Sean Penn’s Mom Eileen Ryan Has Died

Actress Eileen Ryan, the mother of Sean Penn, died on Sunday. She was 94. Ryan, born Eileen Annucci, appeared in dozens of movies and television shows, including Parenthood, I Am Sam, The Twilight Zone, and Grey’s Anatomy.

Ryan died Sunday at her home in Malibu, her publicist told The Hollywood Reporter. She is also survived by composer-songwriter Michael Penn. Her youngest son, actor Chris Penn, died in 2006 at age 40 from heart disease.

Ryan was born in New York City on Oct. 16, 1927. She began her acting career on the stage in the early 1950s, making her Broadway debut in the 1953 production of Sing Till Tomorrow. In 1957, she married actor Leo Penn, who was blacklisted after refusing to talk to the House Un-American Activities Committee. They met while rehearsing for a production of The Iceman Cometh. Leo Penn died in September 1998 at age 77.

In 1955, Ryan made her television debut, with her first movie appearance coming two years later in Three in One. In 1960, she starred in the famous Twilight Zone episode “A World of Difference,” playing the hospital wife of a Hollywood actor played by Howard Duff. She went on to appear in dozens of other shows, sometimes playing different characters each time she guest starred. Her credits include The Detectives, The Asphalt Jungle, Bonanza, Tales of Wells Fargo, Cannon, Little House on the Prairie, and Matlock.

During the 1990s, she appeared in episodes of ER, NYPD Blue, and Ally McBeal. She also starred in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy in 2014 and Private Practice in 2011. Her last TV credit came in 2014 when she made an episode of Getting On.

Ryan also had small films in many of Penn’s movies. She can be seen in The Indian Runner, The Crossing Guard, I Am Sam, The Pledge, The Assassination of Richard Nixon, and All The King’s Men. Her last movie role came in 2016 when she appeared in Warren Beatty’s Rules Don’t Apply.

Penn, 62, started his own film career in 1981 when he starred in Taps, the same movie featuring Tom Cruise’s first major role. He has two Best Actor Oscars for his performances in Mystic River and Milk. He most recently appeared in Licorice Pizza, and his next film is Black Flies.