Kathleen Ryan

Ryan's father died in 1933, shortly after he had been elected to Ireland's senate.{{cite news |title=Miss Ryan Likes Film Job Here |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59338031/kathleen-ryan/ |access-date=15 September 2020 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=21 May 1950 |page=Part IV - Page 3|via = Newspapers.com}} Her brother was John Ryan, an artist and man of letters in bohemian Dublin of the 1940s and 1950s, who was a friend and benefactor of a number of struggling writers in the post-war era, such as Patrick Kavanagh. He started and edited a short-lived literary magazine entitled Envoy. Among her other siblings were Fr. Vincent (Séamus), a Benedictine priest at Glenstal Abbey, Sister Íde of the Convent of The Sacred Heart, Mount Anville, Dublin, Oonagh (who married the Irish artist Patrick Swift), Cora who married the politician, Seán Dunne, T.D.{{Citation needed |date=September 2022}}

Ryan's schooling came in convents and universities. She married Dermod Devane{{cite news |last1=Schallert |first1=Edwin |title=Kathleen Ryan Prefers Film Job 8000 Miles From Home |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59337134/kathleen-ryan/ |access-date=15 September 2020 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=21 May 1950 |page=Part IV - Page 1|via = Newspapers.com}} in the society wedding of 1944 and the couple had three children, but the marriage was annulled in 1958.{{Citation needed |date=September 2022}}

Ryan acted with the Dublin Abbey Players{{cite news |last1=Monahan |first1=Kaspar |title=Screen's Beauties Look Too Much alike |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59335889/the-pittsburgh-press/ |accessdate=15 September 2020 |work=The Pittsburgh Press |date=1 June 1947 |page=Section 4-Page 1|via = Newspapers.com}} and at Longford's Gate Theater. She was discovered by Carol Reed, and her film debut was in a leading role in Odd Man Out (1947). Arthur Rank, to whom she was under contract, turned down subsequent offers for her to act in films, but she resumed film work after that contract expired.{{cite news |last1=Parsons |first1=Louella O. |title=Kathleen Ryan, Once Star For Arthur Rank, to Make U. S. Film |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59336488/the-daily-times/ |accessdate=15 September 2020 |work=The Daily Times |agency=International News Service |date=29 March 1950 |location=Iowa, Davenport |page=33|via = Newspapers.com}} Her other films included Captain Boycott (1947) and the American film gris The Sound of Fury (1950), directed by Cy Endfield.{{cite news |last1=Leh |first1=Carol |title=Frank Lovejoy, 'Sound of Fury' Star, Recalls His Early Days With the Barter Theater Troupi |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59336188/the-times-dispatch/ |accessdate=15 September 2020 |work=The Times Dispatch |date=31 December 1950 |location=Virginia, Richmond |page=6 A|via = Newspapers.com}} She also appeared in the English-made Christopher Columbus (1949), but censors removed her from the version shown in the United States. Her role involved "a romantic interlude in Columbus's life," she said, "and that did not meet with approval in America because of prevailing traditions regarding the discoverer of this continent."

Ryan was the subject of one of Louis le Brocquy's most striking portraits, Girl in White, which he painted in 1941 and entered in the RHA exhibition of that year. The portrait (oil on canvas) is in the Ulster Museum collection.{{Citation needed |date=September 2022}}

Ryan died in Dublin in December 1985 from a lung ailment at the age of 63.{{cite news |last= Collins |first= Liam |date= 29 December 2019 |title= Kathleen Ryan - the Irish actress who became forgotten star of Hollywood |url= https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/kathleen-ryan-the-irish-actress-who-became-forgotten-star-of-hollywood-38819032.html |work= Irish Independent |access-date= 25 October 2020}} She was buried with her parents beneath a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, near the Republican Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.{{fact|date=January 2022}}

• Odd Man Out (1947)
• Captain Boycott (1947)
• Esther Waters (1948)
• Give Us This Day (1949)
• Christopher Columbus (1949)
• Prelude to Fame (1950)
• The Sound of Fury (1950)
• The Yellow Balloon (1953)
• Laxdale Hall (1953)
• Captain Lightfoot (1955)
• Jacqueline (1956)
• Sail Into Danger (aka El Aventurero) (1957)

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0752648}}
• [http://www.limerickcity.ie/Library/LocalStudies/LocalStudiesFiles/A/Actors// Kathleen Ryan (Devane) in 'Actors' file at Limerick City Library, Ireland] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423113504/http://www.limerickcity.ie/Library/LocalStudies/LocalStudiesFiles/A/Actors// |date=23 April 2023 }}
• [https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/girl-in-white-117833 Girl in White by Louis le Brocquy]
• [http://garethsmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/not-quite-femme-fatale.html garethsmovies.blogspot]
• [http://www.allstarpics.net/pic-gallery/kathleen-ryan-pics.htm Photos of Kathleen Ryan]

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Category:1922 births

Category:1985 deaths

Category:Irish film actresses

Category:Actresses from County Dublin

Category:20th-century Irish actresses

Category:Burials at Glasnevin Cemetery

Category:Irish stage actresses

Category:Irish expatriate actresses in the United States

Category:Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom

Category:Respiratory disease deaths in the Republic of Ireland

Category:Deaths from lung disease