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person_profile-Robert Ryan

Robert Ryan Died at age: 63

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Robert Ryan

Date of Birth:

Nov 11, 1909

Country of birth:

USA

Died:

Jul 11, 1973

Biography of

Robert Ryan

    Robert Bushnell Ryan (November 11, 1909 – July 11, 1973) was an American  actor who often played hardened cops and ruthless villains.

    Ryan was born in Chicago, Illinois, the first child of Timothy Ryan and his wife Mabel Bushnell Ryan.  He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1932, having held the school's heavyweight boxing title all four years of his attendance. After graduation, the 6'4" Ryan found employment as a stoker on a ship, a WPA worker, and a ranch hand in Montana.

    Ryan attempted to make a career in show business as a playwright, but had to turn to acting to support himself. He studied acting in Hollywood and appeared on stage and in small film parts during the early 1940s.

    In January 1944, after securing a contract guarantee from RKO Radio Pictures, Ryan enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served as a drill instructor at Camp Pendleton, in San Diego, California. At Camp Pendleton, he befriended writer and future director Richard Brooks, whose novel, The Brick Foxhole, he greatly admired. He also took up painting.

    Ryan's breakthrough film role was as an anti-Semitic killer in Crossfire (1947), a film noir based on Brooks's novel. The role won Ryan his sole career Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor. From then on, Ryan's specialty was tough/tender roles, finding particular expression in the films of directors such as Nicholas Ray, Robert Wise and Sam Fuller. In Ray's On Dangerous Ground (1951) he portrayed a burnt-out city cop finding redemption while solving a rural murder. In Wise's The Set-Up (1949), he played an over-the-hill boxer who is brutally punished for refusing to take a dive. Other important films were Anthony Mann's western The Naked Spur, Sam Fuller's uproarious Japanese set gangland thriller House of Bamboo, Bad Day at Black Rock, and the socially conscious heist movie Odds Against Tomorrow. He also appeared in several all-star war films, including The Longest Day (1962) and Battle of the Bulge (1965), and The Dirty Dozen. He also played John the Baptist in MGM's Technicolor epic King of Kings (1961) and was the villainous Claggart in Peter Ustinov's adaptation of Billy Budd (1962).

    In his later years, Ryan continued playing significant roles in major films. Most notable of these were The Dirty Dozen, The Professionals (1966) and Sam Peckinpah's highly influential brutal western The Wild Bunch (1969).

    Ryan appeared several times on the Broadway stage. His credits there include Clash by Night, Mr. President and The Front Page, the comedy drama about newspapermen.

    He appeared in many television series as a guest star, including the role of Franklin Hoppy-Hopp in the 1964 episode "Who Chopped Down the Cherry Tree?" on the NBC medical drama about psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour. Similarly, he guest starred as Lloyd Osment in the 1964 episode "Better Than a Dead Lion" in the ABC psychiatric series, Breaking Point. In 1964, Ryan appeared with Warren Oates in the episode "No Comment" of CBS's short-lived drama about newspapers, The Reporter, starring Harry Guardino in the title role of journalist Danny Taylor. Ryan appeared five times (1956–1959) on CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater and twice (1959 and 1961) on the Zane Grey spin-off Frontier Justice. He appeared three times (1962–1964) on the western Wagon Train.

Photos of

Robert Ryan

Photos ( 8 Photos

Filmography of

Robert Ryan

Found 85 Movies in total

... 2004

The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller

Sandy Dawson (archive footage) (uncredited) ( Actor )

... 2002

Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down The Line

Self (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 1997

Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire

Self (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 1991

Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend

Self (from Clash by Night [1952]) (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 1986

... 1986

The Iceman Cometh

Larry Slade ( Actor )

... 1973

Executive Action

Foster ( Actor )

... 1973

The Outfit

Mailer ( Actor )

... 1973

The Man Without a Country

Lt. Cmdr. Vaughan ( Actor )

... 1973

Lolly-Madonna xxx

Pap Gutshall ( Actor )

... 1973

And Hope to Die

Charley ( Actor )

... 1972

The Love Machine

Gregory 'Greg' Austin ( Actor )

... 1971

Lawman

Sabbath Marshal Cotton Ryan ( Actor )

... 1971

... 1969

... 1969

The Wild Bunch

Deke Thornton ( Actor )

... 1969

Anzio

Gen. Carson ( Actor )

... 1968

A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die

New Mexico Gov. Lem Carter ( Actor )

... 1968

Custer of the West

Mulligan ( Actor )

... 1967

Hour of the Gun

Ike Clanton ( Actor )

... 1967

The Dirty Dozen

Col. Everett Dasher Breed ( Actor )

... 1967

The Busy Body

Charley Barker ( Actor )

... 1967

The Professionals

Ehrengard ( Actor )

... 1966

Battle of the Bulge

General Grey ( Actor )

... 1965

The Dirty Game

General Bruce ( Actor )

... 1965

The Crooked Road

Richard Ashley ( Actor )

... 1965

The Inheritance

Narrator (voice) ( Actor )

... 1964

Billy Budd

John Claggart, Master of Arms ( Actor )

... 1962

The Longest Day

Brig. Gen. James M. Gavin ( Actor )

... 1962

King of Kings

John the Baptist ( Actor )

... 1961

The Canadians

Inspector William Gannon ( Actor )

... 1961

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Harry Walters ( Actor )

... 1960

Ice Palace

Thor Storm ( Actor )

... 1960

Odds Against Tomorrow

Earle Slater ( Actor )

... 1959

Day of the Outlaw

Blaise Starrett ( Actor )

... 1959

Lonelyhearts

William Shrike ( Actor )

... 1959

God's Little Acre

Ty Ty Walden ( Actor )

... 1958

The Great Gatsby

Jay Gatsby ( Actor )

... 1958

Men in War

Lt. Benson ( Actor )

... 1957

Back from Eternity

Bill Lonagan ( Actor )

... 1956

The Proud Ones

Marshal Cass Silver ( Actor )

... 1956

The Tall Men

Nathan Stark ( Actor )

... 1955

House of Bamboo

Sandy Dawson ( Actor )

... 1955

Escape to Burma

Jim Brecan ( Actor )

... 1955

Bad Day at Black Rock

Reno Smith ( Actor )

... 1955

Her Twelve Men

Joe Hargrave ( Actor )

... 1954

About Mrs. Leslie

George Leslie ( Actor )

... 1954

Alaska Seas

Matt Kelly ( Actor )

... 1954

Inferno

Donald Whitley Carson III ( Actor )

... 1953

City Beneath the Sea

Brad Carlton ( Actor )

... 1953

The Naked Spur

Ben Vandergroat ( Actor )

... 1953

Horizons West

Dan Hammond ( Actor )

... 1952

Beware, My Lovely

Howard Wilton ( Actor )

... 1952

Clash by Night

Earl Pfeiffer ( Actor )

... 1952

On Dangerous Ground

Jim Wilson ( Actor )

... 1951

The Racket

Nick Scanlon ( Actor )

... 1951

Flying Leathernecks

Capt. Carl 'Griff' Griffin ( Actor )

... 1951

Best of the Badmen

Jeff Clanton ( Actor )

... 1951

Hard, Fast and Beautiful

Seabright Tennis Match Spectator (uncredited) ( Actor )

... 1951

Born to Be Bad

Nick Bradley ( Actor )

... 1950

The Woman on Pier 13

Bradley Collins / Frank Johnson ( Actor )

... 1950

The Secret Fury

David McLean ( Actor )

... 1950

The Set-Up

Stoker ( Actor )

... 1949

Caught

Smith Ohlrig ( Actor )

... 1949

Act of Violence

Joe Parkson ( Actor )

... 1949

The Boy with Green Hair

Dr. Evans ( Actor )

... 1948

Return of the Bad Men

Sundance Kid ( Actor )

... 1948

Berlin Express

Robert Lindley ( Actor )

... 1948

Crossfire

Montgomery ( Actor )

... 1947

The Woman on the Beach

Scott Burnett ( Actor )

... 1947

Trail Street

Allen Harper ( Actor )

... 1947

The Notorious Lone Wolf

Plainclothesman (uncredited) ( Actor )

... 1946

Marine Raiders

Capt. Dan Craig ( Actor )

... 1944

Tender Comrade

Chris Jones ( Actor )

... 1944

Gangway for Tomorrow

Joe Dunham ( Actor )

... 1943

The Iron Major

Father Timothy 'Tim' Donovan ( Actor )

... 1943

Behind the Rising Sun

Lefty O'Doyle ( Actor )

... 1943

The Sky's the Limit

Reginald Fenton ( Actor )

... 1943

Bombardier

Joe Connors ( Actor )

... 1943

The Texas Rangers Ride Again

Eddie (uncredited) ( Actor )

... 1940

North West Mounted Police

Constable Dumont ( Actor )

... 1940

Golden Gloves

Pete Wells ( Actor )

... 1940

Queen of the Mob

Jim ( Actor )

... 1940

The Ghost Breakers

Intern (uncredited) ( Actor )

... 1940