51 Facts About Robert Ryan

1.

Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor and activist.

2.

Robert Ryan was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film noir drama Crossfire.

3.

Robert Ryan was born in Chicago, Illinois, the first child of Mabel Arbutus, a secretary, and Timothy Aloysius Robert Ryan, who was from a wealthy family who owned a real estate firm.

4.

Robert Ryan graduated from Dartmouth College in 1932, where he held the school's heavyweight boxing title for all four years of his attendance, along with lettering in football and track.

5.

Robert Ryan returned home in 1936 when his father died, and after a brief stint modeling clothes for a department store, he decided to become an actor.

6.

In 1937 Robert Ryan joined a little theater group in Chicago.

7.

However, after a screen test with Gloves director Edward Dmytryk, the lead went to Richard Denning and Robert Ryan was cast in a minor, but important role as a boxing "ringer".

8.

Robert Ryan had his first credited role, while making a lasting association with the director in which they would make several films together.

9.

Robert Ryan went to Broadway, where he was cast in a production of Clifford Odets' Clash by Night, directed by Lee Strasberg and produced by Billy Rose starring Tallulah Bankhead and Lee J Cobb.

10.

Robert Ryan appeared in Bombardier, starring Pat O'Brien, and was fourth-billed in the Fred Astaire musical The Sky's the Limit, playing a friend of Astaire.

11.

Robert Ryan was fourth-billed in Behind the Rising Sun, directed by Dmytryk, which was a huge box-office success then third-billed in The Iron Major, with O'Brien, and Gangway for Tomorrow.

12.

Also popular was Marine Raiders, in which Robert Ryan co-starred again alongside O'Brien.

13.

Robert 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.

14.

When Robert Ryan was discharged from the Marine Corps, he returned to RKO.

15.

Robert Ryan co-starred with Merle Oberon in Berlin Express for director Jacques Tourneur; it was the first movie made in Germany after the end of the second world war.

16.

Robert Ryan was reunited with Scott in Return of the Bad Men, and with O'Brien in The Boy with Green Hair.

17.

Robert Ryan stayed at that studio to make Caught for Max Ophuls with James Mason.

18.

Robert Ryan was top billed in The Woman on Pier 13, an anti-communist melodrama directed by Robert Stevenson, that was made at the prompting of RKO's new owner, Howard Hughes.

19.

Robert Ryan next appeared in several film noirs: The Secret Fury with Claudette Colbert directed by Mel Ferrer, and Born to Be Bad directed by Nicholas Ray.

20.

Robert Ryan then made the Western Best of the Badmen, and costarred with John Wayne in Flying Leathernecks, a World War II film directed by Ray.

21.

Robert Ryan then made the film adaptation of Clash by Night with Barbara Stanwyck and Marilyn Monroe under Fritz Lang's direction.

22.

Robert Ryan went to MGM where he played a villain in Anthony Mann's western The Naked Spur, starring James Stewart.

23.

Robert Ryan appeared in City Beneath the Sea for Budd Boetticher at Universal, Inferno at MGM, and Alaska Seas at Paramount.

24.

Robert Ryan was the leading man for Shirley Booth in About Mrs Leslie and Greer Garson in Her Twelve Men.

25.

Robert Ryan appeared in an off-Broadway production of Coriolanus directed by John Houseman.

26.

Robert Ryan returned to RKO for Escape to Burma with Stanwyck.

27.

Robert Ryan starred in The Proud Ones at Fox, Back from Eternity at RKO, directed by John Farrow.

28.

Robert Ryan appeared in Men in War for Anthony Mann, made at Mann's company Security Pictures.

29.

Robert Ryan remained true to these convictions, appearing in many television series, but always as a guest star.

30.

Robert Ryan was in Screen Directors Playhouse, Mr Adams and Eve, Goodyear Theatre, Alcoa Theatre, Playhouse 90, and Zane Grey Theater.

31.

Robert Ryan continued to star in features including God's Little Acre for Mann and Security Pictures, Lonelyhearts written and produced by Schary, Day of the Outlaw for Security Pictures, and Odds Against Tomorrow for Wise.

32.

Robert Ryan remained in high demand throughout the 1960s: he appeared in Ice Palace with Richard Burton; a TV version of The Snows of Kilimanjaro directed by John Frankenheimer; The Canadians for Burt Kennedy; played John the Baptist in MGM's Technicolor epic King of Kings for Nicholas Ray; was the villainous Claggart in Peter Ustinov's adaptation of Billy Budd for which he was nominated for a BAFTA.

33.

Robert Ryan appeared in the all-star war film The Longest Day, playing James M Gavin.

34.

Robert Ryan returned to Broadway in the musical Mr President by Lindsay and Crouse with music by Irving Berlin and directed by Joshua Logan; it ran for 263 performances.

35.

Robert Ryan has appeared in TV shows such as Kraft Suspense Theatre, Breaking Point, The Eleventh Hour, Wagon Train, The Reporter and Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre.

36.

Robert Ryan was considered for the role in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek.

37.

Robert Ryan could be seen in The Crooked Road and The Secret Agents, then the all-star Battle of the Bulge for Phil Yordan and The Professionals for Brooks.

38.

Robert Ryan went to Europe for A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die and Anzio for Dmytryk.

39.

Robert Ryan had the lead in Captain Nemo and the Underwater City.

40.

Robert Ryan returned to the stage in a revival of The Front Page.

41.

Robert Ryan supported Burt Lancaster in Lawman and Jon Phillip Law in The Love Machine.

42.

Robert Ryan appeared in And Hope to Die with Jean-Louis Trintignant for Rene Clement.

43.

Robert Ryan, who died before the latter's premiere, won the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor, the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor, and a special award from the National Society of Film Critics.

44.

Robert Ryan had signed to appear in a stage musical version of Shenandoah when he died.

45.

Robert Ryan served in the cultural division of the Committee to Defend Martin Luther King Jr.

46.

Robert Ryan often spoke about the dichotomy of his personal beliefs and his acting roles.

47.

Robert Ryan was a pacifist who starred in war movies, westerns, and violent thrillers.

48.

Robert Ryan was an opponent of McCarthyism, but appeared in the anti-communist propaganda film I Married a Communist, playing a nefarious communist agent.

49.

Robert Ryan died from lung cancer in New York City the following year at the age of 63.

50.

Robert 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.

51.

Robert Ryan was known for his villains, and it was the complexity of these characters, their emotional and psychological kinks, that elevated even his lesser roles.