Celebrity Biographies
Eileen Ryan
She appeared in Broadway productions and in feature films and television shows in collaboration with her late husband, actor-director Leo Penn, and their son, Sean Penn. Eileen Ryan died on October 9, 2022, at her home in Malibu, aged 94 .
Born in New York on October 16, 1927, Eileen Ryan made her Broadway debut at age 26 in Sing Till Tomorrow , and then starred opposite Judith Anderson, George C. Scott and Larry Hagman in 1958 in Comes a Day, which premiered in 1958. That same year, she married the filmmaker Leo Penn , father of her two children, the aforementioned Sean Penn and Chris Penn . She remained close to him until her death in 1998.
In 1960, Eileen Ryan she played the hostile wife of a confused Hollywood actor (Howard Duff) in the excellent Twilight Zone first season episode “A World of Difference” and then gave up her acting career, after turning down a film directed by John Frankenheimer , She wanted to dedicate herself full time to taking care of her children.
Despite everything, he continued to appear occasionally in installments of various series, including The Detectives , Ben Casey, Little House on the Prairie, and Bonanza . Some episodes of it were directed by her husband, Leo Penn, who also directed her 1988 film Trial in Berlin .
Also, Eileen Ryan appeared in several films starring Sean Penn , including Strange Blood Bond (1991), Crossing the Darkness (1995), I Am Sam (2001), The Oath (2001), The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004), and All Men of the king (2006).