ROBERT RYAN BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Robert Ryan was born in Chicago on November 11th, 1909, the son of a successful building contractor.  His younger  brother passed away from the flu when Ryan was only 8 years old.  He attended Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois and graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1932.  He was also a heavy weight boxing champion in college for 4 straight years. 
 
After graduation and right in the midst of the Great Depression, Ryan's goal was to become a playwright.  However, due to lack of jobs in his field he became a day laborer.  Ryan finally had his chance to write as a member of a theater company in Chicago, but proved unsuccessful and turned to acting.  
 
Ryan relocated to Hollywood at the end of the '30s and studied at the Max Reinhardt Workshop, where he met and married Jennifer Cadwalader in 1939.  His professional stage debut was in a stock play version of, "A Kiss For Cinderella" (1940).  He also had the chance to appear in some small film roles with Paramount Pictures, but his film career was slow moving.
 
He moved back to appear in stock, and landed a part in, "Clash by Night" which got excellent reviews.  Ryan came to regard that production as the pivotal point in his career, when RKO Studio's signed him to a contract.  Ryan made his debut at the studio in the wartime action thriller, "Bombardier". 
 
In 1944, World War II made a brief 3 year interruption to Ryan's career as he left to serve in the military.  However, after returning back to life in 1947, Ryan starred in two of the studio's best releases that year, "The Woman on the Beach" and "Crossfire".  He followed with roles on, "The Boy With Green Hair" (1948) and  "The Set-Up" (1949).  In many ways, at the end of the 1940's, Ryan was the liberals' answer to John Wayne, and he even managed to work alongside the icon in Flying Leathernecks (1951).

Ryan also distinguished himself that year in, "Act of Violence" and "On Dangerous Ground" in 1951, and then repeated his stage success a decade out in "Clash by Night", (1952).
 
One of the most versatile leading actors in Hollywood, Ryan was playing heroes and villains with equal success in such diverse productions as, "Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955) starring with Spencer Tracy, "God's Little Acre" (1958), "Odds Against Tomorrow" (1959), and "Billy Budd" (1962).  Ryan continued to land amazing roles throughout the 60's, such as, "The Professionals" (1966), "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Jaeckel, Donald Sutherland, John Casavettes, Telly Savalas, Clint Walker, Charles Bronson, and Jim Brown, and most memorable in "The Wild Bunch" (1969) starring with William Holden, Warren Oates and Ernest Borgnine.
 
He went on to appear in various films throughout the 1970's.  In 1973, he played the role of a terminally ill political activist in, "The Iceman Cometh".  Ironically, that movie was being filmed about the same time that Ryan was aware of his terminal illness During this time he also filmed a hard-hitting anti-smoking public service announcement that directly attributed his condition to his long-time heavy use of cigarettes.   
 
Robert Ryan passed away from Cancer on July 11th, 1973.  He was a long time civil rights campaigner and was never shy to share his beliefs in liberal causes.  He was also a founder of SANE, an anti-nuclear proliferation group, and served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union.

With his wife Jennifer Cadwalader, he leaves behind 3 children, 2 sons and one daughter and 3 grandchildren.  He was a unique presence both on the stage and on the screen. 

Filmography

1973   The Outfit
1973   Lolly-Madonna XXX
1973   Executive Action
1971   The Love Machine
1970   Lawman
1969   The Wild Bunch
1969   Captain Nemo and the Underwater City
1968   Lo Sbarco di Anzio
1967   The Dirty Dozen
1967   Hour of the Gun
1966   Custer of the West
1966   The Professionals
1965   Battle of the Bulge
1962   The Longest Day
1962   Billy Budd
1961   The Canadians
1961   King of Kings
1960   Ice Palace
1960   The Professionals
1959   Odds Against Tomorrow
1959   Day of the Outlaw
1958   God's Little Acre
1958   Lonelyhearts
1957   Men in War
1956   Back from Eternity
1956   The Proud Ones
1955   House of Bamboo
1955   Escape to Burma
1955   The Tall Men
1955   Bad Day At Bad Rock
1954   Bad Day at Black Rock
1954   About Mrs Leslie
1953   City Beneath the Sea
1953   Inferno
1952   Horizons West
1952   The Naked Spur
1952   Beware, My Lovely
1952   Clash By Night
1951   The Racket
1951   On Dangerous Ground
1951   Flying Leathernecks
1950   Born to Be Bad
1949   Caught
1949   I Married a Communist
1949   The Set Up
1949   Act of Violence
1948   The Boy with Green Hair
1948   The Set-Up
1947   Crossfire
1947   Dead Reckoning
1946   The Woman on the Beach
1943   The Sky's the Limit
1943   Tender Comrade
1943   Bombardier