Meg Ryan cemented her place among America’s sweethearts with some of the most glamorous romantic roles of the ’80s and ’90s.
The glamorous actress with her shaggy blonde haircut will forever be remembered for cult films such as Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail. At the time, there were no signs that Ryan’s star would disappear, but it’s also true that she has completely disappeared from screens since 2018.
These days, the presence of the woman who lived next door to her in the ’90s has faded into obscurity, but Ryan, now 60, recently walked her red carpet and raised her eyebrows…
I’m sure I’m not the only one who admired Meg Ryan in the 80’s and 90’s. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty is the queen of romantic comedies, and it’s no wonder she earned the nickname “America’s Sweetheart.”
Her star was blazing hot in her 20 years, when she was one of Hollywood’s most respected actresses.
However, it was never obvious that Meg Ryan would become famous around the world. Ryan was born in 1961 and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut.
His father, Harry Kyra, was of Polish descent and worked as a mathematics teacher. Ryan’s mother, Susan Jordan, was also a teacher, but previously worked as an actress, so of course performing on stage was a family tradition.
Renamed
However, her parents divorced in 1976, when Meg was only 15, and her relationship with them became strained. In fact, Meg ended her relationship with her mother after a series of events.
She also decided to change her last name to “Ryan”, her grandmother’s maiden name, when registering with her Screen Actors Guild. As a young woman, Ryan decided to study journalism at the University of Connecticut and then New York University.
A college education changed his life, but perhaps not in the way many believed. Meg Ryan began appearing in television commercials and soap operas to earn extra money. Unexpectedly, she got her role in the film “As the World Changes” and many producers heard about the talented young actress.
Ryan dropped out of college and began his career in the entertainment industry. She got her little break with her glamorous role as Carol Bradshaw, wife of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), in her blockbuster hit Top Gun. This romantic action film became the highest-grossing film of 1986 and helped Meg Ryan land bigger roles.
She also found her love on the set of Top Gun. She started dating her co-star and on-screen husband, Anthony Edwards. The couple dated for a while and even lived together.
In 1987, Ryan appeared in the science fiction film Innerspace with her future husband Dennis Quaid.
“She had already been in “Top Gun” but in a small part. She also had the lead in a picture called “Armed and Dangerous” with John Candy that had come out recently. But this was a great step up for her and of course, she was introduced to Dennis and later they got married,” the director, Joe Dante, told Cinema Retro.
Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid fell in love immediately and tied the knot on February 14, 1991.
“It was like a thunderbolt,” Dennis said. “Both of us felt, ‘This is it. We’re going to be together.’”
The ceremony was held in the couple’s hotel room, on Valentine’s Day. Ryan’s mother was excluded from the wedding.
“I was laughing and crying at the same time,” she told the New York Post and continued: “And I realized I could’ve never gotten married in front of a whole group of people.”
Queen of rom-coms
Her rise to stardom catapulted when she got the lead role in the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally … Ryan portrayed Sally Albright played alongside Billy Cristal. The film wasn’t a hit among critics, but today it’s regarded as a cult rom-com classic.
The movie would also lay the foundation for Meg Ryan’s unthreatening place as the queen of rom-coms.
In 1993, Meg Ryan teamed up with Tom Hanks in another romantic comedy success – Sleepless in Seattle. Once again, the cutesy “girl-next-door” captivated the cinema audience and was praised for her performance.
“I think her ‘cuteness’ sometimes blinds people to how genuinely gifted she is as a comic actress,” the famous director of Nora Ephron told Vanity Fair in 1995.
Tom Hanks also revealed things about his co-star, claiming that Meg Ryan could be pretty far from her characters in Nora Ephron’s movies. Even though critics dubbed her “the current soul of the romantic comedy,” Meg had other sides as well.
“Meg is not perky, I always got the distinct impression that this woman is not to be messed around with,” the well-known actor said in 1995.
It was never clear whether she would play Annie Reed in Sleepless in Seattle. In fact, she was the sixth choice, and the role was offered to Julia Roberts, Kim Basinger, and Michelle Pfeiffer, but they turned it down. dark role
After the success of Sleepless in Seattle,'' Meg Ryan declined to appear in her famous movieThe Silence of the Lambs.” Instead, she focused on what brought her her own success. Love comedy. But in 1996, the actress wanted to try another role.
Thus, in the war drama Courage Under Fire, Meg Ryan starred in a darker role alongside Denzel Washington and Matt Damon. The film, released in 1996, was a box office success, and at the time it seemed impossible for Ryan to fail.
His success story continued in his 1998, one of the best years of his career. Co-starring with Nicolas Cage in the romantic comedy “City of Angels” enabled further box office success. Meg Ryan once again received critical acclaim, and the film grossed around $200 million.
That same year, she played a career-defining role in You’ve Got Mail, which reunited her with Tom Hanks. The film is set in a time when email and the internet have permeated our lives.
The story is about two rivals who start writing emails and falling in love without knowing each other’s true identities. Meg received her third Golden Globe nomination for this film, and the New York Times wrote:
“Ms. Ryan plays her role blithely and credibly this time, with an air of freshness, a minimum of cute fidgeting, and a lot of fond chemistry with Mr. Hanks.”
Talk about a perfect way to close out a golden decade for the actress!
But if the 90s were a decade of success, the 2000s were a much more difficult time for the actress. She started her new decade with some failures, and there was a lot of drama in this good American girl’s personal life.
Rumors of a relationship began to circulate when she co-starred with Russell Crowe in the movie Proof of Life. At the same time, Ryan and her husband announced their separation in 2000.
During this turbulent period in her personal life, tabloids shocked Ryan by criticizing her affair with Russell Crowe while they were married. Naturally, this incident made headlines because his actions did not match public opinion of his beloved neighbor.
Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe
What many people didn’t know was that Ryan and Dennis Quaid’s marriage was falling apart even before the actress started dating Russell Crowe.
Their marriage was often described as a fairy tale of love or a perfect Hollywood marriage, but in reality it was anything but.
“It was a great story. But what wasn’t in the story was the reality of my marriage for nine years. Dennis was not faithful to me for a long time, and that was very painful. I found out more about that once I was divorced,” Meg Ryan told InStyle Magazine in 2008.
According to Meg Ryan, dating her Proof of Life co-star had nothing to with her divorce to Dennis Quaid.
“I think he took a big hit, but Russell didn’t break up the marriage. He was definitely there at the end, but it wasn’t his fault,” Ryan explained and continued:
“The public and the press tuned in way after. The reasons we broke up have nothing to do with another person,” she said.
For obvious reasons, her ex-husband wasn’t pleased with Ryan’s comments years after their high-profile divorce.
“It was eight years ago, and I find it unbelievable that Meg continues publicly to rehash and rewrite the story of our relationship,” he told the New York Daily News.
While Meg Ryan called their relationship a “very unhealthy marriage,” Dennis Quaid has more fond memories of their union.
“Sure, I still love her,” Quaid told Independent. “I’m very fond of her, and we have a lot of fun. We spent 13 good years together. We had a kid together, and we shared so much: she made my life.”
Meg Ryan’s son
Even if Ryan and Quaid went their separate ways, they would always have a special bond because of their son.
Their son, Jack Quaid, was born in 1992, and the now 29-year-old actor has followed in his parents’ footsteps. Jack made his debut in the movie The Hunger Games, and after that, he has appeared in many TV series and films over the years.
When Meg Ryan experienced the most turbulent period in her life, she took a three-year pause from acting after the highly publicized divorce. She wanted to focus on her family, and it seems like she has a solid bond with her son.
For example, they worked together in 2015 when Meg took a step behind the camera and directed Jack in the movie Ithaca.
“It’s lucky that I got to grow up saying, ‘Hey, I want to be an actor’ and they understood that. I didn’t grow up in a house that didn’t quite understand what that meant or a house that would tell me, ‘Oh that probably isn’t the wisest choice, you should have a backup plan,’” Jack told Insider in 2022.
Meg Ryan daughter
In the mid-’00s, Meg Ryan saw a few career setbacks, and her star status had begun to decline. She focused more and more on her personal life and decided to expand her family.
As a single mother, she adopted a 14-month-old baby girl from China. She was named Daisy and welcomed her to the family in 2006.
“I just really wanted a baby; I was on a mission to connect with somebody, and Daisy and I got to meet each other this way at this time. We are so compatible. And also having the experience of having had Jack and now to have Daisy in a different way — there’s no difference in the love you feel,” Ryan told Redbook magazine in 2007.
Meg Ryan’s last significant role came in 2008, when she starred in The Women, a comedy-drama. After that, she stepped away from acting and remained out of the spotlight for a while.
As mentioned, she tried her hand at directing in Ithaca, but it seemed like it wasn’t her cup of tea. Over the last several years, the former all-American girl and mega star has only made minor acting appearances.
“I wasn’t as curious about acting as I was about other things that life can give you. I wanted to live more,” she told New York Times in 2019 and continued:
“I don’t feel like, naturally, I’m a performer. I knew I was being given opportunities and that there was certain music I could play as an actor. Certain things I could do. And I liked acting. I thought it was fun. But acting was a situation I was navigating.”
Meg Ryan today
Of course, many have wondered what has happened to Meg Ryan in recent years because she does not appear on the white screen as often.
In my world, Meg Ryan looks the same as when she broke through in Hollywood; her face is so associated with those beautiful romantic comedies she made.
So maybe that’s why I was a little surprised when I saw her today. But of course, actresses also age. Meg Ryan has turned 60 – which you obviously can see in newer pictures of her. But she is still gorgeous and an incredibly talented woman.
Today now tries to write romantic comedies, and she also helps produce a show for NBC.
“I’m also teeing myself up to direct, and I’m working on a fun e-commerce project with some of my friends,” the former actress said in 2019.
As a result, she is not seen as often on the red carpet, but now and then, Meg Ryan appears during gala premieres.
She is also active on Instagram, where she has over 600,000 followers.
“Like anything if it’s overindulged, then it’s a problem”, Meg Ryan Ryan told Instyle and explained: “But I appreciate hearing from—well, not everyone [laughs]—but hearing directly from people, because it allows for more of a complexity in the understanding of a person. It’s never black and white. No story is ever as simple as a headline.”
According to a source close to Meg Ryan, a comeback on the movie scene is not inconceivable. The source told OK! Magazine in 2020 that Ryan is “ready to conquer Hollywood once again.”
It’s incredible to see Meg Ryan today and see that she still seems to have the desire to create and make an impression on the world.
Maybe she will never be as huge as in the 90s, but she has definitely made an ever-lasting impression on all of us who saw her fantastic films and rom-coms.
Thanks for all the memories and good luck in the future, Meg!
