Eileen Ryan, an actress with a storied career and matriarch of the Hollywood family that includes actor Sean Penn, died at her home in malibu California on Sunday, according to a statement shared by Penn’s publicist. She was 94. no cause of death was reported.
Ryan was born in New York City on October 16, 1927, under the name born Eileen Annucci the daughter of Rose Isabel (née Ryan), a nurse, and Amerigo Giuseppe Annucci, a dentist. Ryan’s mother was an Irish American native of Plattsburgh, New York, and her father was of Italian American descent. In 1957 at age 30, she married Leo Penn, an actor and active union member, who was blacklisted during The House Un-American Activities Commitee from the late 1940s to the late 1950s. The pair moved in together within a week of meeting, and married a few months later, the statement added. Their marriage lasted 41 years until Leo Penn died in 1998.
Her film credits include her role as Mary in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, and the Grandmother in the Neo Noir thriller At Close Range as well as I Am Sam, Eight Legged Freaks and All the King’s Men. Her television credits include The Twilight Zone in 1960, along with E.R., Ally McBeal and NYPD Blue some 35 years later.
In addition to Sean Penn, the couple were parents to son Michael Penn, vocalist of the late ’80s hit single “No Myth,” and late actor Chris Penn, who appeared in high-profile films including the role of “Nice Guy Eddie “in Quentin Tarintino’s Reservoir Dogs and Nicky Dimes in True Romance. During her son Sean’s first marriage from 1985 to 1989, she was the mother-in-law of the American pop-star Madonna. Between 1996 and 2010 she was also the mother-in-law of American actress Robin Wright, of Moneyball and Forrest Gump fame, through the latter’s marriage to Sean.
Chris Penn died in January 2006 at the age of 40.
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