Hollywood actor Robert Ryan is not as recognizable a name to today’s moviegoing audiences as he should be. Beginning in the 1940s, Ryan specialized in hard-headed, hardboiled loners who followed their own moral code. To reacquaint audiences with the actor’s unique screen fury, New York’s Film Forum is hosting a tribute to the actor from August 12 to 25. After making a name for himself in the theater, he was signed by RKO Studios for his breakout role as an anti-Semitic bully in Edward Dmytrk’s CROSSFIRE (1947). The part earned him his only Academy Award nomination and began his career as one of the screen’s greatest heavies. Other film noir classics in the series include the boxing drama THE SET UP, the police drama ON DANGEROUS GROUND, the nouveau Wetstern THE NAKED SPUR, the racial drama ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW and the Western classic THE WILD BUNCH. The festival will be followed by a one-week run of Samuel Fuller’s HOUSE OF BAMBOO, starring Ryan and Robert Stack, in a new 35mm Scope print. For more information on the complete series, visit: www.filmforum.org
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