Remembering Navy Vet Mitchell Ryan's 5 Greatest Hollywood Roles

Navy veteran Mitchell Ryan was one of those hard-working character actors who worked steadily over half a century without ever becoming a big-name star. Ryan died on March 4, 2022, at age 88 in Los Angeles, so it's time to take a look back at an impressively long career.

Ryan was born in Cincinnati in 1934 and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. After high school, he served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. He got his show-business start as a theater actor in Virginia and made his uncredited movie debut as a decoy driver in the classic 1958 car-chase thriller "Thunder Road," starring Robert Mitchum.

Even if you don't recognize his name, you've almost certainly seen Ryan in guest star roles on dozens of popular television shows, such as "The West Wing," "Murder She Wrote," "The Rockford Files," "Cannon," "Wings," "Walker, Texas Ranger," "Matlock," "The Golden Girls," "L.A. Law," "The A-Team," "Dallas," "Baretta," "Barnaby Jones," "The Streets of San Francisco" and "Naked City."

There were memorable movies like "Monte Walsh" with World War II Marine Corps veteran Lee Marvin (1970), "The Hunting Party" with Marine vet Gene Hackman (1971), "Chandler" with Marine vet Warren Oates (1971), "Two-Minute Warning" with WWII Army Air Force veteran Charlton Heston (1976), "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" (1995) and "Judge Dredd" (1995) with Sylvester Stallone. He even played Army veteran Hugh Hefner opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in the 1981 television movie, "Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story."

Related: 10 Hollywood Tough Guys Who Studied on the GI Bill

In a career packed with credits, here are Ryan's most memorable roles.

1. The General in "Lethal Weapon" (1987)

Navy veteran Richard Donner directed "Lethal Weapon," one of the most iconic action pictures of all time. Ryan plays retired Gen. Peter McAllister, who led a secret unit that operated out of Laos during the Vietnam War. Now he's dealing heroin in his post-military career, surrounding himself with henchmen who take orders like the good crime soldiers they are.

In the movie's best scene, the general orders Mr. Joshua (Gary Busey) to show just how loyal he is to the boss.

Related: 8 Fan Favorite Movies and Shows Made by Navy Veteran Richard Donner

2. Edward Montgomery in "Dharma & Greg" (1997-2002)

Ryan got to show his comedy chops on the ABC series "Dharma & Greg." For five seasons, he played Edward Montgomery, an uptight tycoon who was the father of lead character Greg Montgomery (Thomas Gibson).

Greg is a lawyer who married hippie girl Dharma (Jenna Elfman), and one of the show's running jokes was Edward's ongoing feud with Dharma's liberal father, Larry Finkelstein (Alan Rachins). After decades of roles on shows that usually didn't last more than one season, Ryan appeared in more than 100 episodes of "Dharma & Greg" and got those syndication residual checks for the rest of his life.

3. Officer Charlie McCoy in "Magnum Force" (1973)

Army veteran Clint Eastwood made a lasting cultural mark as San Francisco Police Department Det. "Dirty" Harry Callahan in a series of movies that showed him as the one cop who'd do anything to take out the urban criminal trash.

WWII Army veteran Ted Post directed Eastwood in the second film, "Magnum Force," in which Callahan confronts a conspiracy inside the SFPD that's just as criminal as the scum he usually arrests. Hal Holbrook (another WWII Army vet) plays one of the greatest movie villains ever.

Ryan has a role as policeman Charlie McCoy, Callahan's former partner, He's a cop who's going through a brutal divorce and fighting depression. After the rogue cops try to pin a murder on McCoy before gunning him down, Harry Callahan goes on a mission of vengeance on behalf of McCoy's memory.

4. Det. Harve Poole in "Electra Glide in Blue" (1973)

Ryan plays another law enforcement officer in one of the 1970s' weirdest action pictures. Robert Blake, the former child star and Army veteran, had a huge career boost after playing motorcycle cop John Wintergreen. As Det. Harve Poole, Ryan transfers Blake from traffic to homicide after Blake's character suspects that an apparent suicide was actually a murder.

The movie was produced, directed and featured a score by James William Guercio, the man who managed and produced the rock group Chicago. He cast several members of the band in supporting roles and shocked the world when his vanity project became something of a hit upon release. Guercio never directed another movie, and his only other Hollywood credit was as producer of the obscure 1980 Hal Ashby movie, "Second-Hand Hearts," with Blake as the star.

Blake landed the lead role in the television series "Baretta" based on this movie. He remembered his old friend, Mitch Ryan, and gave him a guest-starring role on the series.

5. Dave Drake in "High Plains Drifter" (1973)

Ryan turned 39 in 1973, and it was his peak career year. In "High Plains Drifter," the first western in which Clint Eastwood directed himself, Ryan played town leader Dave Drake. In addition to "Drifter," "Electra Glide" and "Magnum Force," 1973 also had Ryan playing a cop in Robert Mitchum's great '70s gangster movie "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," and starring as LAPD Capt. Chase Reddick in the NBC television series "Chase." "Chase" was programmed opposite "Maude" and "Hawaii 5-0," so it's not a surprise that it didn't get picked up for a second season.

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