who had presented Ruddy with the Best Picture Oscar for The Godfather over 30 years earlier.

In late 2015, it was announced that he had acquired the rights to Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and would be making a movie for worldwide release.