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."
Read more about this topic: Eileen Ryan
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
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“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
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