Eileen Ryan Penn Husband: Who Is Leo Penn?

Eileen Ryan (born Eileen Annucci), was an American actress and widow of actor and director Leo Penn and they had three children; actors Sean Penn, Chris Penn , and singer Michael Penn.

For 41 years, Eileen was married to actor and director Leo Penn, whom she met in New York in 1957 at rehearsals for the play “The Iceman Cometh.”

The pair remained married until Leo’s death in 1998.

A life member of The Actors Studio, Leo won the Theatre World Award in 1954 for his performance in the play The Girl on the Via Flaminia.

Until his death, he acted in numerous movies;

• In 1956, he was cast as Mr. Rico in the episode “Ringside Padre” of the religion anthology series, Crossroads.
• In 1957, he appeared in the episode “One If by Sea” of the military drama series, Navy Log.
• He was also cast in an episode of Beverly Garland’s 1957-1958 groundbreaking crime drama, Decoy. In 1960, he played Cavage in “The Poker Fiend” on Richard Boone’s CBS western series, Have Gun – Will Travel.
• In 1961, he was cast as Tiko in the episode “The World Is Her Oyster” of the ABC adventure series, The Islanders, set in the South Pacific, and appeared in an episode of the ABC crime drama The Asphalt Jungle.
• He also appeared in another ABC adventure series, Straightaway, which focuses on automobile racing.
• On March 3, 1961, he co-starred with Peter Falk and Joyce Van Patten in the episode “Cold Turkey” of the ABC legal drama series, The Law and Mr. Jones starring James Whitmore.
• In the 1961-1962 television season, he acted in the CBS crime drama Checkmate in the episode The Button-Down Break and starred as Jerry Green in Gertrude Berg’s CBS’s sitcom Mrs. G. Goes to College renamed at mid-season as The Gertrude Berg Show.

He also worked as a director for many television series, including;

• I Spy,
• Lost in Space,
• Cannon,
• Star Trek,
• Blue Light,
• Custer,
• Little House on the Prairie,
• Columbo,
• Hawaii Five-O,
• Trapper John, M.D.,
• Hart To Hart,
• Magnum, P.I. and
• Father Murphy.

Sadly, he died of lung cancer in Santa Monica, California, on September 5, 1998, at the age of 77, and was interred at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.