Background
Macdougall, Ranald was born on March 10, 1915 in Schenectady.
director screenwriter writer film producer
Macdougall, Ranald was born on March 10, 1915 in Schenectady.
He also directed a number of films, including 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.
MacDougall was President of the Writers' Guild of America, West from 1971 until 1973.