| Eileen Ryan | |
| Birth Name: | Eileen Annucci |
| Birth Date: | 16 October 1927 |
| Birth Place: | New York City, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Malibu, California, U.S. |
| Resting Place: | Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1955–2016 |
Eileen Ryan (; 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.
Ryan was born in the Bronx on October 16, 1927.[1] [2] 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.[1] [3] Ryan studied at New York University, graduating with a bachelor's degree.[1]
Ryan debuted on Broadway in 1953, in the play Sing Till Tomorrow. Five years later, she featured in another Broadway production, Comes a Day.[1] Both plays were ultimately short-lived.[4] 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 roles in television shows, such as The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, and others directed by her husband Leo Penn.[1]
Ryan resumed acting on a more frequent basis in 1986,[1] when she appeared with her sons Sean and Chris in At Close Range as the brothers' grandmother.[5] She subsequently featured as the mother of Sean Penn's character in Judgment in Berlin (1988), which was directed by her husband.[1] 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[1] – before making an appearance in The Crossing Guard (1995), which her son Sean directed.[6] 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.[1]
Ryan married Leo Penn in 1957.[7] They met the year before while she was performing in The Iceman Cometh at the Circle in the Square Theatre.[1] At the time, he was an actor and active union member, who was blacklisted from the late 1940s to the late 1950s.[7] [8] They remained married for over 40 years until his death in 1998.[7] Together, they had three children. One of them, Chris, predeceased her in 2006.[1]
Ryan died on October 9, 2022, at her home in Malibu, California, at the age of 94.[1] [9] [10]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Three in One | Mrs. Johnson | Segment: "The Load of Wood" | [11] | ||||||
| 1986 | At Close Range | Grandma | [12] [13] | |||||||
| 1988 | Judgment in Berlin | Gerta X | [14] | |||||||
| 1989 | Winter People | Annie Wright | ||||||||
| 1989 | Parenthood | Marilyn Buckman | ||||||||
| 1991 | Mrs. Baker | |||||||||
| 1993 | Benny & Joon | Mrs. Smail | ||||||||
| 1995 | Woman in Shop | [15] | ||||||||
| 1999 | Anywhere but Here | Lillian | ||||||||
| 1999 | Magnolia | Mary | ||||||||
| 2001 | Jean | |||||||||
| 2001 | I Am Sam | Estelle | ||||||||
| 2002 | Eight Legged Freaks | Gladys | ||||||||
| 2004 | Marie's mother | - | 2005 | Ulli Lommel's Zodiac Killer | Venice Beach victim | Video | --> | |||
| 2005 | Feast | Grandma | ||||||||
| 2006 | All the King's Men | Lily Littlepaugh | ||||||||
| 2009 | Give 'Em Hell, Malone | Gloria | [16] | |||||||
| 2009 | Mother and Child | Nora | ||||||||
| 2010 | Venus & Vegas | Estelle | ||||||||
| 2011 | Collaborator | Betty | ||||||||
| 2016 | Rules Don't Apply | Frank's Grandmother |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Goodyear Television Playhouse | Alma | "Mr. Dorothy Allen" | [17] | ||||||
| 1957 | Westinghouse Studio One | Betsy Fuller | "The Defender: Parts 1 & 2" | - | 1959 | Deadline | Betty | "Massacre" | ||
| 1959 | DuPont Show of the Month | "The Human Comedy" | --> | |||||||
| 1959 | Mrs. Horvath | "Make Me Not a Witch" | [18] | |||||||
| 1960 | Nora Reagan | "A World of Difference" | ||||||||
| 1960 | "With Glory and Honor" | [19] | ||||||||
| 1960 | Mrs. Sharman | "Little Girl Lost" | ||||||||
| 1961 | Mrs. Coil | "Song of the Guilty Heart" | - | 1961 | Shotgun Slade | Janet Milford | "A Grave at San Gallo" | |||
| 1961 | Miss Spencer | "The Man Who Wanted Everything Perfect" | --> | |||||||
| 1961 | Anna Ashmond | "The Last Way Out" | [20] | |||||||
| 1961 | Outlaws | Ruth Lopez | "No Luck on Friday" | [21] | - | 1961 | Adventures in Paradise | Alice | "Survival" | --> |
| 1961 | Bonanza | Amanda Gates | "Land Grab" | |||||||
| 1962 | Bonanza | Abigail Jones | "The Wooing of Abigail Jones" | [22] | ||||||
| 1962 | Ben Casey | Laura Walton | "Give My Hands an Epitaph" | |||||||
| 1962 | Tales of Wells Fargo | Lorry | "End of a Minor God" | |||||||
| 1972 | Bonanza | Emily | "First Love" | [23] | ||||||
| 1973 | Marcus Welby, M.D. | Shirley Cooper | "Catch a Ring That Isn't There" | [24] | ||||||
| 1973 | Cannon | "Press Pass to the Slammer" | [25] | |||||||
| 1974 | Little House on the Prairie | Mrs. Kennedy | "The Voice of Tinker Jones" | |||||||
| 1986 | CBS Schoolbreak Special | Bag Lady | "Babies Having Babies" | [26] | ||||||
| 1990 | Christine Cromwell | "Only the Good Die Young" | ||||||||
| 1992 | Matlock | Lily Wyckoff | "The Picture: Part 2" | |||||||
| 1993 | It's Nothing Personal | TV film | ||||||||
| 1996 | ER | Barbara Dean | "True Lies" | |||||||
| 1996 | NYPD Blue | Mrs. Treet | "He's Not Guilty, He's My Brother" | |||||||
| 1999 | Ally McBeal | Bria Tolson | "In Dreams" | |||||||
| 2000 | Arliss | Maddie Crowley | "Last Call" | - | 2001 | Providence | Eleanor Walters | "Big Night" | --> | |
| 2001 | Mrs. Rose Bennett | "To Halve and to Hold" | ||||||||
| 2003 | "Tough Love" | |||||||||
| 2005 | Without a Trace | Maura O'Connell | "Transitions" | - | 2007 | Mrs. Cavanaugh | "Legacy" | --> | ||
| 2011 | Men of a Certain Age | "And Then the Bill Comes" | ||||||||
| 2011 | Private Practice | Marion | "Something Old, Something New" | |||||||
| 2011 | Prime Suspect | Susan Whitney | "Bitch" | [27] | ||||||
| 2014 | Grey's Anatomy | Marjorie Reed | "Puzzle with a Piece Missing" | |||||||
| 2014 | Getting On | Mrs. Roth | "No Such Thing as Idealized Genitalia" |