Capable, versatile leading man and character star of Hollywood films. The son of a construction firm executive, he studied at Chicago's Loyola Academy, then at Dartmouth, where he excelled in sports and for four years held the college's heavy-weight boxing championship. After graduating, he worked at a variety of odd jobs, including as a ranch hand, ship stoker, male model, salesman, and debt collector, then trained for the stage at the Max Reinhardt Theatrical Workshop in Hollywood. He made his stage debut in 1939 and in the following year began playing small roles in Paramount films. In 1941-42 he appeared on Broadway in Clash by Night, then returned to Hollywood with an RKO contract. His career began taking shape after his return from WW II service with the Marines. Ryan played some of his best roles in the late 1940s and early 50s, notably as Joan Bennett's illicit lover in Jean Renoir's suspenseful triangle drama THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH (1947), as the anti-Semitic murderer in Edward Dmytryk's CROSSFIRE (1947), as the nemesis who menaces Van Heflin in Fred Zinnemann's ACT OF VIOLENCE (1949), as the paranoid millionaire husband of Barbara Bel Geddes in Max Ophüls' CAUGHT (1949), as a washed-up boxer in Robert Wise's powerful ring drama THE SET-UP (1949), and, repeating his stage role, as the cynical lover in Fritz Lang's CLASH BY NIGHT (1952). He later freelanced, appearing indiscriminately in a great number of films of variable quality, but still managed to come up with excellent performances, either as hero or villain, in such films as ABOUT MRS. LESLIE (1954), BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955), GOD'S LITTLE ACRE (1958), BILLY BUDD (1962), and THE WILD BUNCH (1969). He also appeared successfully in occasional stage productions, including the American Shakespeare Festival 1960 production of Antony and Cleopatra, in which he played Antony to Katharine Hepburn's Cleopatra, the 1968 Broadway revival of The Front Page, and the 1971 off-Broadway revival of Long Day's Journey into Night. In contrast with the psychopathic gunslingers or the hard, unbending heroes and vicious bigots he often portrayed on the screen, Ryan was a modest, low-keyed man in his private life and a committed activist for such liberal groups as SANE and the ACLU. He was also active in education, was among the founders of the UCLA Theatre Group, and founded a nonsectarian private school in California's San Fernando Valley. He died of cancer.  Nominated for Supporting Actor 1947: CROSSFIRE 1 nomination