Eileen Ryan

Actress

Popular As Eileen Rose Annucci

Birthday October 16, 1927

Birth Sign Libra

Birthplace New York City, U.S.

DEATH DATE 2022-10-9, Malibu, California, U.S. (94 years old)

Nationality United States

#21810 Most Popular

1927

Eileen Ryan (Annucci; October 16, 1927 – October 9, 2022) was an American actress.

The wife of actor and director Leo Penn, she was the mother of actors Sean Penn and Chris Penn, and of singer Michael Penn.

Ryan was born in the Bronx on October 16, 1927.

Her father, William, was Italian American and worked as a lawyer and a dentist; her mother, Rose Isabel (née Ryan), was Irish American and employed as a nurse, with her maiden name later chosen by Eileen to be part of her stage name.

Ryan studied at New York University, graduating with a bachelor's degree.

1940

At the time, he was an actor and active union member, who was blacklisted from the late 1940s to the late 1950s.

1953

Ryan debuted on Broadway in 1953, in the play Sing Till Tomorrow.

Five years later, she featured in another Broadway production, Comes a Day.

Both plays were ultimately short-lived.

She began to reduce her involvement in acting in order to look after her young family, which later relocated to the West Coast.

1957

Ryan married Leo Penn in 1957.

They met the year before while she was performing in The Iceman Cometh at the Circle in the Square Theatre.

1960

During the 1960s and 1970s, Ryan periodically had roles in television shows, such as The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, and others directed by her husband Leo Penn.

1986

Ryan resumed acting on a more frequent basis in 1986, when she appeared with her sons Sean and Chris in At Close Range as the brothers' grandmother.

1988

She subsequently featured as the mother of Sean Penn's character in Judgment in Berlin (1988), which was directed by her husband.

1995

She also starred in Parenthood a year later opposite Jason Robards – whose withdrawal from his role in The Iceman Cometh over three decades earlier enabled Ryan to meet her future husband – before making an appearance in The Crossing Guard (1995), which her son Sean directed.

Two years later, she went back to the stage in the play Remembrance, acting alongside her husband in a production by Sean Penn at the Odyssey Theater.

1998

They remained married for over 40 years until his death in 1998.

Together, they had three children.

2006

One of them, Chris, predeceased her in 2006.

Ryan died on October 9, 2022, at her home in Malibu, California, at the age of 94.

2016

Her final role was in the 2016 film Rules Don't Apply.