Robert Ryan
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Nov 11, 1909
- Died
- Jul 11, 1973 (aged 63)
- Place of birth
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Credits
- 100
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
The Wild Bunch
1969Movie
Deke Thornton
The Dirty Dozen
1967Movie
Col. Everett Dasher Breed
The Longest Day
1962Movie
Brig. Gen. James M. Gavin
Bad Day at Black Rock
1955Movie
Reno Smith
The Professionals
1966Movie
Ehrengard
Battle of the Bulge
1965Movie
General Grey
Filmography
A New Dimension in Noir: Filming Inferno in 3D
2017Movie
Self
Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade
2004Movie
Self (archive footage)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
2002Movie
Sandy Dawson (archive footage) (uncredited)
Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down the Line
1997Movie
Self (archive footage)
Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire
1991Movie
Self (archive footage)
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
1986Movie
Self (archive footage)
The Iceman Cometh
1973Movie
Larry Slade
Executive Action
1973Movie
Foster
The Outfit
1973Movie
Mailer
The Man Without a Country
1973Movie
Lt. Cmdr. Vaughan
Lolly-Madonna XXX
1973Movie
Pap Gutshall
The Moviemakers
1973Movie
Self
And Hope to Die
1972Movie
Charley
The Love Machine
1971Movie
Gregory 'Greg' Austin
Lawman
1971Movie
Sabbath Marshal Cotton Ryan
The Reason Why
1970Movie
Roger
Captain Nemo and the Underwater City
1969Movie
Captain Nemo
Simon and Garfunkel: Songs of America
1969Movie
Self - Host
The Wild Bunch
1969Movie
Deke Thornton
Anzio
1968Movie
Gen. Carson
A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die
1968Movie
New Mexico Gov. Lem Carter
Custer of the West
1967Movie
Mulligan
Hour of the Gun
1967Movie
Ike Clanton
The Dirty Dozen
1967Movie
Col. Everett Dasher Breed
The Busy Body
1967Movie
Charley Barker
The Professionals
1966Movie
Ehrengard
Battle of the Bulge
1965Movie
General Grey
The Dirty Game
1965Movie
General Bruce
The Crooked Road
1965Movie
Richard Ashley
The Inheritance
1964Movie
Narrator (voice)
World War One
1964TV
Narrator
World War I: The Complete Story
1964TV
Narrator
A Regular Bouquet: Mississippi Summer
1964Movie
Narrator (voice)
Kraft Suspense Theatre
1963TV
Thomas Bollington
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
1963TV
Billy Budd
1962Movie
John Claggart, Master of Arms
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962TV
Self
The Longest Day
1962Movie
Brig. Gen. James M. Gavin
King of Kings
1961Movie
John the Baptist
The Canadians
1961Movie
Inspector William Gannon
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
1960Movie
Harry Walters
Ice Palace
1960Movie
Thor Storm
Odds Against Tomorrow
1959Movie
Earle Slater
Day of the Outlaw
1959Movie
Blaise Starrett
Lonelyhearts
1959Movie
William Shrike
The David Susskind Show
1959TV
Self
God's Little Acre
1958Movie
Ty Ty Walden
The Great Gatsby
1958Movie
Jay Gatsby
Alcoa Theatre
1957TV
Trilbridge, Mike Ripetti
Goodyear Theatre
1957TV
Frank Berry
Men in War
1957Movie
Lt. Benson
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
1956TV
Matt Jessop, Cob Oakley, Sheriff Amos Parney, Captain William Kraig
Back from Eternity
1956Movie
Bill Lonagan
The Steve Allen Show
1956TV
Self
The Proud Ones
1956Movie
Marshal Cass Silver
The House Without a Name
1956Movie
Fernand Fox
The Tall Men
1955Movie
Nathan Stark
House of Bamboo
1955Movie
Sandy Dawson
Escape to Burma
1955Movie
Jim Brecan
Bad Day at Black Rock
1955Movie
Reno Smith
Her Twelve Men
1954Movie
Joe Hargrave
About Mrs. Leslie
1954Movie
George Leslie
Alaska Seas
1954Movie
Matt Kelly
Inferno
1953Movie
Donald Whitley Carson III
City Beneath the Sea
1953Movie
Brad Carlton
The Oscars
1953TV
Self
The Naked Spur
1953Movie
Ben Vandergroat
Horizons West
1952Movie
Dan Hammond
Beware, My Lovely
1952Movie
Howard Wilton
Clash by Night
1952Movie
Earl Pfeiffer
On Dangerous Ground
1951Movie
Jim Wilson
The Racket
1951Movie
Nick Scanlon
Flying Leathernecks
1951Movie
Capt. Carl 'Griff' Griffin
Best of the Badmen
1951Movie
Jeff Clanton
Hard, Fast and Beautiful!
1951Movie
Seabright Tennis Match Spectator (uncredited)
Born to Be Bad
1950Movie
Nick
The Woman on Pier 13
1950Movie
Bradley Collins / Frank Johnson
The Secret Fury
1950Movie
David McLean
What's My Line?
1950TV
Self
The Set-Up
1949Movie
Stoker
Caught
1949Movie
Smith Ohlrig
Act of Violence
1949Movie
Joe Parkson
The Boy with Green Hair
1948Movie
Dr. Evans
Return of the Bad Men
1948Movie
Sundance Kid
Berlin Express
1948Movie
Robert Lindley
Crossfire
1947Movie
Montgomery
The Woman on the Beach
1947Movie
Scott Burnett
Trail Street
1947Movie
Allen Harper
Marine Raiders
1944Movie
Capt. Dan Craig
Tender Comrade
1944Movie
Chris Jones
Gangway for Tomorrow
1943Movie
Joe Dunham
The Iron Major
1943Movie
Father Timothy 'Tim' Donovan
Behind the Rising Sun
1943Movie
Lefty O'Doyle
The Sky's the Limit
1943Movie
Reginald Fenton
Bombardier
1943Movie
Joe Connors
The Texas Rangers Ride Again
1940Movie
Eddie (uncredited)
North West Mounted Police
1940Movie
Constable Dumont
Golden Gloves
1940Movie
Pete Wells
Queen of the Mob
1940Movie
Jim
The Ghost Breakers
1940Movie
Intern (uncredited)