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Naked Photos of Robert Ryan are available at MaleStars.com. They currently feature over 65,000 Nude Pics, Biographies, Video Clips, Articles, and Movie Reviews of famous stars.

 

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Actresses who appeared with Robert Ryan on screen:

Sian Thomas
Marilyn Monroe
Emmanuelle Beart
Janet Leigh
Cloris Leachman
Karen Black
Leslie Hope
Barbara Eden
Dyan Cannon
Shelley Winters
Claudia Cardinale
Barbara Stanwyck
Joanna Cassidy
Joan Fontaine
Tina Louise
Ginger Rogers


Robert Ryan
Birthday: November 11, 1909

Birth Place: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Height: 6' 4"

Below is a complete filmography (list of movies he's appeared in) for Robert Ryan. If you have any corrections or additions, please email us at corrections@actorsofhollywood.com. We'd also be interested in any trivia or other information you have.

 

Biography

It was his failure as a playwright that led Robert Ryan to a three-decade career as an actor. He was a unique presence on both the stage and screen, and in the Hollywood community, where he was that rarity: a two-fisted liberal. In many ways, at the end of the 1940s, Ryan was the liberals' answer to John Wayne, and he even managed to work alongside the right-wing icon in Flying Leathernecks (1951). The son of a successful building contractor, Ryan was born in Chicago in 1909 and attended Dartmouth College, where one of his fraternity brothers was Nelson Rockefeller. He was a top athlete at the school and held its heavyweight boxing title for four straight years. Ryan graduated in 1932, during the depths of the Great Depression, and intended to write plays. Finding no opportunities available in this field, he became a day laborer; he stoked coal on a ship bound for Africa, worked as a sandhog, and herded horses in Montana, among other jobs. Ryan finally had his chance to write as a member of a theater company in Chicago, but proved unsuccessful and turned to acting. He arrived in Hollywood at the end of the '30s and studied at the Max Reinhardt Workshop, making his professional stage debut in 1940. He appeared in small roles for Paramount Pictures, but Ryan's real film career didn't begin until several years later. He returned east to appear in stock, and landed a part in Clifford Odets' Clash by Night, in which he worked opposite Tallulah Bankhead and got excellent reviews. Ryan came to regard that production and his work with Bankhead as the pivotal point in his career. The reviews of the play brought him to the attention of studio casting offices, and he was signed by RKO. The actor made his debut at the studio in the wartime action thriller Bombardier. It was a good beginning, although his early films were fairly lackluster and his career was interrupted by World War II — he joined the Marines in 1944 and spent the next three years in uniform. Ryan's screen career took off when he returned to civilian life in 1947. He starred in two of the studio's best releases that year: Jean Renoir's The Woman on the Beach and Edward Dmytryk's Crossfire, the latter an extraordinary film for its time dealing with troubled veterans and virulent anti-Semitism, with Ryan giving an Oscar-nominated performance as an unrepentant murderer of an innocent Jewish man. He continued to do good work in difficult movies, including the Joseph Losey symbolic drama The Boy With Green Hair (1948) and with Robert Wise's The Set-Up (1949). The latter film (which Ryan regarded as his favorite of all of his movies) was practically dumped onto the market by RKO, though the studio soon found itself with an unexpected success when the film received good reviews, it was entered in the Cannes Film Festival, and it won the Best Picture award in the British Academy Award competition. Ryan also distinguished himself that year in Dmytryk's Act of Violence and Max Oph

Movie Credits
The Iceman Cometh (1973)
[ Jeff Bridges ][ Lee Marvin ]
Executive Action (1973)
[ Burt Lancaster ][ Robert Urich ]
The Outfit (1973)
[ Robert Duvall ][ Joe Don Baker ][ Bill McKinney ]
The Man Without a Country (1973)
[ Peter Weller ][ Beau Bridges ][ Lloyd Bridges ][ Cliff Robertson ][ Peter Strauss ]
Lolly-Madonna XXX (1973)
[ Jeff Bridges ][ Randy Quaid ][ Gary Busey ][ Rod Steiger ]
Course du lièvre à travers les champs, La (1972)
[ Aldo Ray ]
The Love Machine (1971)
[ Don Rickles ][ Jackie Cooper ]
Lawman (1971)
[ Robert Duvall ][ Burt Lancaster ][ Wilford Brimley ][ Richard Jordan ][ Lee J. Cobb ]
The Front Page (1970)
Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969)
[ Chuck Connors ]
The Wild Bunch (1969)
[ William Holden ][ Ernest Borgnine ][ Sam Peckinpah ][ Ben Johnson ][ Warren Oates ]
Anzio (1968)
[ Robert Mitchum ][ Giancarlo Giannini ]
Minuto per pregare, un istante per morire, Un (1968)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
[ Donald Sutherland ][ Charles Bronson ][ Ernest Borgnine ][ Lee Marvin ][ John Cassavetes ]
The Busy Body (1967)
[ Richard Pryor ][ Dom DeLuise ][ Sid Caesar ][ Godfrey Cambridge ]
Custer of the West (1967)
[ Robert Shaw ][ Jeffrey Hunter ][ Lawrence Tierney ]
Hour of the Gun (1967)
[ Jon Voight ][ James Garner ][ Jason Robards ][ Ben Johnson ]
The Professionals (1966)
[ Burt Lancaster ][ Lee Marvin ][ Jack Palance ][ Ralph Bellamy ]
Battle of the Bulge (1965)
[ Charles Bronson ][ Henry Fonda ][ Robert Shaw ][ Telly Savalas ][ Dana Andrews ]
The Dirty Game (1965)
[ Henry Fonda ][ Klaus Kinski ]
The Crooked Road (1965)
The Presidency: A Splendid Misery (1964)
[ Jason Robards ][ Dana Andrews ][ Dan O'Herlihy ]
The John Bernard Story (1962)
The Madame Sagittarius Story (1962)
Billy Budd (1962)
[ Terence Stamp ][ Peter Ustinov ]
The Longest Day (1962)
[ Sean Connery ][ John Wayne ][ Henry Fonda ][ Robert Mitchum ][ Richard Burton ]
King of Kings (1961)
[ Orson Welles ][ Rip Torn ][ Jeffrey Hunter ]
The Canadians (1961)
Ice Palace (1960)
[ Richard Burton ][ George Takei ]
Day of the Outlaw (1959)
[ Dabbs Greer ]
You Only Run Once (1959)
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
[ Wayne Rogers ][ Harry Belafonte ]
To Sit in Judgment (1958)
[ Harry Dean Stanton ]
Trial by Fear (1958)
God's Little Acre (1958)
[ Michael Landon ][ Vic Morrow ][ Aldo Ray ]
Hidden Witness (1958)
The Seventh Letter (1958)
The White Flag (1958)
Lonelyhearts (1958)
[ Montgomery Clift ]
The Hanging Tree (1957)
The Face of Truth (1957)
On Edge (1957)
The Crowd Pleaser (1957)
Silhouette of a Killer (1957)
Men in War (1957)
[ Vic Morrow ][ Aldo Ray ]
The Proud Ones (1956)
[ Walter Brennan ][ Jeffrey Hunter ]
You Only Run Once (1956)
Back from Eternity (1956)
[ Rod Steiger ][ Keith Andes ]
The Tall Men (1955)
[ Clark Gable ]
House of Bamboo (1955)
[ DeForest Kelley ][ Robert Stack ][ Harry Carey Jr. ]
Escape to Burma (1955)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
[ Ernest Borgnine ][ Lee Marvin ][ Spencer Tracy ][ Walter Brennan ]
Her Twelve Men (1954)
[ James Arness ]
About Mrs. Leslie (1954)
[ Harry Morgan ]
Alaska Seas (1954)
[ Brian Keith ]
Inferno (1953)
[ Carl Betz ]
City Beneath the Sea (1953)
[ Anthony Quinn ]
The Naked Spur (1953)
[ James Stewart ]
Horizons West (1952)
[ Rock Hudson ][ James Arness ][ Raymond Burr ][ Dennis Weaver ]
Beware, My Lovely (1952)
Clash by Night (1952)
[ Fritz Lang ][ Keith Andes ]
On Dangerous Ground (1952)
[ Ward Bond ]
Flying Leathernecks (1951)
[ John Wayne ]
Best of the Badmen (1951)
[ Walter Brennan ][ Lawrence Tierney ]
Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951)
The Racket (1951)
[ Robert Mitchum ]
Born to Be Bad (1950)
[ Mel Ferrer ]
The Secret Fury (1950)
I Married a Communist (1949)
The Set-Up (1949)
Caught (1949)
[ James Mason ]
Act of Violence (1948)
The Boy with Green Hair (1948)
[ Dean Stockwell ][ Russ Tamblyn ]
Return of the Bad Men (1948)
[ Randolph Scott ][ Lex Barker ]
Berlin Express (1948)
Crossfire (1947)
[ Robert Mitchum ][ Lex Barker ]
The Woman on the Beach (1947)
Trail Street (1947)
[ Randolph Scott ]
Golden Gloves (1944)
Marine Raiders (1944)
Tender Comrade (1943)
[ Robert Urich ]
Gangway for Tomorrow (1943)
The Iron Major (1943)
Behind the Rising Sun (1943)
The Sky's the Limit (1943)
[ Fred Astaire ]
Bombardier (1943)
[ Edward Albert ][ Eddie Albert ][ Randolph Scott ]
The Feminine Touch (1941)
[ Don Ameche ]
The Texas Rangers Ride Again (1940)
[ Anthony Quinn ]
North West Mounted Police (1940)
[ Gary Cooper ][ Lon Chaney Jr. ]
Golden Gloves (1940)
[ William Frawley ]
Queen of the Mob (1940)
[ Ralph Bellamy ]
The Ghost Breakers (1940)
[ Anthony Quinn ][ Bob Hope ]

Trivia

  • Originally intended to portray Commodore Matt Decker in the "Star Trek" (1966) (original series) episode "Doomsday Machine", but was unable to do so. The character was intended as a Captain Ahab-type obsessed with revenge for the loss of his crew. The role instead went to William Windom, who portrayed Decker in a more tragic, sensitive light.
  • Initially planned on studying at the Pasadena Playhouse but instead became a student of Max Reinhardt in the late 1930s, where he met fellow student and future wife Jessica Cadwalader. Following their marriage, she gave up her acting aspirations and later became a children's fiction book writer.
  • While performing in a stock play version of "A Kiss for Cinderella" in 1941 with actress Luise Rainer, Rainer's ex-husband, Clifford Odets, saw him and offered him the featured juvenile part in his Broadway play "Clash by Night" as Joe Doyle, opposite Tallulah Bankhead. A decade later he starred in the film version, but had outgrown the juvenile role and instead played Earl Pfeiffer, one of the leads, originated on Broadway by Joseph Schildkraut. His Doyle character was played by Keith Andes in the film.
  • In 1973 he played the terminally ill political activist Larry Slade in The Iceman Cometh (1973). Ironically, while filming, he knew he was approaching the final stages of lung cancer, and died in July of that year. Wife Jessica preceded him in death by a year, also succumbing to cancer.
  • Due to his towering frame, cruelly-lined face, and a simmering intensity uncommon in his generation of "tough guys," he usually played hateful villains. Even on the rare occasions that he played a good guy, they often possessed a violent, obsessive personality that was a tad unsettling.
  • Two sons, Bob and Tim, and a daughter. His daughter is the youngest.
  • At the time he was diagnosed with cancer, he was scheduled to play Don Quixote in a film version of Miguel Cervantes' novel. It was Rex Harrison, however, who was finally seen as the Don in a 1973 made-for-television film of the book, a year after Peter O'Toole had starred in the film version of the Broadway musical "Man of La Mancha".
  • Shortly before his death, Ryan moved out of his apartment (number 72) at the Dakota in New York City. Ryan leased (and then his estate later sold) the apartment to John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
  • Co-founded the Theatre Group at the University of California at Los Angeles, with John Houseman and Sidney Harmon, in 1959. Nine years later, in 1968, he co-founded the Plumstead Playhouse Repertory Company, with Henry Fonda and Martha Scott.
  • Was Turner Classic Movies' "Star of the Month" for February 2000, a rare honor for a character lead/supporting player.
  • Served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1944 to 1947.
  • When casting the role of the leading man in the 1943 Ginger Rogers vehicle "Tender Comrade", RKO producer David Hempstead became interested in Ryan due to favorable preview cards hailing Ryan's performances in "Bombardier," "The Sky's the Limit", and "Behind the Rising Sun". He suggested him to Rogers, who was at first unimpressed after screening parts of the three movies. She turned him down as her leading man as she thought he looked mean and (at 6' 4" tall) he was too big. A week later, when Rogers visited Hempstead at his office, he was busily going through preview cards of "The Sky's the Limit", and he showed her some of them. Rogers saw that all of the reviews of Ryan's performance were favorable, and since the time before principal production was drawing near, she decided to have another look at him. Ryan was conveniently waiting in a nearby office for just such a possibility. Less than a minute later, Ryan came to the office and talked with both the producer and Rogers. After a few moments, Rogers unobtrusively slipped Hempstead a note: "I think this is the guy." Today, the note hangs on the wall above Cheyney Ryan's (Ryan's son) desk, in his study.

Naked Photos of Robert Ryan are available at MaleStars.com. They currently feature over 65,000 Nude Pics, Biographies, Video Clips, Articles, and Movie Reviews of famous stars.

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