Sheila Ryan died at the age of 59 following a battle with illness. Larry Geller and Kathy Westmoreland have confirmed this heartbreaking news.
Sheila, who appeared on the Playboy cover in October 1973, married James Caan in 1976.
When she first began acting, she was given the name Bettie McLaughlin by 20th Century Fox. The following year, she took on Sheila Ryan and appeared in the murder drama Dressed to Kill.
She also starred in several other noteworthy movies, such as the Busby Berkeley musical The Gang’s All Here, Great Guns, and A-Haunting We Will Go, starring Laurel and Hardy.
Additionally, Ryan appeared in several mysteries by Michael Shayne and Charlie Chan. Her career began to deteriorate by the late 1940s, and she started to feature in essentially B movies, particularly low-budget westerns.
She collaborated with Gene Autry, appearing beside him in Mule Train and The Cowboys and the Indians and in movies starring Roy Rogers like Song of Texas.
Also, she had appearances in a number of television shows, including The Lone Ranger, particularly in the Pete and Pedro episode and another from 1950 called “The Whimsical Bandit.”
In 1968, Ryan hung up her acting career.
