Robert Ryan
Acting • Born 1909-11-11 – Died 1973-07-11
Biography
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.
Filmography
106 credits
The Wild Bunch
Movie • 1969
Deke Thornton
The Dirty Dozen
Movie • 1967
Col. Everett Dasher Breed
Billy Budd
Movie • 1962
John Claggart, Master of Arms
House of Bamboo
Movie • 1955
Sandy Dawson
The Naked Spur
Movie • 1953
Ben Vandergroat
Clash by Night
Movie • 1952
Earl Pfeiffer
The Professionals
Movie • 1966
Ehrengard
On Dangerous Ground
Movie • 1951
Jim Wilson
Hour of the Gun
Movie • 1967
Ike Clanton
The Racket
Movie • 1951
Nick Scanlon
Odds Against Tomorrow
Movie • 1959
Earle Slater
The Longest Day
Movie • 1962
Brig. Gen. James M. Gavin
Act of Violence
Movie • 1949
Joe Parkson
The Outfit
Movie • 1973
Mailer
A New Dimension in Noir: Filming Inferno in 3D
Movie • 2017
Self
The Woman on Pier 13
Movie • 1950
Bradley Collins / Frank Johnson
Battle of the Bulge
Movie • 1965
General Grey
Crossfire
Movie • 1947
Montgomery
Anzio
Movie • 1968
Gen. Carson
The Iceman Cometh
Movie • 1973
Larry Slade
Executive Action
Movie • 1973
Foster
Berlin Express
Movie • 1948
Robert Lindley
The Great Gatsby
Movie • 1958
Jay Gatsby
King of Kings
Movie • 1961
John the Baptist
Bad Day at Black Rock
Movie • 1955
Reno Smith
The Busy Body
Movie • 1967
Charley Barker
Lawman
Movie • 1971
Sabbath Marshal Cotton Ryan
The Woman on the Beach
Movie • 1947
Scott Burnett
God's Little Acre
Movie • 1958
Ty Ty Walden
Horizons West
Movie • 1952
Dan Hammond
The Tall Men
Movie • 1955
Nathan Stark
Born to Be Bad
Movie • 1950
Nick
Caught
Movie • 1949
Smith Ohlrig
Beware, My Lovely
Movie • 1952
Howard Wilton
The Iron Major
Movie • 1943
Father Timothy 'Tim' Donovan
Inferno
Movie • 1953
Donald Whitley Carson III
Day of the Outlaw
Movie • 1959
Blaise Starrett
The Sky's the Limit
Movie • 1943
Reginald Fenton
The Boy with Green Hair
Movie • 1948
Dr. Evans
Men in War
Movie • 1957
Lt. Benson
Bombardier
Movie • 1943
Joe Connors
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Movie • 1960
Harry Walters
Back from Eternity
Movie • 1956
Bill Lonagan
Ice Palace
Movie • 1960
Thor Storm
Flying Leathernecks
Movie • 1951
Capt. Carl 'Griff' Griffin
The Set-Up
Movie • 1949
Stoker
City Beneath the Sea
Movie • 1953
Brad Carlton
A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die
Movie • 1968
New Mexico Gov. Lem Carter
The Secret Fury
Movie • 1950
David McLean
Captain Nemo and the Underwater City
Movie • 1969
Captain Nemo
And Hope to Die
Movie • 1972
Charley
The Inheritance
Movie • 1964
Narrator (voice)
A Regular Bouquet: Mississippi Summer
Movie • 1964
Narrator (voice)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
Movie • 2002
Sandy Dawson (archive footage) (uncredited)
Lonelyhearts
Movie • 1959
William Shrike
Tender Comrade
Movie • 1944
Chris Jones
Gangway for Tomorrow
Movie • 1943
Joe Dunham
Trail Street
Movie • 1947
Allen Harper
Escape to Burma
Movie • 1955
Jim Brecan
About Mrs. Leslie
Movie • 1954
George Leslie
The Proud Ones
Movie • 1956
Marshal Cass Silver
Best of the Badmen
Movie • 1951
Jeff Clanton
Alaska Seas
Movie • 1954
Matt Kelly
Lolly-Madonna XXX
Movie • 1973
Pap Gutshall
Her Twelve Men
Movie • 1954
Joe Hargrave
Return of the Bad Men
Movie • 1948
Sundance Kid
The Crooked Road
Movie • 1965
Richard Ashley
The Dirty Game
Movie • 1965
General Bruce
Behind the Rising Sun
Movie • 1943
Lefty O'Doyle
Marine Raiders
Movie • 1944
Capt. Dan Craig
The Man Without a Country
Movie • 1973
Lt. Cmdr. Vaughan
The Canadians
Movie • 1961
Inspector William Gannon
The Texas Rangers Ride Again
Movie • 1940
Eddie (uncredited)
The Reason Why
Movie • 1970
Roger
The Love Machine
Movie • 1971
Gregory 'Greg' Austin
Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down the Line
Movie • 1997
Self (archive footage)
Golden Gloves
Movie • 1940
Pete Wells
The Ghost Breakers
Movie • 1940
Intern (uncredited)
The Notorious Lone Wolf
Movie • 1946
Plainclothesman (uncredited)
North West Mounted Police
Movie • 1940
Constable Dumont
Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire
Movie • 1991
Self (archive footage)
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
Movie • 1986
Self (archive footage)
Simon and Garfunkel: Songs of America
Movie • 1969
Self - Host
Custer of the West
Movie • 1967
Mulligan
The House Without a Name
Movie • 1956
Hard, Fast and Beautiful!
Movie • 1951
Seabright Tennis Match Spectator (uncredited)
Queen of the Mob
Movie • 1940
Jim
Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade
Movie • 2004
Self (archive footage)
The Moviemakers
Movie • 1973
Self
Kraft Suspense Theatre
TV • 1963
Thomas Bollington
The David Susskind Show
TV • 1959
Self
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
TV • 1963
World War One
TV • 1964
Narrator
Alcoa Theatre
TV • 1957
Trilbridge
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
Matt Jessop
The Steve Allen Show
TV • 1956
Self
The Oscars
TV • 1953
Self
Alcoa Theatre
TV • 1957
Mike Ripetti
Goodyear Theatre
TV • 1957
Frank Berry
World War I: The Complete Story
TV • 1964
Narrator
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
Cob Oakley
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
Sheriff Amos Parney
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
Captain William Kraig
What's My Line?
TV • 1950
Self - Mystery Guest
What's My Line?
TV • 1950
Self
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
TV • 1962
Self