Eileen Ryan - Biography

Biography

Ryan was born Eileen Annucci in New York City, the daughter of Rose Isabel (née Ryan), a nurse, and Amerigo Giuseppe Annucci, a dentist. Ryan's mother was an Irish American native of Plattsburgh, New York, and her father was Italian American.

She was married to Leo Penn, an actor and active union member, who was once blacklisted, from 1957 until his death in 1998. Ryan appeared with her sons Sean and Chris in the 1986 film At Close Range, as their grandmother. She also made a memorable appearance in The Crossing Guard, which Sean directed. While Madonna was married to Sean, she told the press "My mother-in-law is the only woman I've ever met whom I find truly intimidating."

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