Ralph Staub

Director | Producer | Screenwriter Born July 22, 1899 in Chicago, Ill.

Ralph Staub was a movie director, producer and screenwriter best known for his work on the Columbia Pictures series “Screen Snapshots,” short documentaries produced between 1924 and 1958 featuring behind-the-scenes footage of Hollywood stars.

The shorts showed the biggest screen stars and industry names of the day at Hollywood parties and events: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Mary Pickford, Will Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Al Jolson, Gene Autry, Betty Grable, Roy Rogers, Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan and Clara Bow, among many others.

Staub almost exclusively wrote, produced and directed (and occasionally edited and narrated) the documentary shorts, which were shown in cinemas alongside main feature films. Three of the ones he directed were nominated for Academy Awards.

Although the majority of his credits are film shorts or documentaries, he also directed a number of feature films, such as “Navy Blues” (1937), “Yukon Flight” (1940), “Sky Bandits” (1940) and “Prairie Moon” (1938).

— Kelsey Ramos for the Los Angeles Times June 22, 2010