1909-11-11 Chicago, Illinois, USA
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.
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A New Dimension in Noir: Filming Inferno in 3D | Self | 2017-05-16 |
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Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade | Self (archive footage) | 2004-07-25 |
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The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller | Sandy Dawson (archive footage) (uncredited) | 2002-07-02 |
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Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down The Line | Self (archive footage) | 1997-05-12 |
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Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire | Self (archive footage) | 1991-07-15 |
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Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend | Self (from Clash by Night [1952]) (archive footage) | 1986-04-19 |
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The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn | Self (archive footage) | 1986-03-09 |
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The Outfit | Mailer | 1973-10-19 |
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The Iceman Cometh | Larry Slade | 1973-11-10 |
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Executive Action | Foster | 1973-11-07 |
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The Man Without a Country | Lt. Cmdr. Vaughan | 1973-04-24 |
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Lolly-Madonna xxx | Pap Gutshall | 1973-02-21 |
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La Course du lièvre à travers les champs | Charley | 1972-09-15 |
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The Love Machine | Gregory 'Greg' Austin | 1971-08-14 |
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Lawman | Sabbath Marshal Cotton Ryan | 1971-03-11 |
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The Reason Why | Roger | 1970-01-02 |
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Captain Nemo and the Underwater City | Captain Nemo | 1969-12-01 |
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Simon and Garfunkel: Songs of America | Self - Host | 1969-11-30 |
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The Wild Bunch | Deke Thornton | 1969-06-19 |
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Un minuto per pregare, un istante per morire | New Mexico Gov. Lem Carter | 1968-02-08 |
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Lo sbarco di Anzio | Gen. Carson | 1968-07-24 |
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The Busy Body | Charley Barker | 1967-03-12 |
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The Dirty Dozen | Col. Everett Dasher Breed | 1967-06-15 |
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Hour of the Gun | Ike Clanton | 1967-11-01 |
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Custer of the West | Mulligan | 1967-11-09 |
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The Professionals | Ehrengard | 1966-11-01 |
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Battle of the Bulge | General Grey | 1965-12-16 |
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The Crooked Road | Richard Ashley | 1965-02-03 |
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The Dirty Game | General Bruce | 1965-06-23 |
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The Inheritance | Narrator (voice) | 1964-11-08 |
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A Regular Bouquet: Mississippi Summer | Narrator (voice) | 1964-04-13 |
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Billy Budd | John Claggart, Master of Arms | 1962-11-12 |
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The Longest Day | Brig. Gen. James M. Gavin | 1962-09-25 |
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The Canadians | Inspector William Gannon | 1961-03-11 |
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King of Kings | John the Baptist | 1961-10-11 |
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The Snows of Kilimanjaro | Harry Walters | 1960-03-25 |
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Ice Palace | Thor Storm | 1960-01-02 |
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Lonelyhearts | William Shrike | 1959-03-04 |
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Odds Against Tomorrow | Earle Slater | 1959-10-15 |
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Day of the Outlaw | Blaise Starrett | 1959-07-01 |
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God's Little Acre | Ty Ty Walden | 1958-09-23 |
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The Great Gatsby | Jay Gatsby | 1958-06-26 |
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Men in War | Lt. Benson | 1957-05-03 |
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The Proud Ones | Marshal Cass Silver | 1956-05-15 |
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Back from Eternity | Bill Lonagan | 1956-09-07 |
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The House Without a Name | 1956-01-01 | |
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Escape to Burma | Jim Brecan | 1955-04-09 |
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The Tall Men | Nathan Stark | 1955-09-22 |
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House of Bamboo | Sandy Dawson | 1955-07-01 |
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Bad Day at Black Rock | Reno Smith | 1955-01-13 |
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Alaska Seas | Matt Kelly | 1954-01-27 |
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Her Twelve Men | Joe Hargrave | 1954-08-11 |
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About Mrs. Leslie | George Leslie | 1954-08-03 |
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The Naked Spur | Ben Vandergroat | 1953-01-30 |
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City Beneath the Sea | Brad Carlton | 1953-04-21 |
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Inferno | Donald Whitley Carson III | 1953-08-12 |
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Horizons West | Dan Hammond | 1952-10-11 |
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Clash by Night | Earl Pfeiffer | 1952-05-30 |
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Beware, My Lovely | Howard Wilton | 1952-08-29 |
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Hard, Fast and Beautiful | Seabright Tennis Match Spectator (uncredited) | 1951-05-23 |
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Best of the Badmen | Jeff Clanton | 1951-08-09 |
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Flying Leathernecks | Capt. Carl 'Griff' Griffin | 1951-08-28 |
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On Dangerous Ground | Jim Wilson | 1951-12-13 |
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The Racket | Nick Scanlon | 1951-10-25 |
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The Secret Fury | David McLean | 1950-02-21 |
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Born to Be Bad | Nick Bradley | 1950-09-28 |
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The Woman on Pier 13 | Bradley Collins / Frank Johnson | 1950-06-15 |
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Act of Violence | Joe Parkson | 1949-01-22 |
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Caught | Smith Ohlrig | 1949-02-17 |
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The Set-Up | Stoker | 1949-03-29 |
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Return of the Bad Men | Sundance Kid | 1948-07-17 |
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Berlin Express | Robert Lindley | 1948-05-01 |
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The Boy with Green Hair | Dr. Evans | 1948-11-26 |
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The Woman on the Beach | Scott Burnett | 1947-06-07 |
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Trail Street | Allen Harper | 1947-02-19 |
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Crossfire | Montgomery | 1947-08-15 |
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The Notorious Lone Wolf | Plainclothesman (uncredited) | 1946-02-14 |
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Tender Comrade | Chris Jones | 1944-05-30 |
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Marine Raiders | Capt. Dan Craig | 1944-07-11 |
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Behind the Rising Sun | Lefty O'Doyle | 1943-08-01 |
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The Sky's the Limit | Reginald Fenton | 1943-07-13 |
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Gangway for Tomorrow | Joe Dunham | 1943-11-03 |
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The Iron Major | Father Timothy 'Tim' Donovan | 1943-10-31 |
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Bombardier | Joe Connors | 1943-05-14 |
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Queen of the Mob | Jim | 1940-06-28 |
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The Ghost Breakers | Intern (uncredited) | 1940-06-21 |
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The Texas Rangers Ride Again | Eddie (uncredited) | 1940-12-13 |
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Golden Gloves | Pete Wells | 1940-08-02 |
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North West Mounted Police | Constable Dumont | 1940-10-22 |
