Mitchell Ryan, best known for his roles in "Lethal Weapon," "Dark Shadows," and "Dharma & Greg," has died at 88.
The actor's stepdaughter, Denise Freed, confirmed the news, explaining that Ryan died Friday of congestive heart failure at his Los Angeles home, according to the New York Post.
Kathryn Leigh Scott, who also appeared in "Dark Shadows," mourned her co-star’s death in a Facebook post.
"My sweet, beloved friend Mitch died early this morning," she wrote Friday. "He was a great gift in my life. I cherish my warm memories of his beautiful soul. I'm heartbroken."
Ryan began acting in 1958 with an uncredited role in Robert Mitchum’s film "Thunder," which would ultimately become the basis upon which he built his decades-long career. From there he was cast as a general-turned heroin smuggler in "Lethal Weapon," and a police officer in "Magnum Force" as well as a murderous Las Vegas businessman in the nighttime TV soap opera "Santa Barbara."
Ryan had many roles in various films and TV shows including "High Plains Drifter" with Clint Eastwood, "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers," and Greg’s father in the ’90s hit sitcom "Dharma & Greg." Ryan also played Burke Devlin in the ’60s soap opera "Dark Shadows."
"It was a wonderfully written Gothic kind of melodrama and Burke was this marvelous, mysterious character," Ryan recalled decades later in an interview. "And actually, there wasn't a whole lot to do with it except bring a lot of my passion to it and just allow it to come out."
Ryan was later fired for his alcoholism. He admitted to his drinking problems in his 2021 autobiography, "Fall of a Sparrow."
"I'm blessed. I’m blessed that, 30 years a drunk, I've managed to live a working actor's life to be envied. And I've lived a great deal of real life while I was at it. Sober for the next 30 years, I'm told that I've come out of it all a good and useful human being," he wrote in the preface, according to the New York Daily News.
"In this cynical world of ours, read the work of a man who begins by shouting out his happiness," he continued. "Because this happiness I speak of isn't a bright sunshiny yellow. It's been hard-fought and hard-won."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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