Eventually making his way to America, Ridges began as a song-and-dance man on Broadway, but later turned to dramatic roles onstage, appearing in such plays as
Maxwell Anderson's
Mary of Scotland (as Lord Morton) and
Valley Forge (as Lieutenant Colonel Lucifer Tench), becoming a romantic leading man. Ridges' silent film debut was in
Success (1923). With his excellent diction and rich voice, he easily made the transition into sound films, with his career taking off at age 43, in
Crime Without Passion (1934), with
Claude Rains. Ridges found himself cast in character roles, as his greying hair put his romantic leading man days at an end. and Ridges in
Eyes in the Night (1942) His better known roles were probably two different characters in one film, one of them the kindly Professor Kingsley and the other the murderous Red Cannon in the thriller
Black Friday (1940). Ridges often was cast in supporting roles in many classic films, and played the lead only once, in the
B-picture False Faces (1943). Among Ridges's other film roles were as the
Scotland Yard inspector who is shadowing
Charles Laughton in the film
The Suspect (1944), as Major Buxton (
Gary Cooper's commanding officer) in
Sergeant York (1941), as Professor Siletsky in
To Be or Not to Be (1942), and as
Cary Travers Grayson, the official physician for the president in
Wilson (1944). By 1950, he had just begun an appearing in television anthologies such as
Studio One and
The Philco Television Playhouse. His last feature film, the
Ginger Rogers comedy
The Groom Wore Spurs, in which he played a mobster, was released a month before he died. == Death ==