Ryan, Kathleen

by Terry Clavin

Ryan, Kathleen (1922–85), actress, was born on 8 September 1922 above her parents' shop on Camden Street, Dublin, the first of eight children of James (Seamus) Ryan (qv) and his wife Agnes Ryan (qv) (née Harding). Originally from Tipperary, her parents owned and managed a thriving chain of groceries called the Monument Creamery, amassing over thirty outlets throughout the city. Her father was also prominent within the Fianna Fáil party, serving as a senator up to his untimely death in 1933.

Kathleen grew up in increasingly prosperous surrounds, as the family moved first to a red-bricked residence in Rathgar in the 1920s and then into a mansion in Sandyford in 1938. At the age of six she was sent to Bruff boarding school in Co. Limerick and later attended Mount Anville college in Dublin before being sent to a finishing school in Paris. Following the German conquest of France in 1940, she returned home and studied for a B.Comm. degree in UCD. Endowed with fine, alabaster features and a cascade of reddish auburn hair, she was a great beauty and the subject in 1941 of a much-admired portrait by Louis Le Brocquy (1916–2012), 'Girl in white', now in the National Museums Northern Ireland.

Appearing on stage from 1940, she first performed at the Peacock theatre opposite Dan O'Herlihy (qv) in the UCD Players' production of Thomas Dekker's 'The shoemaker's holiday'. She lost interest in pursuing a degree, eventually dropping out of college, but not before meeting Dermod Devane, a medical student from Limerick. They were considered the most attractive couple in UCD, if not Ireland, and their marriage in 1944 was a major society event. They had three children and lived in Ballinacurra, Co. Limerick.

She continued as a professional theatre actress, but her experience was still quite limited when in 1946 she was chosen (on O'Herlihy's recommendation) as the female lead in the Carol Reed-directed film Odd man out. Despite never having performed in the Abbey theatre, she vaulted over a host of Abbey regulars populating the supporting cast, fuelling suspicions that her casting owed more to her looks and perhaps her family's wealth than to acting ability. Depicting the final hours of a wounded IRA gunman, played by James Mason, the film surely resonated with her mother Agnes who had harboured and assisted IRA fugitives during the Anglo–Irish war of 1919–21. Kathleen's role as Mason's girlfriend conspicuously failed to convey the liveliness and wit of her true personality. Acting almost solely through her dolefully expressive eyes, she was obliged to maintain a downcast and dour countenance throughout, which, however, conferred an implacability that added to the violent denouement. Released in 1947, Odd man out was a critical and commercial success, and is considered a noir classic.

Thereafter, the Rank Organisation, the biggest British film company, built her up as one of its leading starlets. From 1947 to 1957 she appeared in a further eleven British (mainly) and American films, starring alongside Rock Hudson, Dirk Bogarde and Stewart Granger. Three of these films dealt with Irish subjects – Captain Boycott (1947), Captain Lightfoot (1955) and Jacqueline (1956). While Odd man out enabled her to pursue a movie career, it had the effect of restricting her to 'mournful Dark Rosaleen parts' (Ní Riain, 98), which was perhaps also due to a limited acting range. Her role in Esther Waters (1948) gave her an opportunity to overcome this typecasting, which she failed to exploit, suffering from poor directing and an over-earnest production. She slipped down the billing and a seven-film contract signed with a Hollywood studio in 1952 produced only two roles.

Her career was further hindered by personal problems. In 1954, after being involved in a car accident near Ballinacurra in which a travelling salesman lost a leg, she was obliged to pay £7,000 in compensation by the civil courts. A serious accident, presumably the same one, also permanently affected her health. Her later films were of a poor standard and her movie career petered out in 1958. So too did her marriage. She returned to Dublin to live with family, continuing thereafter to be dogged by ill health, which she bore stoically while occasionally engaging in self-reproachful reminiscences. Living latterly in Killiney, Co. Dublin, she died of lung cancer in Baggot Street hospital, Dublin, on 11 December 1985, and was buried with her parents in Glasnevin cemetery.