Meg Ryan has cemented her status as one of America’s favourite actresses by playing some of the most endearing romantic roles of the 80s and 90s.
This charming actress with a short blonde haircut will forever be remembered by audiences for iconic films like Sleepless in Seattle and Here’s a Letter for You.
Back then, it seemed that Ryan’s star would never fade, but the fact is that she disappeared from the big screen after 2018.
Today, the “girl next door” from the ’90s tries to stay out of the media spotlight, but recently, 61-year-old Meg made a red carpet appearance that caught the attention of…
I can’t be the only one who fell in love with Meg Ryan in the 80s and 90s. This blonde-haired, blue-eyed actress was the queen of romantic comedies, and not for nothing did she earn the title of ‘America’s favourite actress’.
Her star burned brightly for two decades when she was one of the most popular actresses in Hollywood.
But it was far from obvious that Meg Ryan would become world famous.
Meg was born in 1961 in Fairfield, Connecticut. Her father, Harry Hira, was of Polish descent and taught maths. Meg’s mother, Susan Jordan, was also a teacher, but had worked as an actress before that, so the stage was part of her family.
Changed her surname
However, her parents separated in 1976 when Meg was only 15 years old, and the relationship became strained. In fact, Meg severed ties with her mother after a series of events. She also decided to change her last name to ‘Ryan’, her grandmother’s last name, when she registered with the United States Actors Guild.
As a young girl, Meg chose to study journalism at the University of Connecticut and then at New York University. Her time in college changed her life, but perhaps not in the direction many expected.
Meg Ryan started her acting career by appearing in television commercials and soap operas to make some extra money. Suddenly, she landed a role in As the World Turns and many producers took notice of the talented young actress.
Ryan dropped out of college and decided to focus on a career in the entertainment industry. Her first notable success was her participation in the blockbuster Top Gun, where she played the colourful role of Carol Bradshaw – the wife of Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards).
This romantic action film became the highest-grossing film of 1986 and opened the door for Meg Ryan to more significant roles.
She also found love on the set of Top Gun. She began dating her film partner and on-screen husband, Anthony Edwards. The couple dated for a while and even moved in together.
Meeting Dennis Quaid
In 1987, Ryan starred in the science fiction film Innerspace, where she met her future husband, Dennis Quaid.
“She had already played a small role in Top Gun, as well as the lead in Armed and Dangerous with John Candy. But it was a significant step forward for her. Of course, that’s when she met Dennis and they later got married,” director Joe Dante told Cinema Retro.
Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid fell in love with each other at first sight and married on 14 February 1991.
‘It was like a lightning strike,’ Dennis recalled. – “We both felt, ‘This is it. We’re going to be together.'”
The marriage ceremony took place in a hotel room on Valentine’s Day. However, Ryan’s mother Ryan was not invited to the wedding.
‘I was laughing and crying at the same time,’ Meg told the New York Post. – And I realised I could never get married in front of a large group of people.”
Queen of Romantic Comedies
Her rise to fame peaked when she landed the lead role in the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally… In the film, Ryan played Sally Albright paired with Billy Crystal.
Although the film was received coolly by critics, it is now considered a cult classic of romantic comedies.
The film also cemented Meg Ryan’s title as the ‘queen of romcoms,’ a title she has carried through her career.
In 1993, Meg Ryan again teamed up with Tom Hanks in another successful romantic comedy – Sleepless in Seattle. The charming image of the ‘girl from the next yard’ again won the audience, and the actress’ performance received many positive reviews.
‘I think her “cuteness” sometimes prevents people from seeing how talented she really is as a comedic actress,’ said director Nora Ephron in an interview with Vanity Fair in 1995.
Tom Hanks also revealed some interesting facts about his partner, noting that in life she may not be at all like her characters in Nora Ephron’s films. Despite critics calling her ‘the soul of romantic comedies,’ Meg Ryan had a different character.
“Meg is not that upbeat at all. I always had a strong feeling that with this woman jokes bad,” – said the actor in 1995.
Curiously, the role of Annie Reed in Sleepless in Seattle got Ryan far from immediately. She was the sixth choice of producers – before her role was offered to Julia Roberts, Kim Basinger and Michelle Pfeiffer, but all of them refused.
More serious roles
After the success of Sleepless in Seattle, Meg Ryan turned down a role in the cult thriller Silence of the Lambs. Instead, she decided to focus on the genre that brought her fame – romantic comedies.
However, in 1996, the actress felt that she wanted to try herself in a different role. So, in the military drama Courage in Battle, Ryan played alongside Denzel Washington and Matt Damon, performing a much darker and serious role.
The film, released in 1996, was a box office hit, and at the time it seemed that Meg Ryan just doesn’t have failures.
The year 1998 became one of the most successful in her career. In the romantic drama City of Angels with Nicolas Cage, she again conquered the audience, and the film collected almost $ 200 million at the box office.
In the same year 1998, Meg Ryan received another role that became a landmark in her career, when she again teamed up with Tom Hanks in the film Here’s a letter to you. This film, set in an era when email and the internet were just beginning to enter our lives, is about two competitors who fall in love with each other after starting an email correspondence without knowing the real identity of the person they are talking to.
Meg received her third Golden Globe nomination for the role, and The New York Times wrote:
‘Ms Ryan plays her role with ease and conviction, while keeping it fresh, with a minimum of cute fidgeting and plenty of warm chemistry with Mr Hanks.’
It was the perfect way to end a golden decade for the actress!
However, if the 90s were a time of success for Meg Ryan, the 2000s were much more difficult for her. She started the new decade with several unsuccessful films, and her ‘know-it-all girl-next-door’ image came under criticism, while her personal life became the centre of public attention.
When she starred alongside Russell Crowe in Proof of Life, rumours of an affair between them began. At the same time, Meg and her husband Dennis Quaid announced their separation in 2000.
During this turbulent period in her personal life, Ryan was heavily criticised by the tabloids for rumouredly dating Russell Crowe while married. Her behaviour didn’t fit the public perception of her “girl next door” image, and of course the affair was a front page headline story.
Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe
Few people knew that her marriage to Dennis Quaid was broken long before the actress started dating Russell Crowe.
Their marriage was often portrayed as a fairytale of love, a perfect Hollywood union, but that was far from the truth.
“It was a great story. But what wasn’t part of that story was the reality of my marriage for nine years. Dennis wasn’t faithful to me for a long time, and that was very painful. I found out a lot of things after I got divorced,” Meg Ryan told InStyle Magazine in 2008.
According to Meg Ryan, her romance with Russell Crowe had nothing to do with her divorce from Dennis Quaid.
Meg Ryan explained that while Russell Crowe was present at the end of her marriage to Dennis Quaid, he was not the cause of the breakup. “I think he was hurt too, but Russell didn’t ruin our marriage. He was definitely there at the end, but it wasn’t his fault,” she said and continued:
“The public and the press didn’t get involved until later. The reasons for our breakup had nothing to do with a third person.”
Her ex-husband, Dennis Quaid, was certainly not thrilled with Meg’s comments years after their high-profile divorce.
‘It’s been eight years, and I find it hard to believe that Meg continues to publicly retell and rewrite the story of our relationship,’ he told the New York Daily News.
Although Meg Ryan called their relationship a ‘very unhealthy marriage,’ Dennis Quaid remembers their union with warmer feelings.
‘Of course I still love her,’ he told the Independent. – ‘I’m very attached to her and we had a lot of fun together. We had 13 good years. We had a child, we shared a lot: she made my life.”
Meg Ryan’s son
Although Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid have separated, they will always have a special bond because of their son.
Their son, Jack Quaid, was born in 1992, and now, at the age of 29, he has become an actor, following in his parents’ footsteps. Jack made his film debut in The Hunger Games and then went on to star in various TV series and films.
After her most turbulent period in life when she went through a high-profile divorce, Meg Ryan took a three-year break from her acting career. She decided to focus on her family, and it seems that she and her son Jack have a strong relationship. For example, in 2015, they worked together when Meg took on the role of director and directed Jack in the film Ithaca.
“I was lucky enough to grow up saying, “I want to be an actor,” and they understood that. I didn’t grow up in a family that didn’t understand what that meant or a family that would say, “That’s probably not the wisest choice, you should think about a backup plan,”” Jack told Insider in 2022.
Meg Ryan’s Daughter
In the mid-2000s, Meg Ryan was going through career difficulties, her star status beginning to fade. She focused more and more on her personal life and decided to expand her family.
As a single mom, she adopted a 14-month-old baby girl from China, whom she named Daisy, in 2006.
“I just really wanted a baby; I was determined to make a connection with someone, and Daisy and I met each other at that exact moment. We’re so compatible. And also, having had the experience of motherhood with Jack and now with Daisy, I can say there’s no difference in the love you feel,” Meg Ryan told Redbook in a 2007 interview.
Meg Ryan Today
Her last significant role was in 2008 when she starred in Women, a comedy-drama. After that, she stepped away from acting and did not appear on screens for some time.
As mentioned above, Meg tried her hand at directing in the film Ithaca, but it seems that wasn’t her calling. In recent years, the former ’90s star has only made sporadic appearances in films.
“I was no longer as curious about the acting profession as I was about other things that life had to offer. I wanted to live more,” she admitted in a 2019 interview with the New York Times, adding:
“I didn’t feel like a natural performer. I knew I was given opportunities and that there was certain music I could play as an actress. Certain things that I could do. And I loved acting. I thought it was fun. But acting was a situation I was in.”
Meg Ryan has been increasingly absent from red carpets, but still occasionally makes an appearance at gala premieres. She’s also active on Instagram, where she has more than 600,000 followers.
‘As with anything, if it’s too many, it becomes a problem,’ she told Instyle and continued: “But I love getting feedback – well, not from everyone [laughs] – but directly from people because it gives you a better understanding of the person. It’s never all black and white. No story is ever as simple as a headline.”
According to a source close to Meg, her return to film is possible. The source told OK! Magazine in 2020 that Ryan is ‘ready to conquer Hollywood again.’
Meg Ryan today is a woman who continues to strive to create something new and impress the world. While her popularity is unlikely to be what it was in the 90’s, she has certainly left an indelible mark in the hearts of all who have watched her wonderful films and romantic comedies.
Thanks for the memories and good luck in the future, Meg!
