Meg Ryan Biography And Filmography:

A leading competitor for the spot of America's Sweetheart since the late 1980s, this pretty, charming, and diminutive actress gained prominence with her first leading role in Rob Reiner's romantic comedy "When Harry Met Sally" (1989), alongside Billy Crystal. Meg Ryan's loud imitation of an orgasm in a New York City deli has been acknowledged as a modern comedy classic. The Connecticut born homecoming queen made her film debut at age twenty as Candice Bergen's daughter in "Rich and Famous" (1981) before turning to television projects. Meg Ryan played a disturbed young teen in "Amy and the Angel" (1982), and soap opera watchers welcomed Meg as Betsy Montgomery on "As the World Turns" (1982-84). After the premiere of "Charles in Charge" (1984) and the Western series "Wildside" (1985), Ryan pretty much left television for good.

First appearing in feature films with a small but brilliant role as Anthony Edwards' wife in Tony Scott's "Top Gun" (1986) with Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, Ryan went on to portray a member of the press in the Joe Dante sci-fi flick "Innerspace" (1987), next to Dennis Quaid, whom she later married. The new couple then starred in "D.O.A." (1988) about Dexter Cornell, an English Professor who becomes embroiled in a series of murders involving people around him. Meg Ryan won some positive attention for her out of the ordinary role as a hard-hitting, desperate wanderer in "Promised Land" (1988) with Kiefer Sutherland. This gritty drama follows two high school acquaintances, Hancock, a basketball star, and Danny, a geek turned drifter.  Next was the crime mystery "The Presidio" (1988) with Sean Connery.

Meg Ryan has worked with some of Hollywood's most captivating leading men in both comedies and dramas: playing multiple roles opposite Tom Hanks in "Joe Versus the Volcano" (1990) about a hypochondriac who learns that he is dying, and accepts an offer to throw himself in a volcano at a tropical island, and along the way there, learns to truly live. Ryan then appeared with Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison's common-law wife in "The Doors" (1991); and as Alec Baldwin's bride in "Prelude to a Kiss" (1992) about a couple who fall in love despite the girl's pessimistic outlook. Ryan the joined again with Tom Hanks as his long distance love interest in "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993) with Rosie O'Donnell and directed by Nora Ephron. The team reunited again with "You've Got Mail" (1998), an update of the 1940 classic "The Shop Around the Corner".

Meg Ryan then starred opposite Dennis Quaid in the moody Texas-set romance "Flesh and Bone" (1993) with Gwyneth Paltrow, and then opposite Andy Garcia in "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1994) about an airline pilot and his wife who are forced to face the consequences of her alcoholism when her addictions threaten her life and their daughter's safety. In Michael Hoffman's "Restoration" (1995), Meg Ryan took the central role as an Irish patient in a Quaker hospice who becomes romantically involved with a doctor (Robert Downey Jr.)   

Meg was better as the US Army captain whose actions during Operation Desert Storm come under investigation in "Courage Under Fire" (1996) with Matt Damon and Denzel Washington. Ryan then played a surgeon romanced by the perfect man in the form of Nicolas Cage in "City of Angels" and as a drug addicted belly dancer involved with a bad actor in "Hurlyburly" (1998).

After yet another role as a pretty romantic comedy lead with her male cute romantic comedy counterpart Tom Hanks in "You've Got Mail" (1998), Ryan next starred in the second-rate "Hanging Up" (2000) about a trio of sisters who bond over their ambivalence toward the approaching death of their curmudgeonly father, to whom none of them was particularly close. Also in 2000, Meg Ryan starred in the thriller "Proof of Life" with Russell Crowe. While the film was of no interest to theatergoers and critics alike, it spun-off the interesting love affair of Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe which would end in Ryan's eventual divorce from Dennis Quaid.

The year 2001 found Meg Ryan constantly in the gossip and tabloid pages following her highly publicized divorce with Russell Crowe in December of 2000. Reports of his unexpected conclusion to their passionate affair put Ryan in a rather embarrassing spotlight. Meg starred in the romantic comedy "Kate and Leopold" (2001) alongside Hugh Jackman and had a sexy, revamped post-breakup look on numerous magazine covers. 

Feeling her image as America's Adorable Sweetheart growing a bit worn (and her box office pull shrinking) Ryan relished the chance to take some chances with her choice of roles: she starred opposite Mark Ruffalo in the thriller "In the Cut" (2003) starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and directed by Jane Campion. In a role originally planned for Nicole Kidman who produced the film, Ryan reaches as a dark, isolated woman with dangerous tendencies, starting a potentially troubling relationship with a police detective following a brutal robbery. Meg Ryan then bared her body in controversial full frontal nude scenes. This was the first film Meg had appeared nude, and the public raced to theaters for a chance to see the sexy celebrity naked.

Ryan then appeared in "Against the Ropes" (2003), a fictional story inspired by North America's most famous female boxing promoter, Jackie Kallen and her struggle to survive and succeed in a male dominated sport. Next, the actress returned to comedy with "In the Land of Women" (2007) with Adam Brody, about Carter Webb, a young soft-core porn writer living in California, who has just broken up with by his actress girlfriend and decides to take a time out and visit his grandmother in Detroit, but the women across the street have a different idea. Meg started of the following year with gusto, being hired and cast in the comedy "The Deal" (2008), about a down-and-out film producer who agrees to make his nephew's film about 19th century English statesman Benjamin Disraeli.

Following next was the romantic comedy thriller "My Mom's New Boyfriend" (2008) starring Antonio Banderas, about a man, Henry Durand, who is a young federal agent given a difficult assignment: spy on his mother and her boyfriend who is suspected of leading a gang of art thieves. Meg was then cast in the independent dramatic comedy "The Women" (2008) starring Eva Mendes, about a wealthy New Yorker who leaves her cheating husband and bonds with other society women at a resort. A remake of George Cukor's 1939 film "The Women."

Meg Ryan wrapped her year with the comedy "Serious Moonlight" (2009) starring Kristen Bell and Justin Long, about a high-powered attorney who duct tapes her adulterous husband to the toilet ... right before their home is invaded by burglars.

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