LOS ANGELES — Mitchell Ryan, who played a villainous general in the first Lethal Weapon film, a ruthless businessman in the television series Santa Barbara, and featured roles in the soap opera Dark Shadows and the 1990s sitcom Dharma & Greg. . ‘, died on Friday. He was 88 years old.
Ryan died of congestive heart failure at his Los Angeles home, his stepdaughter Denise Freed told The Hollywood Reporter.
Robust, with a granite jaw and a sleek mane of hair, Ryan was instantly recognizable on TV and the big screen. His career spanned over half a century, beginning with an uncredited role in Robert Mitcham’s 1958 film Thunder Road.
He was a general turned heroin smuggler in Lethal Weapon, a cop in Magnum Force and Electra Glide in Blue, and scheming and bloodthirsty Las Vegas businessman Anthony Tonell in the late-night television soap opera Santa Barbara.
In the 1990s, he had a long-running role as Greg’s rich, eccentric, and drunken father on Dharma & Greg.
Rest in peace, Mitchell Ryan. The kind of actor everyone knew from somewhere. For me, he was one of the worst action movies of the 80s. What was great about him was that no matter where you knew him from, he was always one of the best at it. pic.twitter.com/2iNZzmsgd6
— Jeremy Herbert (@DDayFilms) March 5, 2022
Ryan played Burke Devlin on the cult 1960s soap opera Dark Shadows for one season, but was fired due to alcoholism.
Ryan acknowledged his drinking problems in his 2021 autobiography Sparrow’s Fall.
“I am blessed that after 30 years of drinking, I was able to live the life of a working actor who is to be envied. And I lived most of real life while I was at this, ”he wrote. “Sober for the next 30 years, I was told that I came out of it all as a good and useful person.”
Ryan has had roles in many TV shows and movies, from High Plains Tramp with Clint Eastwood to Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.
He has also performed in theatre, including Broadway productions of Wait Until Dark, Medea, and The Price.
“He has been a great gift in my life,” Kathryn Leigh Scott, who starred with him in Dark Shadows, wrote on Facebook. “I keep warm memories of his beautiful soul. I have a broken heart.”
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