10 Facts About Kathleen Ryan

Kathleen Ryan was born in Dublin, Ireland of Tipperary parentage and appeared in British and Hollywood films between 1947 and 1957.

Kathleen Ryan's brother was John Ryan, an artist and man of letters in bohemian Dublin of the 1940s and 1950s, who was a friend and benefactor of a number of struggling writers in the post-war era, such as Patrick Kavanagh.

Kathleen Ryan started and edited a short-lived literary magazine entitled Envoy.

Kathleen Ryan married Dermod Devane in the society wedding of 1944 and the couple had three children, but the marriage was annulled in 1958.

Kathleen Ryan acted with the Dublin Abbey Players and at Longford's Gate Theater.

Kathleen Ryan was discovered by Carol Reed, and her film debut was in a leading role in Odd Man Out.

Kathleen Ryan appeared in the English-made Christopher Columbus, but censors removed her from the version shown in the United States.

Kathleen Ryan was the subject of one of Louis le Brocquy's most striking portraits, Girl in White, which he painted in 1941 and entered in the RHA exhibition of that year.

Kathleen Ryan died in Dublin in December 1985 from a lung ailment at the age of 63.

Kathleen Ryan was buried with her parents beneath a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, near the Republican Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.