Paul Ryan Rudd

He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 15, 1940.[https://books.google.com/books?id=9OxkAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Paul+Ryan+Rudd%22 Contemporary theatre, film, and television], Volume 5. Gale Research Company. 1988. He attended Boston Latin School and later Assumption Preparatory School,[http://westernboothill.blogspot.com/2010/08/rip-paul-rudd.html RIP: Paul Rudd], westernboothill.blogspot.com, August 2010. graduating in 1958.[http://www1.assumption.edu/magazine/archive/winter2007/AlumMag_Winter07.pdf Assumption College Magazine, Volume 5, Number 1. Winter 2007, pg. 27] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610071640/http://www1.assumption.edu/magazine/archive/winter2007/AlumMag_Winter07.pdf|date=2010-06-10}} He earned a degree in psychology from Fairfield University.

Originally named Paul Kenneth Rudd, he adopted Ryan as his middle name from his mother Kathryn's maiden name. He studied for the Catholic priesthood but left, recognizing that the vocation was not for him. At some point, he married Joan Mannion, whom he later divorced.

Rudd worked in entertainment from 1967–86, variously as actor or as director, both on and off-Broadway. He landed his first significant Broadway role in 1974 as Ken, the lobotomized motorcyclist, in The National Health by Peter Nichols. His name was in the credits of the 1975 revivals of Ah, Wilderness! (co-starring Geraldine Fitzgerald, Swoosie Kurtz and Teresa Wright) and The Glass Menagerie as the "Gentleman Caller" (along with Maureen Stapleton, Pamela Payton-Wright and Rip Torn). {{citation needed|date=April 2018}} He portrayed Barry Copley in the Williamstown Theater Festival's 1973 [https://wtfestival.org/main-events/changing-room-the/ production] of 'The Changing Room', sharing the stage with John Lithgow.

In 1976, he starred as Billy, the tortured young soldier, in David Rabe's Streamers. That year, he also played the title role of Henry V with the New York Shakespeare Festival opposite Meryl Streep as Katherine, whom he marries in the play. He played in Theodore Mann's Romeo and JulietGuernsey, Otis L. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Tlz1UV4jTr8C&q=Paul+Rudd&pg=PA361 Curtain times: the New York Theatre, 1965-1987, Part 4], Hal Leonard Corporation, 1987. as Romeo, with Pamela Payton-Wright as Juliet in 1977.Clive Barnes, while reviewing Romeo and Juliet, wrote in The New York Times{{quote|"Paul Rudd makes a taut-nerved Romeo, his handsome face either tense with pain or almost consciously relaxed and sunny. He speaks the verse very well, with intelligent nuances, and his ardent death wish at the end is most impressive."}}

Said Clive Barnes, of The New York Times: "Paul Rudd makes a taut-nerved Romeo, his handsome face either tense with pain or almost consciously relaxed and sunny. He speaks the verse very well, with intelligent nuances, and his ardent death wish at the end is most impressive."

In 1979, Rudd starred as Scooper in Bosoms and Neglect opposite Marian Mercer.{{IBDB name}}

In 1975, he played Brian Mallory in the short-lived television series Beacon Hill. In 1977, he portrayed John F. Kennedy in the NBC TV movie Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye. He went on to appear in The Betsy, the 1978 film based on the Harold Robbins novel.

Rudd married his second wife, Martha Bannerman, in 1983. They eventually had three children: Graeme, Kathryn and Eliza. During this time, Rudd held guest roles in several television shows, including Hart to Hart, Moonlighting, Knots Landing and Murder, She Wrote.

In 1986, Rudd retired from acting to raise his children, moving his family from Los Angeles to his Greenwich, Connecticut near his native Massachusetts.Chamoff, Lisa. [http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/yb/149427607 Actor Paul Ryan Rudd brought Shakespeare alive for Broadway audiences, local students] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312055838/http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/yb/149427607|date=2012-03-12}}, Connecticut Post, September 4, 2010.
Reprinted in the California Chronicle.

Later in life, Rudd taught at local middle schools and high schools on the subjects of theater, especially Shakespeare, and poetry. He was part of the theater faculty at Sarah Lawrence College from 1999 to 2006.[https://books.google.com/books?id=2VuoEbh6wAEC&q=paul+rudd&pg=PA348 Peterson's Graduate and Professional Programs: The humanities, arts, and social sciences 2007]. Edition 41. Peterson's, 2007; {{ISBN|0-7689-2158-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7689-2158-8}}

Rudd came briefly out of retirement for a 2000 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, playing the double role of Oberon and Theseus–perhaps inspired by a production of the same play he saw at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre while visiting London. Starting in 2004, Rudd was a teaching faculty member and associate director of the MFA drama program at the New School for Drama until his death.

Rudd died at his Greenwich, Connecticut home at the age of 70 from pancreatic cancer. He was survived by his wife, Martha, and three children.[http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Movies/2010/08/15/Actor-Paul-Ryan-Rudd-dead-at-70/UPI-61921281911552/ Notice of death of actor Paul Rudd], upi.com; accessed November 19, 2017.

{{Reflist}}

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• [https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-York-NY/The-New-School-for-Drama/62744340250#!/event.php?eid=147885278567996&ref=mf Paul Ryan Rudd Memorial]

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Category:1940 births

Category:2010 deaths

Category:American male television actors

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American male film actors

Category:Fairfield University alumni

Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Connecticut

Category:Male actors from Boston