After serving in the Navy, Mitchell Ryan began his acting career in local theaters in Louisville, Kentucky. He then moved to Virginia, where he worked for the state theater company at the Barter Theater, performing in 40 plays.
In 1957, Ryan relocated to New York, where he lived for 12 years. While there, he racked up many Broadway credits, including roles in The Price, Othello, Moon for the Misbegotten, Baal, Wait Until Dark, Iphigenia In Aulis, and Medea. The western, Monte Walsh, with Lee Marvin, brought Mitchell to Hollywood in the late 1960s. In 1974, he started the Los Angeles Actors Theater with Ralph Waite, serving as managing director and acting in many of their productions, including Antony and Cleopatra.
His television roles have been equally plentiful, with numerous telefilm and series credits including "Life of the Party," opposite Ann-Margret. He is most known in ABC's hit sitcom "Dharma & Greg."
Ryan has had a very successful career on the big screen, having appeared in more than 50 movies. Throughout the 1970s, he played small supporting roles in such features as Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter", Peter Yates' "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" and "Magnum Force" (all 1973).
After over a decade, he was cast as a Vietnam veteran whose drug operation is the target of investigation by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Richard Donner's "Lethal Weapon" (1987). He then gave a strong performance as the patriarch of a mountain family in Ted Kotcheff's "Winter People" (1989) and executed a deft, but rare, comic turn in Jim Abrahams' "Hot Shots! Part Deux" (1993). Ryan offered support to Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones in the late Tony Richardson's "Blue Sky" (filmed in 1990; released in 1994) and was one of the candidates in "Speechless" (also 1994). In 1995, he was featured in both "Malicious" and "Judge Dredd." Most recent films include Liar Liar, Grosse Pointe Blank, The Devil's Own, and Speechless.
Ryan lives with his wife in Santa Monica, California. He has three children and is the proud grandfather of five grandchildren.
