A barrel-chested, silver-haired character player since the late 1960s, Ryan frequently appeared in films and on TV, usually as officials and cops. His feature credits include small turns in two Bob Rafelson 70s classics, "Five Easy Pieces" (1970) and "The King of Marvin Gardens" (1972). Ryan had somewhat larger roles as Kennedy in "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1981), as the gung-ho head of the space program in "The Right Stuff" (1983), as the irate Warden Ranken in "Runaway Train" (1985) and as a gangster in "Bound" (1995). Ryan's additional appearances include Francis Ford Coppola's "The Cotton Club" (1984) and "Fatal Beauty" (1987). His largest TV roles to date have been in the movie "Death Scream" (1975) and the miniseries "Kennedy" (1983).