Timothy Thomas Ryan (July 5, 1899 – October 22, 1956) was an American performer and film actor.
Life and career
Ryan was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, on July 5, 1899, to Edward and Hannah (née McGeehan) Ryan.
He teamed with Irene Noblette for a vaudeville act, "Tim and Irene", who performed on Broadway, in films, and on radio. They soon married; Irene Ryan later played Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies. They appeared in short films for Educational Pictures in the mid-1930s. based on their vaudeville act. The Ryans were married from 1922 to 1942. Even after their divorce in 1942, Tim and Irene occasionally worked together.
In the 1940s, Ryan began working at Monogram Pictures as an all-purpose character player (policemen, newspaper editors, detectives, convicts, and other stock characters) and script writer. He was regularly featured in two series: as Lt. Mike Ruark in the Charlie Chan mysteries of the late 1940s, and as Dinty Moore, Joe Yule's drinking buddy in the Jiggs and Maggie comedies. He also played occasional character roles in the studio's highly successful Bowery Boys comedies, and almost always contributed to the scripts. He retired in 1953, only to be persuaded by Huntz Hall to return for Hall's first lead at the studio, Fighting Trouble (1956). Ryan appeared in three more films before his death in Los Angeles on October 22, 1956, at the age of 57.
