Ruddell "Rudd" Weatherwax (September 23, 1907 – February 25, 1985) was an American actor and animal trainer. He and his brother Frank Weatherwax are best remembered for training dogs for motion pictures and television. Frank's collie, Pal, became the original Lassie, handled by Rudd for the 1943 MGM film Lassie Come Home. He also handled the dogs for the Lassie television series which ran from 1954 to 1974, and the 1957 feature film Old Yeller.
Pal became a movie star through a weather-related event. MGM, which had decided to use a show collie trained by Frank Inn in the movie, took advantage of a massive flooding of the Sacramento River in northern California to obtain some spectacular footage for the film. Their fancy collie was still in training, so MGM hired Pal as a stand-in for the river scene. Although the work was actually considered complicated for an animal actor, the dog performed exceptionally well.
According to legend, after seeing the first prints, the head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer, stated that "Pal had entered the water, but Lassie had come out," and a new star was born.
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