Meg Ryan

Blond-haired, blue-eyed with a bubbly personality. Meg Ryan was born Margaret Mary Emily Hyra in Fairfield, Connecticut, to Susan (Duggan), the English teacher and actor as well as Harry Hyra, a math teacher. Meg Ryan is of Ruthenian, Polish, Irish, and German heritage ("Hyra" is a Ruthenian surname, and "Ryan" is the maiden name of her maternal grandmother). Meg graduated from Bethel high school, Bethel in June 1979. She moved to New York and majored as a journalist at New York University. Meg Ryan as her name change, started acting to make extra money as she finished her degree. In 1981, she made her big screen debut . She made a brief appearance as Candice Bergen's daughter in George Cukor's final film Rich and Famous (1981). She auditioned , and was named Betsy on the daytime TV soap"As the World turns (1956). The show starred her from 1982 until 1984. Meg also played a role in the show One of the Boys (1982) which, however, was later cancelled. Meg moved to Hollywood in 1984, and was offered an offer to appear on the western-themed television show Wildside (1985). Meg was a small part in Top Gun (1986), which led her to be cast in Steven Spielberg’s Innerspace (1987) in which she played alongside Dennis Quaid. Meg was also a co-star with Quaid in the remake of D.O.A. (1988) and the couple married on Saint Valentine's Day in 1991. Meg appeared in When Harry Met Sally... (1989), which made the scene in the restaurant famous. Meg was twice nominated for the Golden Globe and BAFTA. In 1990, she co-starred with Tom Hanks in Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and this time she played three roles as DeDe/Angelica/Patricia. In 1993, she appeared with Tom in Sleepless in Seattle (1993) for which she was again nominated for the Golden Globe. Meg decided to stand out from the crowd in 1994 by playing the character of Meg as a drunken mother/wife in When a Man Loves a Woman (1994). Then, she went back to her "cute" I.Q. (1994) and French Kiss (1995). People Magazine named Meg "Woman of the Year" in 1994, and she was awarded the Harvard Hasty Pudding Award.