Robert Ryan

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.

Known For

Deke Thornton

The Wild Bunch

Col. Everett Dasher Breed

The Dirty Dozen

John Claggart, Master of Arms

Billy Budd

Sandy Dawson

House of Bamboo

Ben Vandergroat

The Naked Spur

Earl Pfeiffer

Clash by Night

Ehrengard

The Professionals

Jim Wilson

On Dangerous Ground

Ike Clanton

Hour of the Gun

Nick Scanlon

The Racket

Earle Slater

Odds Against Tomorrow

Brig. Gen. James M. Gavin

The Longest Day

Joe Parkson

Act of Violence

Mailer

The Outfit

Self

A New Dimension in Noir: Filming Inferno in 3D

Bradley Collins / Frank Johnson

The Woman on Pier 13

General Grey

Battle of the Bulge

Montgomery

Crossfire

Gen. Carson

Lo sbarco di Anzio

Larry Slade

The Iceman Cometh

Foster

Executive Action

Robert Lindley

Berlin Express

Jay Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

John the Baptist

King of Kings

Reno Smith

Bad Day at Black Rock

Charley Barker

The Busy Body

Sabbath Marshal Cotton Ryan

Lawman

Scott Burnett

The Woman on the Beach

Ty Ty Walden

God's Little Acre

Dan Hammond

Horizons West

Nathan Stark

The Tall Men

Nick Bradley

Born to Be Bad

Smith Ohlrig

Caught

Howard Wilton

Beware, My Lovely

Father Timothy 'Tim' Donovan

The Iron Major

Donald Whitley Carson III

Inferno

Blaise Starrett

Day of the Outlaw

Reginald Fenton

The Sky's the Limit

Dr. Evans

The Boy with Green Hair

Lt. Benson

Men in War

Joe Connors

Bombardier

Harry Walters

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Bill Lonagan

Back from Eternity

Thor Storm

Ice Palace

Capt. Carl 'Griff' Griffin

Flying Leathernecks

Stoker

The Set-Up

Brad Carlton

City Beneath the Sea

New Mexico Gov. Lem Carter

Un minuto per pregare, un istante per morire

David McLean

The Secret Fury

Captain Nemo

Captain Nemo and the Underwater City

Charley

La Course du lièvre à travers les champs

Narrator (voice)

The Inheritance

Narrator (voice)

A Regular Bouquet: Mississippi Summer

Sandy Dawson (archive footage) (uncredited)

The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller

William Shrike

Lonelyhearts

Chris Jones

Tender Comrade

Joe Dunham

Gangway for Tomorrow

Allen Harper

Trail Street

Jim Brecan

Escape to Burma

George Leslie

About Mrs. Leslie

Marshal Cass Silver

The Proud Ones

Jeff Clanton

Best of the Badmen

Matt Kelly

Alaska Seas

Pap Gutshall

Lolly-Madonna xxx

Joe Hargrave

Her Twelve Men

Sundance Kid

Return of the Bad Men

Richard Ashley

The Crooked Road

General Bruce

The Dirty Game

Lefty O'Doyle

Behind the Rising Sun

Self (from Clash by Night [1952]) (archive footage)

Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend

Capt. Dan Craig

Marine Raiders

Lt. Cmdr. Vaughan

The Man Without a Country

Inspector William Gannon

The Canadians

Eddie (uncredited)

The Texas Rangers Ride Again

Roger

The Reason Why

Gregory 'Greg' Austin

The Love Machine

Self (archive footage)

Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down The Line

Pete Wells

Golden Gloves

Intern (uncredited)

The Ghost Breakers

Plainclothesman (uncredited)

The Notorious Lone Wolf

Constable Dumont

North West Mounted Police

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln's Doctor's Dog

Self (archive footage)

Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire

Self (archive footage)

The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn

Self - Host

Simon and Garfunkel: Songs of America

Mulligan

Custer of the West

The House Without a Name

Seabright Tennis Match Spectator (uncredited)

Hard, Fast and Beautiful

Jim

Queen of the Mob

Self (archive footage)

Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade