Eileen Ryan
{{Short description|American actress (1927–2022)}}
{{for|the American politician|Aileen B. Ryan}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Eileen Ryan
| image = Howard Duff Eileen Ryan Twilight Zone.JPG
| caption = With Howard Duff in "A World of Difference" from The Twilight Zone, 1960
| birth_name = Eileen Annucci
| birth_date = {{birth date|1927|10|16}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|10|9|1927|10|16}}
| death_place = Malibu, California, U.S.
| resting_place = Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, U.S.
| spouse = {{marriage|Leo Penn|1957|September 5, 1998|end=died}}
| children = {{ubl|Michael Penn|Sean Penn|Chris Penn}}
| relatives =
| occupation = Actress
| years_active = 1955–2016
}}
Eileen Ryan ({{nee|Annucci}}; October 16, 1927 – October 9, 2022) was an American actress. The wife of actor and director Leo Penn, she was the mother of actors Sean Penn and Chris Penn, and of singer Michael Penn.
Life and career
Ryan was born in the Bronx on October 16, 1927.{{cite news|title=Eileen Ryan, Actress of Stage and Screen, Dies at 94|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/arts/television/eileen-ryan-dead.html|first=Neil|last=Genzlinger|date=October 11, 2022|access-date=October 13, 2022|newspaper=The New York Times}}{{cite book|title=Sean Penn: Die autorisierte Biografie|last=Kelly|first=Richard T.|publisher=Riva Verlag|year=2011|page=31|isbn=978-3-86413-103-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MCJRAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31}} Her father, William, was Italian American and worked as a lawyer and a dentist; her mother, Rose Isabel (née Ryan), was Irish American and employed as a nurse, with her maiden name later chosen by Eileen to be part of her stage name.Kelly, Richard T. [https://www.amazon.com/Sean-Penn-His-Life-Times/dp/1841956236 Sean Penn: His Life and Times]. Canongate U.S. 2004. {{ISBN|1-84195-623-6}}. Ryan studied at New York University, graduating with a bachelor's degree.
Career
Ryan debuted on Broadway in 1953, in the play Sing Till Tomorrow. Five years later, she featured in another Broadway production, Comes a Day. Both plays were ultimately short-lived.{{cite news|title=TV and film actor Eileen Ryan, Sean Penn's mother, dies|url=https://apnews.com/article/eileen-ryan-obit-09991ea5d29efbce623a6c7e23d55b94|date=October 11, 2022|access-date=October 13, 2022|work=Associated Press}} She began to reduce her involvement in acting in order to look after her young family, which later relocated to the West Coast. During the 1960s and 1970s, Ryan periodically had small roles in television shows, such as The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, and others directed by her husband Leo Penn.
Ryan resumed acting on a more frequent basis in 1986, when she appeared with her sons Sean and Chris in At Close Range as the brothers' grandmother.{{cite news|last1=Mills|first1=Nancy|title=Never-Retiring Eileen Ryan Is out of Retirement|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19059160/eileen_ryan/|work=Los Angeles Times|date=July 5, 1986|location=California, Los Angeles|page=Part IV – 9|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = April 8, 2018}} {{Open access}} She subsequently featured as the mother of Sean Penn's character in Judgment in Berlin (1988), which was directed by her husband. She also starred in Parenthood a year later opposite Jason Robards – whose withdrawal from his role in The Iceman Cometh over three decades earlier enabled Ryan to meet her future husband – before making an appearance in The Crossing Guard (1995), which her son Sean directed.{{cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7c68a213|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930161408/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7c68a213|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 30, 2017|title=The Crossing Guard (1995)|publisher=British Film Institute|access-date=October 13, 2022}} Two years later, she went back to the stage in the play Remembrance, acting alongside her husband in a production by Sean Penn at the Odyssey Theater. Her final role was in the 2016 film Rules Don't Apply.
Personal life
Ryan married Leo Penn in 1957.Oliver, Myrna (1998) for the Los Angeles Times. [http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1998-09-12-9809110546-story.html "Lep Penn, 77, Actor and Notable Director"], obituary, archives of the South Florida Sun Sentinel (Deerfield Beach, Florida), September 12, 1998. Retrieved April 15, 2019. They met the year before while she was performing in The Iceman Cometh at the Circle in the Square Theatre. At the time, he was an actor and active union member, who was blacklisted from the late 1940s to the late 1950s.{{cite book|last1=Stange|first1=Ellen Silver|title=New York State of Fame|date=2016|publisher=Page Publishing Inc|isbn=978-1682890264|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3SG4CwAAQBAJ&q=%22Eileen+Ryan%22+actress&pg=PT107|access-date=April 8, 2018|language=en}} They remained married for over 40 years until his death in 1998. Together, they had three children. One of them, Chris, predeceased her in 2006.
Ryan died on October 9, 2022, at her home in Malibu, California, at the age of 94.{{cite web |last1=Barnes |first1=Mike |title=Eileen Ryan, Actress and Mother of Sean Penn, Dies at 94 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/eileen-ryan-dead-sean-penn-1235238292/ |website=The Hollywood Reporter |date=October 10, 2022 |access-date=October 10, 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2022/10/eileen-ryan-dead-actor-mother-of-sean-penn-was-94-1235140264/|title=Eileen Ryan Dies: Actor, Mother Of Sean, Christopher & Michael Penn Was 94|date=October 10, 2022 |publisher=Deadline}}
Filmography
= Film =
= Television =
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes ! class="unsortable" | Ref |
|---|
| 1955
|Goodyear Television Playhouse |Alma |"Mr. Dorothy Allen" |
| 1957
|Betsy Fuller |"The Defender: Parts 1 & 2" |
| 1959
|Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond |Mrs. Horvath |"Make Me Not a Witch" |
| 1960
|{{sortname|The|Twilight Zone|The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)}} |Nora Reagan |
| 1960
|{{sortname|The |Robert Herridge Theater}} | |"With Glory and Honor" |
| 1960
|{{sortname|The|Detectives|The Detectives (1959 TV series)}} |Mrs. Sharman |"Little Girl Lost" |
| 1961
|{{sortname|The|Detectives|The Detectives (1959 TV series)}} |Mrs. Coil |"Song of the Guilty Heart" |
| 1961
|{{sortname|The|Asphalt Jungle|The Asphalt Jungle (TV series)}} |Anna Ashmond |"The Last Way Out" |
| 1961
|Ruth Lopez |"No Luck on Friday" |
| 1961
|Amanda Gates |"Land Grab" |
| 1962
|Abigail Jones |"The Wooing of Abigail Jones" |{{cite book|title=Cue: The Weekly Magazine of New York Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x0AQAQAAMAAJ&q=%22eileen+ryan%22+%22Adventures+in+Paradise%22|volume=31|issue=1–26|publisher=Cue Publishing Company|year=1962|page=46}} |
| 1962
|Laura Walton |"Give My Hands an Epitaph" |
| 1962
|Lorry |"End of a Minor God" |
| 1972
|Emily |"First Love" |{{cite book|title=A Reference Guide to Television's Bonanza: Episodes, Personnel and Broadcast History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOBkAAAAMAAJ&q=%22eileen+ryan%22+%22First+Love%22|publisher=McFarland|year=2001|last1=Leiby|first1=Bruce R.|last2=Leiby|first2=Linda F.|page=187|isbn=9780786410200}} |
| 1973
|Shirley Cooper |"Catch a Ring That Isn't There" |
| 1973
| |"Press Pass to the Slammer" |
| 1974
|Mrs. Kennedy |"The Voice of Tinker Jones" |
| 1986
|Bag Lady |"Babies Having Babies" |{{cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6f0b0623|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190516171121/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6f0b0623|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 16, 2019|title=Babies Having Babies (1986)|publisher=British Film Institute|access-date=October 12, 2022}} |
| 1990
| |"Only the Good Die Young" |
| 1992
|Lily Wyckoff |"The Picture: Part 2" |
| 1993
| |TV film |
| 1996
|ER |Barbara Dean |"True Lies" |
| 1996
|Mrs. Treet |"He's Not Guilty, He's My Brother" |
| 1999
|Bria Tolson |"In Dreams" |
| 2000
|Maddie Crowley |"Last Call" |
| 2001
|CSI: Crime Scene Investigation |Mrs. Rose Bennett |"To Halve and to Hold" |
| 2003
|{{sortname|The|Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire}} | |"Tough Love" |
| 2005
|Maura O'Connell |"Transitions" |
| 2011
| |"And Then the Bill Comes" |
| 2011
|Marion |"Something Old, Something New" |
| 2011
|Susan Whitney |"Bitch" |
| 2014
|Marjorie Reed |
| 2014
|Mrs. Roth |"No Such Thing as Idealized Genitalia" |
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|752527}}
- {{IBDB name|58735}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Eileen}}
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:21st-century American actresses
Category:American film actresses
Category:American television actresses
Category:American people of Irish descent
Category:American people of Italian descent
Category:Actresses from the Bronx