Robert Ryan
Born
November 11, 1909
Died
July 11, 1973 (63 years old)
Known For
Acting
Place of Birth
Chicago, Illinois, USA
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.
Known For
A New Dimension in Noir: Filming Inferno in 3D
Self
2017
Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade
Self (archive footage)
2004
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
Sandy Dawson (archive footage) (uncredited)
2002
Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down The Line
Self (archive footage)
1997
Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire
Self (archive footage)
1991
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
Self (from Clash by Night [1952]) (archive footage)
1986
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
Self (archive footage)
1986
The Iceman Cometh
Larry Slade
1973
Executive Action
Foster
1973
The Outfit
Mailer
1973
The Man Without a Country
Lt. Cmdr. Vaughan
1973
Lolly-Madonna XXX
Pap Gutshall
1973
And Hope to Die
Charley
1972
The Love Machine
Gregory 'Greg' Austin
1971
Lawman
Sabbath Marshal Cotton Ryan
1971
The Reason Why
Roger
1970
Captain Nemo and the Underwater City
Captain Nemo
1969
Simon and Garfunkel: Songs of America
Self - Host
1969
The Wild Bunch
Deke Thornton
1969
Anzio
Gen. Carson
1968
A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die
New Mexico Gov. Lem Carter
1968
Custer of the West
Mulligan
1967
Hour of the Gun
Ike Clanton
1967
The Dirty Dozen
Col. Everett Dasher Breed
1967
The Busy Body
Charley Barker
1967
The Professionals
Ehrengard
1966
Battle of the Bulge
General Grey
1965
The Dirty Game
General Bruce
1965
The Crooked Road
Richard Ashley
1965
The Inheritance
Narrator (voice)
1964
World War One
Narrator · (26 episodes)
1964
World War I: The Complete Story
Narrator · (27 episodes)
1964
A Regular Bouquet: Mississippi Summer
Narrator (voice)
1964
Kraft Suspense Theatre
Thomas Bollington · (1 episode)
1963
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
(1 episode)
1963
Billy Budd
John Claggart, Master of Arms
1962
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self · (1 episode)
1962
The Longest Day
Brig. Gen. James M. Gavin
1962
King of Kings
John the Baptist
1961
The Canadians
Inspector William Gannon
1961
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Harry Walters
1960
Ice Palace
Thor Storm
1960
Odds Against Tomorrow
Earle Slater
1959
Day of the Outlaw
Blaise Starrett
1959
Lonelyhearts
William Shrike
1959
The David Susskind Show
Self · (1 episode)
1959
God's Little Acre
Ty Ty Walden
1958
The Great Gatsby
Jay Gatsby
1958
Alcoa Theatre
Trilbridge · (1 episode)
1957
Alcoa Theatre
Mike Ripetti · (1 episode)
1957
Goodyear Theatre
Frank Berry · (1 episode)
1957
Men in War
Lt. Benson
1957
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Matt Jessop · (2 episodes)
1956
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Cob Oakley · (1 episode)
1956
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Sheriff Amos Parney · (1 episode)
1956
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Captain William Kraig · (1 episode)
1956
Back from Eternity
Bill Lonagan
1956
The Steve Allen Show
Self · (1 episode)
1956
The Proud Ones
Marshal Cass Silver
1956
The House Without a Name
1956
The Tall Men
Nathan Stark
1955
House of Bamboo
Sandy Dawson
1955
Escape to Burma
Jim Brecan
1955
Bad Day at Black Rock
Reno Smith
1955
Her Twelve Men
Joe Hargrave
1954
About Mrs. Leslie
George Leslie
1954
Alaska Seas
Matt Kelly
1954
Inferno
Donald Whitley Carson III
1953
City Beneath the Sea
Brad Carlton
1953
The Oscars
Self · (1 episode)
1953
The Naked Spur
Ben Vandergroat
1953
Horizons West
Dan Hammond
1952
Beware, My Lovely
Howard Wilton
1952
Clash by Night
Earl Pfeiffer
1952
On Dangerous Ground
Jim Wilson
1951
The Racket
Nick Scanlon
1951
Flying Leathernecks
Capt. Carl 'Griff' Griffin
1951
Best of the Badmen
Jeff Clanton
1951
Hard, Fast and Beautiful
Seabright Tennis Match Spectator (uncredited)
1951
Born to Be Bad
Nick Bradley
1950
The Woman on Pier 13
Bradley Collins / Frank Johnson
1950
The Secret Fury
David McLean
1950
What's My Line?
Self - Mystery Guest · (1 episode)
1950
What's My Line?
Self - Panelist · (1 episode)
1950
The Set-Up
Stoker
1949
Caught
Smith Ohlrig
1949
Act of Violence
Joe Parkson
1949
The Boy with Green Hair
Dr. Evans
1948
Return of the Bad Men
Sundance Kid
1948
Berlin Express
Robert Lindley
1948
Crossfire
Montgomery
1947
The Woman on the Beach
Scott Burnett
1947
Trail Street
Allen Harper
1947
The Notorious Lone Wolf
Plainclothesman (uncredited)
1946
Marine Raiders
Capt. Dan Craig
1944
Tender Comrade
Chris Jones
1944
Gangway for Tomorrow
Joe Dunham
1943
The Iron Major
Father Timothy 'Tim' Donovan
1943
Behind the Rising Sun
Lefty O'Doyle
1943
The Sky's the Limit
Reginald Fenton
1943
Bombardier
Joe Connors
1943
The Texas Rangers Ride Again
Eddie (uncredited)
1940
North West Mounted Police
Constable Dumont
1940
Golden Gloves
Pete Wells
1940
Queen of the Mob
Jim
1940
The Ghost Breakers
Intern (uncredited)
1940