Mark Ryan is an English actor, author, action director and voice actor.
Career
Mark Ryan did several major musicals in London's West End, spending four years in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita in the role of Magaldi and then playing Ché under the direction of Hal Prince. He went on to appear in a cameo in the film version of the musical directed by Alan Parker. He left Evita to play Mac in the classic SAS action film Who Dares Wins for director Ian Sharp.
He played the character of Nasir for the British TV series Robin of Sherwood on which he worked for three years, and has appeared in dozens of films and television series, both in the US and UK.
In 1986, he won critical acclaim for the title role in the musical Elmer Gantry at London's Gate Theatre and followed that with a national tour of the hit show Guys and Dolls, playing the part of Sky Masterson. He returned to the West End to play Neville Landless in the Tony Award-winning musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the same year recorded a duet with singer Tom Jones on his album Matador. He also appeared in the video to the Gary Moore single Over the Hills and Far Away from the Wild Frontier album.
In 1993, Mark toured Europe and Britain playing Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro and Leporello in Don Giovanni, both for Music Theatre, London directed by Nick Broadhurst, followed by a series of open air concert performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also an author and has written for DC Comics and Harper Collins as well as writing several screenplays. Ryan was also the co-creator, along with artist Chesca Potter, of the Greenwood Tarot - a variation on the standard tarot deck involving pre-historic European imagery.
In 1994, Mark was picked by swordmaster Bob Anderson to assist as sword coach to Richard Gere and Ben Cross in the film First Knight. Director Jerry Zucker also asked him to play John Challenger during the filming.
Before moving to Los Angeles in 1997 Ryan guest starred in many British TV shows such as: The Bill, Harry, Dempsey and Makepeace, Casualty and Peak Practice. He also appeared in films such as Doomsday Gun and Nil By Mouth.
While establishing himself in the US he guest-starred in such TV shows as Frasier, General Hospital, Conan the Adventurer, Passions, Nuremberg and Young and the Restless. He also worked as Fight Coordinator and Swordmaster on The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne and played Gordon in San Diego's Globe Theatre production of Neville's Island.
In 2000, Ryan played many US theatres with original Monty Python member Eric Idle, performing comedy roles in Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python at venues like New York’s famed Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. The team later recorded the show exclusively for the Comedy Channel. He then went on to play John Dickinson in the Los Angeles stage production of 1776 directed by Gordon Hunt.
He has also guest-starred in such TV shows as JAG, Real Time with Bill Marr and Alias (TV Series) and appeared in films such as Charlie's Angels (film), Convicted, The Thirst and The Prestige.
In 2003, Ryan worked as a swordmaster and fight director on the film King Arthur directed by Antoine Fuqua. His duties included consulting with the director and writer regarding designing all aspects of the knights fighting styles, training all the principal actors including Keira Knightley, Clive Owen and Stellan Skarsgård, planning and choreographing their action.
He began working on the 2007 film Transformers during filming as the on-set voice of several different robots. This work continued throughout filming and into editing, before the actual casting of voice-over talent. He was then cast as the voice of the character Bumblebee. Ryan also voices Ironhide and Hoist for the Activision video game based on the film. When Ryan was in the studio recording his lines for the actors on set, Michael Bay used the lines Ryan recorded for Bumblebee in the film. But Ryan didn't know that it would be used, and if so he said he would have used a different younger voice. He returned to voice Bumblebee as well as Jetfire for the sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and the Activision Game based on the film.
In late 2008, Ryan launched a musical adaptation of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, narrated by Ray Winstone. He composed, sang and produced the tracks with Robb Vallier who also worked on Spamalot. He also directed the video for the song "Women" filmed especially for the website and featuring Jenn Korbee, Jessica Keenan Wynn and Katie Boeck.
In November 2008, the online publisher ComicMix began running Ryan's The Pilgrim, a graphic novel inspired by factual events during the Second World War and concerning modern psychic warfare research and drawn by comic artist Mike Grell. It is believed that elements of the story are based on Ryan's experiences during his service in the Intelligence Corps and Special Forces community. In early 2009 ComicMix announced an agreement with IDW Publishing for hardcopy publishing rights of its online projects and IDW announced the publication of The Pilgrim commencing in April on 2010.
In early 2009, Ryan continued voice work on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen working directly with Michael Bay and Alex Kurtzman almost right up to the release of the film.
In mid-2009 Ryan also directed the teaser/trailer for Blood Type written by John Matthews and Wil Kinghan of Mythwood Films. The trailer was filmed on location at the Atlantis Bookshop in London and continued at the 12th-century estate of Prebendal, Thame, Oxfordshire. The promo trailer for the project was accepted into the BAFTA Members' Short Film Showcase for March 2010. He was also featured on the LCD Soundsystem video Pow Pow (song) directed by David Ayer.
During London Book Fair in April 2009, specialist publisher; Eddison-Sadd presented the Wildwood Tarot, based on the collector status: Greenwood Tarot authored by Ryan. The Wildwood Tarot is an updated and reworked version of Ryan's original tarot concept, co-written with John Matthews with artwork by illustrator, Will Worthington. Wildwood Tarot was launched at the Atlantis Bookstore in London in April 2011. Wildwood Tarot remained as the bestselling Tarot and Hottest Bestseller on Amazon.com during the spring of 2011 and has now been translated into German, Dutch, Italian and French. The Wildwood Tarot is published in the US by Sterling Publishing.
In May 2010 Ryan returned to work on Transformers: Dark of the Moon, once again as the onset voice of the Autobots. Work on this third Michael Bay Blockbuster continued at locations across the US and also at Kennedy Space Center - Cape Canaveral, Florida. The film was shot in 3D with post production voice-work carrying on into the spring of 2011. Ryan contributed several military lines to the final cut of Transformers: Dark of the Moon and was credited as "Military Drone Operator" on the DVD. Ryan also completed Bumblebee lines for the Universal Studios theme park ride based on the films in the autumn of 2011.
In late 2012 he recorded a cameo appearance in the NBC comedy show Community playing Constable Edmund, a new companion to Inspector Spacetime in an homage to BBC TV show Doctor Who. The show aired in early 2013.
In January Ryan began playing Mr. Gates in the Michael Bay/Starz production of the pirate show Black Sails.
In July 2013 Ryan returned to the Transformers franchise, voicing Lockdown in the fourth installment, Transformers: Age of Extinction. In 2014 the film broke worldwide records earning over $1.08 billion in box office receipts.
Filmography
Actor
Film
Television
Video games
Stunts
Miscellaneous crew
References
External links
- Official website
- Mark Ryan at the Internet Movie Database