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Alfred Ryder

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For the British naval commander, see Alfred Ryder (Royal Navy officer).
Alfred Ryder
Ryder in Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964)
Born
Alfred Jacob Corn

(1916-01-05)January 5, 1916
DiedApril 16, 1995(1995-04-16) (aged 79)
Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1944–1980
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1958; div. 1964)​
Children1
RelativesOlive Deering (sister)

Alfred Ryder (born Alfred Jacob Corn; January 5, 1916 – April 16, 1995[citation needed] ) was an American television, stage, radio, and film actor and director, who appeared in over one hundred television shows.

Career

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Ryder began to act at age eight and later studied with Robert Lewis and Lee Strasberg. He eventually became a life member of The Actors Studio.[1]

During the 1930s and 40s, Ryder blended Broadway appearances with two memorable roles during the Golden Age of Radio, as Molly Goldberg's son Sammy in The Goldbergs; and as Carl Neff in Easy Aces. During World War II he served in the United States Army Air Forces and appeared in the Air Force's Broadway play and film Winged Victory. In 1946 he secured a one-year film contract with Paramount and had a role in the Anthony Mann-directed film noir T-Men (1947).[2]

Ryder was an ambitious and intense theater performer who aspired to be "the definitive Hamlet of his generation."[2] In the 1940s he joined the American Repertory Theatre, founded by Margaret Webster and Eva Le Gallienne; Webster's follow-up troupe, the Margaret Webster Shakespeare Company—for which he toured as Hamlet;[3] and ultimately The Actors Studio. In the 1950s he continued appearing on Broadway (supplemented with television work), his most fruitful years coinciding with his 1958-1964 marriage to renowned stage actress (and fellow Actors Studio member) Kim Stanley, whom he would direct in the 1961 Broadway hit A Far Country.[2]

In 1956, Atlantic Records released the spoken-word album This Is My Beloved with Ryder reciting the popular poetry of Walter Benton.[4]

Notably, Ryder was chosen to be Laurence Olivier's standby when The Entertainer moved to Broadway from London in 1958.[5]

Ryder in an episode of One Step Beyond (1959)

He won the 1959 Obie Award for Best Actor, playing D.H. Lawrence in Tennessee Williams' one-act play I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix. Kim Stanley hosted the awards presentation, but her husband was away in rehearsals for a CBS adaptation of Billy Budd, having been cast as Claggart as a rush replacement for an ailing Jason Robards, Jr.[6] Ryder's growing association with the less-vaunted medium was reflected in TIME's announcement of their marriage; Stanley was feted as "star of Broadway's Bus Stop, and of Hollywood's The Goddess, whose training at the Actors' Studio [sic] made her the standard Brando of U.S. actresses," while Ryder was solely and dismissively identified as "TV actor Alfred Ryder," without even a mention of Ryder's own association with The Actors Studio.[7]

In 1961 Ryder was cast as Eli Wallach's first replacement as Bérenger (a role originated in London by Olivier) in the Broadway production of Eugène Ionesco's Rhinoceros. Ryder also would tour in the part with Zero Mostel, who had won a Tony Award in the play's other starring role.[2]

In 1964, 48-year-old Ryder was selected by impresario Joseph Papp to realize his dream and perform Hamlet in a high-profile production: a three-week engagement for Papp's Shakespeare in the Park.[8] Notoriously, he was replaced on June 17, the day after opening night by Robert Burr, who was understudying Richard Burton in the same role on Broadway.[9] According to press reports, Ryder was suffering from laryngitis by the premiere, which was broadcast on CBS, but co-star Stacy Keach also recounted Ryder’s erratic performances and difficulty remembering lines in rehearsals due to drinking.[10] Actress Lee Grant stated that Ryder’s stage career was “ruined”[11] by the fact that the performance was televised and that Ryder was replaced afterward, compounded by Papp’s public refusal to allow Ryder to return to the role following his recovery from the throat infection.[12]

The disappointment to Ryder was "acute," according to Ellen Adler, daughter of famed acting coach Stella Adler. "He was sort of promised he would be a great Broadway star, and somehow it never happened."[2] Ryder would never again act on or off-Broadway, though he subsequently directed two more Broadway plays—1968's The Exercise and a 1971 production of The Dance of Death—both of which closed in less than one week.[5] (In Los Angeles, Ryder would direct for UCLA's Theatre Group as a member of the Actors Studio Directors Unit;[13] for the U.S. Government's Educational Laboratory Theatre Project;[14] and for the Los Angeles Free Shakespeare Festival as its artistic director.[15])

Nevertheless, Ryder remained an A-list television guest star throughout the 1960's, as his eccentric, theatrical style and vaguely Germanic accent were well-suited for the sci-fi, spy, and fantasy shows that were popular at the time. He appeared in multiple episodes of The Wild Wild West and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and he played the main alien leader, Mr. Nexus, in the TV series The Invaders (two seasons, 1967-68). He starred as a British criminal who could not be killed in Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond episode "The Devil's Laughter" (1959). He appeared in "The Man Trap", the first-aired episode of Star Trek, on September 8, 1966, as a scientist who is hiding the fact that a shapeshifting alien is masquerading as his late wife. He also guest-starred as the ghost of a World War I German U-boat captain in two episodes of Irwin Allen's ABC-TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He then acted in an episode of another Irwin Allen series on ABC, as a cantankerous orphanage operator, Parteg, in "Night of Thrombeldinbar", an episode of Land of the Giants in February 1969. Later he appeared in the episode "A Hand for Sonny Blue" in the series Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected (1977; known in the United Kingdom as Twist in the Tale).[16]

Ryder's film work was more sporadic; his highest-profile role was the defense attorney who cross-examines John Wayne in True Grit (1969).[17]

By the 1970s, Ryder's credits (and billing) had diminished, with his last significant role coming in 1979, on Steve Allen's PBS faux-talk show Meeting of Minds, for which he also co-directed two episodes.[18] Despite an energetic performance as Machiavelli with extensive dialogue, Ryder only appeared once more onscreen, as restaurateur Mike Romanoff in the 1980 Humphrey Bogart TV-biopic Bogie.[19]

In his later years Ryder lived with his sister, actress Olive Deering, eventually moving to the Actors Home in New Jersey, where he died of liver cancer in 1995.[2]

Personal life

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Born to Jewish parents, he was married to actress Kim Stanley from 1958 until 1964.[2][20] The couple had a child, Laurie Ryder,[21] a California pediatrician and child advocate. He was the brother of actress Olive Deering.[citation needed]

Ryder was a Democrat who supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.[22]

Select list of appearances

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References

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  1. ^ Garfield, David (1980). "Appendix: Life Members of The Actors Studio as of January 1980". A Player's Place: The Story of The Actors Studio. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. p. 279. ISBN 0-02-542650-8.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Krampner, Jon (2006). Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley. New York: Back Stage Books. ISBN 978-0823088478. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  3. ^ Barranger, Milly (2010). Margaret Webster, A Life in the Theater. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472026036. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
  4. ^ "This Is My Beloved". LP Cover Archive. 30 September 2022. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Alfred Ryder". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  6. ^ Wetzsteon, Ross (May 30, 1995). "I Lost It At The Obies, A Chronicle of 40 Years of Off-Broadway". The Village Voice. Village Voice, LLC. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
  7. ^ "Milestones, Aug. 11, 1958". TIME. TIME USA, LLC. August 11, 1958. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
  8. ^ "Alfred Ryder to Play Hamlet". The New York Times. January 24, 1964. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  9. ^ Jones, Kenneth (May 22, 2000). "Robert Burr, American Actor Who Mastered Shakespeare, Dead at 78". Playbill. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  10. ^ Keach, Stacy (2013). All in All: An Actor's Life On and Off the Stage. Lyons Press. ISBN 9780762791453.
  11. ^ Grant, Lee (2014). I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir. Penguin. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-399-16930-4.
  12. ^ "RETURN OF RYDER AS HAMLET BLOCKED". The New York Times. June 25, 1964. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  13. ^ Seymour, Victor (1966). "Directors' Workshop: Six Years' Activity of the Actors Studio Directors Unit". Educational Theatre Journal. 18 (1): 12–26. doi:10.2307/3205115. JSTOR 3205115. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
  14. ^ Hans Georg Stern (1970). The Coordinator's Report on the ELT Project in Los Angeles (PDF) (Report). U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
  15. ^ Drake, Sylvie (September 2, 1973). "It's Magic Time Already In Illyria By The Freeway". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  16. ^ "A Hand For Sonny Blue". TV Maze. TVMaze.com. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
  17. ^ Cost, Jud (May 23, 2012). "Vintage Movies: "True Grit"". Magnet. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  18. ^ "Guests on Meeting of Minds". Steve Allen Online. SteveAllen.com. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
  19. ^ "Bogie (1980 TV Movie)". IMDb.com. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
  20. ^ Berkvist, Robert (August 21, 2001). "Kim Stanley, Reluctant but Gripping Broadway and Hollywood Actress, Dies at 76". The New York Times. p. C14. Archived from the original on April 27, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  21. ^ "Laurie Rachel Ryder Wed In Jersey to Peter E. Zahn". The New York Times. September 6, 1982. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  22. ^ "(no title given)". Motion Picture and Television Magazine. Ideal Publishers. November 1952. p. 33.
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