Thomas Jay Ryan (born August 1, 1962) is an American actor. He may be best known for his starring role in the 1997 film ''
Henry Fool''.
Early life and education
Born in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, Pennsylvania, Ryan attended
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
and has worked in such theaters as the
Guthrie Theater
The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions among Sir Tyrone Gut ...
in Minneapolis and the
Yale Repertory Theatre
Yale Repertory Theatre at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded by Robert Brustein, dean of Yale School of Drama, in 1966, with the goal of facilitating a meaningful collaboration between theatre professionals and talented stud ...
in New Haven. In addition, he has worked with avant garde playwright
Richard Foreman and has played roles ranging from
Dracula
''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...
to
Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French people, French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Print ...
.
Career
Ryan had supporting roles in a variety of films, including ''
Teknolust'', ''
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' is a 2004 American surrealist science fiction romantic drama film directed by Michel Gondry and written by Charlie Kaufman from a story by Gondry, Kaufman, and Pierre Bismuth. Starring Jim Carrey a ...
'', ''
The Book of Life'', ''
Dream Boy'', and the sequels to ''
Henry Fool'', ''
Fay Grim'' (2007) and ''
Ned Rifle'' (2014).
He played pioneering gay activist
Harry Hay in the initial production of the play ''
The Temperamentals'' in 2009 in New York. In 2016, Ryan played
Thomas Putnam in
Ivo van Hove's production of
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
's play ''
The Crucible
''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1692 to 1693. Miller wrote ...
'' at the
Walter Kerr Theatre
The Walter Kerr Theatre, previously the Ritz Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 219 West 48th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructe ...
on
Broadway. In 2019 he appeared in the
off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
play ''
Eureka Day''.
From August 8-25 2023, Ryan performed as
Serebryakov in Uncle Vanya, a off-off broadway production in an unmarked Manhattan loft. He replaced
Bill Irwin
William Mills Irwin (born April 11, 1950) is an American actor, choreographer, clown, and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. ...
, who had performed the role earlier in the summer.
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
*
*
*
"Thomas Jay Ryan Embraces a Comfortably Unpredictable Acting Career"by Alexis Soloski, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', October 11, 2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Thomas Jay
1962 births
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
Carnegie Mellon University alumni
Living people
Male actors from Pittsburgh