Writing In The New York Times This Morning …
… film critic Mahnola Dargis looks back on the life and work of the actor Robert Ryan, who was a part of the fabric of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

An inspection of Ryan’s filmography at IMDB quickly reveals that, even if you don’t recognize Ryan’s name, you know his work. He starred in, among other great films, “The Wild Bunch“; “Anzio“; “The Professionals“; “Billy Budd,” and “The Longest Day” among many others.

Ryan’s work is the subject of a retrospective opening at NYC’s Film Forum this week. And of his work, Dargis writes:

“He was known for his villains, and it was the complexity of these characters, their emotional and psychological kinks, that elevated even his lesser roles. He never achieved the supernova stardom of a Gable or Bogart, and these days Ryan’s glower may be more familiar than his name. Yet he was the type of next-level star and B-movie stalwart that helped make old Hollywood great. He appeared in almost 100 films in a career that slowly sputtered to life in the silent era, gathered momentum in the 1940s and outlasted the old studio system, ending only in 1973 with his death at 63 from cancer.”

Read the full story here.