Robert Ryan
[4] After graduation, Ryan found employment as a stoker on a ship that traveled to Africa, a WPA worker, a ranch hand in Montana, and other odd jobs.[9] In November 1939, Paramount signed Ryan to a six-month contract and announced he would play the lead in Golden Gloves (1940), citing his boxing experience at Dartmouth.[10] However, after a screen test with Gloves director Edward Dmytryk, the lead went to Richard Denning and Ryan was cast in a minor, but important role as a boxing "ringer".[13] He was fourth-billed in Behind the Rising Sun (1943), directed by Edward Dmytryk, which was a huge box-office success then third-billed in The Iron Major (1943), with O'Brien, and Gangway for Tomorrow (1943).Ryan enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served as a drill instructor from January 1944 to November 1945 at Camp Pendleton, in Southern California.Ryan co-starred with Merle Oberon in Berlin Express (1948) for director Jacques Tourneur; it was the first movie made in Germany after the end of the second world war.[18] He was top billed in The Woman on Pier 13 (1949), an anti-communist melodrama directed by Robert Stevenson, that was made at the prompting of RKO's new owner, Howard Hughes.Ryan remained in high demand throughout the 1960s: he appeared in Ice Palace (1960) with Richard Burton; a TV version of The Snows of Kilimanjaro directed by John Frankenheimer; The Canadians (1961) for Burt Kennedy; played John the Baptist in MGM's Technicolor epic King of Kings (1961) for Nicholas Ray; was the villainous Claggart in Peter Ustinov's adaptation of Billy Budd (1962) for which he was nominated for a BAFTA.Ryan's only partial concession to featuring in an entire television series was his role as Narrator in CBS's 26-episode acclaimed documentary homage to World War One, released in prime-time during the 1964–65 season.After production in Mexico moved from Parras to Torreón, his request to take a few days off to campaign for Eugene McCarthy during the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries was denied by Peckinpah.In his biography Golden Boy: The Untold Story of William Holden, Bob Thomas wrote, "For ten days, Ryan reported to the set in makeup and costume.In April 1971, Ryan returned to the stage to play James Tyrone in Arvin Brown's critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Long Day's Journey into Night.[35] He originally refused the lead in Lolly-Madonna XXX (1973) with Rod Steiger because he wanted to take his wife to Europe, but she died of cancer in May 1972, and he ended up playing the part.[34] Ryan's final roles included: The Man Without a Country (1973), a TV movie for Delbert Mann; The Outfit (1973) with Robert Duvall; Executive Action (1973) with Lancaster, from a script by Dalton Trumbo; and a version of The Iceman Cometh (1973) with Lee Marvin and director Frankenheimer.At a screening of Odds Against Tomorrow, he appeared before the press to discuss "the problems of an actor like me playing the kind of character that in real life he finds totally despicable.In socially progressive films such as Crossfire, Bad Day at Black Rock, Odds Against Tomorrow and Executive Action, he played bigoted villains or conspirators.[43] In the fall of 1951, the progressive Oakwood School was opened in Jessica and Robert Ryan's backyard in Los Angeles; founded by a small group of parents, created and based on their educational and child-rearing views.Three years later, the parents, including the Ryans, Sidney Harmon, Elizabeth Schappert, Wendy and Ross Cabeen, and Charles and Emilie Haas, bought and built the elementary school campus on Moorpark Street in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley.[34] According to one profile of him written after his death: Born to play beautifully tortured, angry souls... Ryan was a familiar movie face for more than two decades in Hollywood's classical years, his studio ups and downs, independent detours and outlier adventures paralleling the arc of American cinema as it went from a national pastime to near collapse.
Robert Ryan (disambiguation)The Naked SpurChicagoAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actorfilm noirCrossfireThurlesCatholicLoyola AcademyDartmouth Collegeheavyweight boxingletteringfootballMax ReinhardtParamountGolden GlovesEdward DmytrykRichard DenningThe Ghost BreakersQueen of the MobNorth West Mounted PoliceTexas Rangers Ride AgainClifford OdetsClash by NightLee StrasbergBilly RoseTallulah BankheadLee J. CobbBombardierPat O'BrienThe Sky's the LimitBehind the Rising SunThe Iron MajorGangway for TomorrowTender ComradeGinger RogersMarine RaidersUnited States Marine Corpsdrill instructorCamp PendletonSouthern CaliforniaRichard BrooksRandolph ScottTrail StreetThe Woman on the BeachJean Renoiranti-SemiticRobert MitchumGloria GrahameBest Supporting ActorMerle OberonBerlin ExpressJacques TourneurReturn of the Bad MenThe Boy with Green HairJoseph LoseyDore ScharyAct of ViolenceFred ZinnemannCaughtMax OphulsThe Set-UpRobert WiseThe Woman on Pier 13Robert StevensonHoward HughesThe Secret FuryClaudette ColbertMel FerrerBorn to Be BadNicholas RayBest of the BadmenJohn WayneFlying LeathernecksBarbara StanwyckThe RacketJohn CromwellOn Dangerous GroundIda LupinoMarilyn MonroeFritz LangDavid ThomsonBeware, My LovelyAnthony MannCity Beneath the SeaBudd BoetticherUniversalInfernoAlaska SeasShirley BoothAbout Mrs. LeslieGreer GarsonHer Twelve Men Bad Day at Black RockCoriolanusJohn HousemanEscape to BurmaSam FullerHouse of BambooRaoul WalshThe Tall MenThe Proud OnesBack from EternityJohn FarrowMen in WarAbraham LincolnScreen Director's PlayhouseChristopher MorleyScreen Directors PlayhouseMr. Adams and EveGoodyear TheatreAlcoa TheatrePlayhouse 90The Great GatsbyZane Grey TheaterGod's Little AcreLonelyheartsDay of the OutlawOdds Against TomorrowKatharine HepburnAmerican Shakespeare TheatreIce PalaceThe Snows of KilimanjaroJohn FrankenheimerThe CanadiansBurt Kennedy