Irene Ryan

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Irene Ryan (born Irene Noblitt, Noblett, or Noblette;

Ryan was born Irene Noblitt, Noblett or Noblette[a] on October 17, 1902, in El Paso, Texas. She was the second child and latter daughter born to Catherine J. "Katie" (née McSharry) and James Merritt Noblitt.^{[citation needed]} Her father was an army sergeant^[6] from North Carolina and her mother had emigrated from Ireland. Irene was 17 years younger than her sister, Anna.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Ryan began her performing career at the age of 11, when she won $3 (equal to $94.72 today) for singing "Pretty Baby" in an amateur contest at the Valencia Theater in San Francisco.^[7][8]

At 20, she married writer-comedian

By 1943, Tim Ryan had become a prolific character actor in movies; Monogram Pictures reunited Tim and Irene for four feature films, the last being the 1944 musical feature Hot Rhythm with Dona Drake.

In 1946, Irene married Harold E. Knox, who worked in film production (they divorced in 1961, having had no children). She continued to work in motion pictures into the late 1940s and early 1950s, generally playing fussy or nervous women. In 1946, she joined the cast of The Jack Carson Show on CBS Radio, playing "a neighborhood storekeeper who operates a combination candy shop and lending library."^[11] In January 1955, she made her first television sitcom appearance in an episode of the CBS series The Danny Thomas Show. She appeared with Walter Brennan in the 1959 episode "Grandpa's New Job" on the ABC sitcom The Real McCoys. In the 1960-1961 CBS sitcom Bringing Up Buddy, starring Frank Aletter, she was cast in three episodes as Cynthia Boyle, and she appeared as Rusty Wallace in "The Romance of Silver Pines", a 1962 episode of My Three Sons, starring Fred MacMurray.^[12] She guest-starred as Ellie McCabe in "The Old Stowe Road," a 1962 episode of the CBS sitcom Ichabod and Me. In 1966, Ryan was a contestant/celebrity guest star on the game show Password.

The Beverly Hillbillies

Ryan was cast in what was her best-known role in 1962 as Daisy "Granny" Moses, mother-in-law of patriarch Jed Clampett, in The Beverly Hillbillies (although Ryan was only five and a half years older than Ebsen). The character was named in honor of the artist Anna Mary Robertson "Grandma" Moses, who had died aged 101 the previous year, and only started her professional career as a painter in her later years.

According to Filmways publicist Ted Switzer, series creator and producer Paul Henning had decided to cast Bea Benaderet as Granny, but when Ryan read for the role "with her hair tied back in a bun and feisty as all get-out," everyone was taken with her performance. Executive producer Al Simon and Henning immediately said, "That's Granny!" Later, when Benaderet saw Ryan's audition, she agreed. Benaderet was cast as Jed Clampett's cousin, Pearl Bodine.^[13]

In 1966, Irene Ryan played Granny in the comedy Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title, co-starring Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam.

Stage

In 1972, Ryan starred as Berthe in the Bob Fosse–directed Broadway musical Pippin,^[14] in which she sang the number "No Time at All." A live recording (sound with still photographs) was made.^[15]

Club

In 1965, Ryan signed a two-year contract to perform at the Sahara Hotel in

In both 1963 and 1964, Ryan was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead).[17]

Ryan was nominated for Broadway's 1973

The Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship awards scholarships to outstanding actors who participate in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. The scholarship provides "recognition, honor, and financial assistance to outstanding student performers wishing to pursue further education." These scholarships have been awarded by the Irene Ryan Foundation since 1972.^[21]

Selected filmography

Notes