ROBERT RYAN

Robert Ryan (1909-73) studied acting in Hollywood and appeared on stage in small film parts during the 1940s. His first major role was as the anti-Semitic killer in Edward Dmytryk's 1947 film-noir CROSSFIRE. From then on Ryan's specialty was tough/tender roles, finding particular expression in the films of celebrated directors such as Nicholas Ray, Robert Wise and Sam Fuller. In Ray's ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951) he portrayed a burnt-out violent city cop finding redemption while solving a rural murder, and he played the over-the-hill boxer in THE SET-UP (1949). Other important noir or norish films were Anthony Mann's western THE NAKED SPUR, Sam Fuller's Japanese gangland thriller HOUSE OF BAMBOO (a remake of the 1948 gangster melodrama THE STREET WITH NO NAME), BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, and the socially conscious heist movie ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW. Ryan's notable late-career films included THE DIRTY DOZEN, THE PROFESSIONALS and Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH. He was originally intended to portray "Commodore Matt Decker" in the "Star Trek" (1966, the original series) episode "Doomsday Machine", but was unable to do so. The character was intended as a Captain Ahab-type, obsessed with revenge for the loss of his crew. The role instead went to William Windom who portrayed Decker in a more tragic, sensitive light.