Robert Ryan

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	Acting
Most Rating	11.194
Birthday	1909-11-11
Place of Birth	Chicago, Illinois, USA
Also Known As	Robert Bushnell Ryan, Роберт Райан,

The Wild Bunch

The Dirty Dozen

Billy Budd

House of Bamboo

The Naked Spur

Clash by Night

The Professionals

On Dangerous Ground

Hour of the Gun

The Racket

Odds Against Tomorrow

The Longest Day

Act of Violence

The Outfit

A New Dimension in Noir: Filming Inferno in 3D

The Woman on Pier 13

Battle of the Bulge

Crossfire

Anzio

The Iceman Cometh

Executive Action

Berlin Express

The Great Gatsby

King of Kings

Bad Day at Black Rock

The Busy Body

Lawman

The Woman on the Beach

God's Little Acre

Horizons West

The Tall Men

Born to Be Bad

Caught

The Iron Major

Inferno

Beware, My Lovely

The Sky's the Limit

Day of the Outlaw

The Boy with Green Hair

Men in War

Bombardier

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Back from Eternity

Ice Palace

Flying Leathernecks

The Set-Up

City Beneath the Sea

A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die

The Secret Fury

Captain Nemo and the Underwater City

And Hope to Die

A Regular Bouquet: Mississippi Summer

The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller

The Inheritance

Lonelyhearts

Tender Comrade

Gangway for Tomorrow

Trail Street

Escape to Burma

About Mrs. Leslie

The Proud Ones

Best of the Badmen

Alaska Seas

Lolly-Madonna XXX

Her Twelve Men

Return of the Bad Men

The Crooked Road

The Dirty Game

Behind the Rising Sun

Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend

Marine Raiders

The Man Without a Country

The Canadians

The Texas Rangers Ride Again

The Reason Why

The Love Machine

Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down The Line

Golden Gloves

The Ghost Breakers

The Notorious Lone Wolf