Eileen Ryan obit

Eileen Ryan, Actress and Mother of Sean Penn, Dies at 94

The wife of late actor-director Leo Penn, she worked on Broadway and guest-starred on episodes of 'The Twilight Zone' and 'Bonanza.'

 

She was not on the list.

Eileen Ryan, an actress who appeared on Broadway and in films and TV shows in collaborations with her late husband, actor-director Leo Penn, and her two-time Oscar-winning son, Sean Penn, died Sunday at her home in Malibu, a publicist announced. She was 94.

Survivors also include another son, composer-songwriter Michael Penn. Her youngest boy, actor Chris Penn, died in 2006.

Ryan gave up her acting career — once turning down the lead in a John Frankenheimer-directed film — to become a full-time mother. However, she returned to take small parts in such projects as At Close Range (1986), where she played the grandmother of characters portrayed by Sean and Christopher.

One of three sisters, Eileen Annucci was born in New York on Oct. 16, 1927. She made her Broadway debut in 1953 in Sing Till Tomorrow, then worked alongside Judith Anderson, George C. Scott and Larry Hagman in 1958 in Comes a Day.

In 1960, Ryan starred as the hostile wife of a confused Hollywood actor (Howard Duff) on the excellent first-season Twilight Zone episode “A World of Difference” and went on to appear on installments of many other shows, including The Detectives, Ben Casey and Bonanza, where Leo directed her in 1972.

He also guided her on episodes of Cannon, Little House on the Prairie, Marcus Welby, M.D. and Matlock and in the 1988 movie Judgment in Berlin.

Ryan showed up in several films starring Sean, including The Indian Runner (1991), The Crossing Guard (1995), I Am Sam (2001), The Pledge (2001), The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004) and All the King’s Men (2006).

She first met the recently divorced Leo in 1957 during rehearsals for a Circle in the Square production of The Iceman Cometh in New York after he had taken over a part meant for Jason Robards. They moved in together within a week of meeting, married a few months later and were a couple until he died in September 1998 at age 77.

Michael was born in 1958, followed by Sean in 1960 and Chris in 1965. Chris died at age 40 in January 2006 of heart disease.

Her last onscreen credit came in Warren Beatty’s Rules Don’t Apply (2016). She would have turned 95 on Sunday.

Filmography

Film

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1957      Three in One      Mrs. Johnson     Segment: "The Load of Wood"

1986      At Close Range Grandma            

1988      Judgment in Berlin           Gerta X

1989      Winter People   Annie Wright    

1989      Parenthood        Marilyn Buckman            

1991      The Indian Runner           Mrs. Baker         

1993      Benny & Joon     Mrs. Smail          

1995      The Crossing Guard         Woman in Shop               

1999      Anywhere but Here         Lillian   

1999      Magnolia             Mary    

2001      The Pledge          Jean      

2001      I Am Sam             Estelle  

2002      Eight Legged Freaks         Gladys  

2004      The Assassination of Richard Nixon           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   

2009      Mother and Child             Nora     

2010      Venus & Vegas Estelle  

2011      Collaborator       Betty    

2016      Rules Don't Apply             Frank's Grandmother    

Television

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1955      Goodyear Television Playhouse Alma      "Mr. Dorothy Allen"

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      Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond             Mrs. Horvath      "Make Me Not a Witch"

1960      The Twilight Zone             Nora Reagan      "A World of Difference"

1960      The Robert Herridge Theatre                       "With Glory and Honor"

1960      The Detectives Mrs. Sharman    "Little Girl Lost"

1961      The Detectives Mrs. Coil              "Song of the Guilty Heart"

1961      Shotgun Slade    Janet Milford     "A Grave at San Gallo"

1961      The DuPont Show with June Allyson         Miss Spencer     "The Man Who Wanted Everything Perfect"

1961      The Asphalt Jungle           Anna Ashmond "The Last Way Out"

1961      Outlaws                Ruth Lopez          "No Luck on Friday"

1961      Adventures in Paradise Alice      "Survival"

1961      Bonanza               Amanda Gates   "Land Grab"

1962      Bonanza               Abigail Jones      "The Wooing of Abigail Jones"

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"

1973      Marcus Welby, M.D.       Shirley Cooper   "Catch a Ring That Isn't There"

1973      Cannon                                 "Press Pass to the Slammer"

1974      Little House on the Prairie            Mrs. Kennedy    "The Voice of Tinker Jones"

1986      CBS Schoolbreak Special                Bag Lady              "Babies Having Babies"

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      CSI: Crime Scene Investigation    Mrs. Rose Bennett           "To Halve and to Hold"

2003      The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire                       "Tough Love"

2005      Without a Trace                Maura O'Connell              "Transitions"

2007      The Nine              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"

2014      Grey's Anatomy                Marjorie Reed   "Puzzle with a Piece Missing"

2014      Getting On          Mrs. Roth            "No Such Thing as Idealized Genitalia"