Kathleen Ryan (8 September 1920 – 11 December 1985) was an Irish actress.
She was born in Dublin, Ireland of Tipperary parentage and appeared in British and Hollywood films between 1947 and 1957. In 2020, she was listed as number 40 on The Irish Times's list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
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Family
Ryan's father died in 1933, shortly after he had been elected to Ireland's senate. Her brother was John Ryan, an artist and man of letters in bohemian Dublin of the 1940s and 1950s, who was a friend and benefactor of a number of struggling writers in the post-war era, such as Patrick Kavanagh. He started and edited a short-lived literary magazine entitled Envoy. Among her other siblings were Fr. Vincent (Séamus), a Benedictine priest at Glenstal Abbey, Sister Íde of the Convent of The Sacred Heart, Mount Anville, Dublin, Oonagh (who married the Irish artist Patrick Swift), Cora who married the politician, Seán Dunne, T.D.
Ryan's schooling came in convents and universities. She married Dermod Devane in the society wedding of 1944 and the couple had three children, but the marriage was annulled in 1958.