Robert Ryan Marathon on TCM

November 4, 2009

Robert Ryan is one of my favorite actors. He’s fantastic in every part I’ve ever seen him play, and this made him a director’s favorite–no doubt why he was cast, steadily, in so many great films. He was particularly terrific as a menacing noir figure who’s terribly flawed, cruel, vicious, violent–and yet somehow, sympathetic because of the depth of humanity Ryan brought to every role.

In real life, Ryan was an exact opposite of the flawed, bigoted characters he so often played. He was  a lifelong Democrat committed to his family (married to the same woman for forty years, until his death) and to liberal causes. He and his wife fought for civil rights and against HUAC’s activities and the Communist witch-hunts of the forties and fifties. In short, Ryan was one of those rare actors whose art and whose life were equally deserving of admiration.

So I was thrilled to hear that in honor of what would have been Ryan’s 100th birthday, Turner Classic Movies is running a marathon of his movies on November 10th and 11th, including several of my favorites like The Set Up, Crossfire, On Dangerous Ground, and Bad Day at Black Rock.

Ryan died of lung cancer in 1972, but before he did he was able to play Larry Slade in 1973 film version of The Iceman Cometh. From a Chicago Reader piece on Ryan, which I highly recommend reading:

Larry Slade, the barroom philosopher and disillusioned anarchist of The Iceman Cometh, may have cut even closer to the bone: suffering from a terminal illness, he confesses to one of his fellow drunks, “What’s before me is the fact that death is a fine, long sleep. And I’m damn tired.” Directed by John Frankenheimer for the American Film Theater series of the early 70s, the movie shows Ryan at his most honest and vulnerable. Few actors have so openly contemplated their own mortality on-screen, or ended their career with such an unqualified triumph.

If you’re not familiar with Ryan’s work, check out some of the films playing on TCM. You won’t regret it.