[A]n engaging biography of a Golden Age movie star who was a welcome presence even if — and perhaps particularly when — he lit up the screen with a sneer and filled it with menace. His many lives — stage and television performer, political activist, progressive education proponent, husband and father — are finely detailed by Jones with the help of Ryan's private writings and those of his wife, Jessica, a novelist. Jones describes a complex man who grappled publicly with the world's demons and privately with his own, among them alcohol and depression.”—Douglass K. Daniel, Associated Press
“[Robert Ryan] has begun to get the appreciation he deserves. A revival was marked last year by the publication of a good biography, The Lives of Robert Ryan by J.R. Jones.”—David Bromwich, London Review of Books
“The complex interplay between the private man, the actor, and the roles Hollywood gave him is the subject of The Lives of Robert Ryan, a sensitive and engrossing new biography by J.R. Jones, a film critic and editor for the Chicago Reader. … The Lives of Robert Ryan is a worthy biography, and, above all, an opportunity to revisit the films in which the actor still lives.”—Imogen Sara Smith, Film Quarterly
“On screen, there always was something unsettling and unsettled behind Robert Ryan's eyes. [H]e was perfect for post-World War II film noirs and westerns. He made a lot of fine ones, and his performances, often elevating the stereotype of the heavy, didn't offer an escape from the real world. A new biography of Chicago native Ryan, just published by Wesleyan University Press, addresses that essential paradox. Chicago Reader film critic J.R. Jones is the author of The Lives of Robert Ryan. In 2009 Jones gained access to an unpublished Ryan manuscript, written for his children, in which the actor recalled his North Side childhood.”—Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
“Jones has done a superb job in researching Ryan's writings, wife Jessica's memoirs, and interviewing his children and numerous industry colleagues. A masterly biography that portrays an actor devoted to his craft and dedicated to his personal convictions.”—Richard Dickey, Library Journal
“Merchant seaman, stevedore, Marine drill instructor, gold miner, cowhand—these might sound like roles Robert Ryan played on screen, but they’re actually facets of his own life before he became one of Hollywood’s most respected actors. J.R. Jones has done remarkable, insightful research into Ryan’s life not just as an actor, but as a liberal activist, an educator (he co-founded one of L.A.’s most progressive schools) and a family man. It’s a revelatory book, superbly written and worthy of the fascinating man at its center.”—Jim Beaver, Roundup Magazine
“Martin Scorsese rightly called Robert Ryan ‘one of the greatest actors in the history of American Film,’ and J.R. Jones in his excellent biography shows what a fascinating career it as—complicated, contradictory, accidental…Jones’ thoughtful, thoroughly researched book takes a balanced view of Ryan’s achievements.”—Phillip French, Sight & Sound
“Jones (a film critic and an editor) provides not only a thorough analysis of the character and professional career of film actor Robert Ryan (1909–1973) but also a detailed political history of Hollywood during the late 1940s and 1950s. … Jones’s prose flows smoothly; his thorough research and appendix, notes, bibliography, and index are praiseworthy.”—R. Blackwood, Choice
“Elegantly and with sparing opinionating, Chicago Reader film critic J.R. Jones maps the particulars of Ryan’s lives—his film roles but also his stage work, home life, political activism, and co-founding of California’s progressive Oakwood School. … Jones lets Ryan’s words and those of his family and colleagues dig at the actor’s contradictions, the story behind that twinkling, black-eyed gaze.”—Justin Stewart, Film Comment
“Ryan was born in Chicago, so it’s fitting that a Chicago critic would be behind the new biography The Lives of Robert Ryan. Written by the Chicago Reader’s J.R. Jones, the book provides the first extensive look at Ryan's life, from his life as a child of a Chicago contractor with strong political ties to his work as a liberal activist at the height of the blacklist, and beyond.”—Keith Phipps, The Dissolve
