The Real Reason We Don’t See Meg Ryan In Movies Anymore

Back in the '80s and '90s, Meg Ryan was everywhere. This actress was America's sweetheart. We fell in love with her in rom-com after rom-com. It seemed like this woman could do no wrong. Then a series of events unfolded from which Meg Ryan just couldn't recover.

This is a tale of infidelity, bad choices, public ridicule, and the importance of resilience. The story of Meg Ryan's career (or now lack thereof) is one we can all learn from. Keep reading to discover what really happened to this once-beloved icon.

She Started Her Career As A Soap Star

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Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures

From 1982 to 1984, Meg Ryan had a reoccurring role on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns. Ryan played Betsy Stewart Andropoulos.

It wasn't long before Ryan started turning her attention to even larger projects. In 1986, she played Carole Bradshaw in Top Gun. It wasn't a huge role, but Meg Ryan's talent shone through. Producers quickly pegged her as an actress to keep their eyes on. Her ability to stand out in such a successful film made everybody take notice.

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Top Gun Was Just The Beginning

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Warner Bros.
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After Top Gun, Meg Ryan started landing movie role after movie role. She starred in at least one movie per year after that until the end of the '80s. She was in Innerspace in 1987, D.O.A. and The Presidio in 1988. Now we know her as the rom-com queen, but she actually got her start in comedy movies.

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While working on Innerspace, Meg met her future husband, Dennis Quaid. She and Quaid started dating and her star power started rising.

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Of Course, We're Going To Talk About "That" Scene

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Columbia Pictures
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In 1989, Meg Ryan starred in When Harry Met Sally... alongside Billy Crystal. Many movie buffs still consider this film to be the greatest romantic comedy of all time. Who could forget that infamous scene in Katz's Delicatessen?

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After When Harry Met Sally..., Meg Ryan became the go-to girl for rom-coms. She was pretty, funny, and relatable— the holy trifecta. Ryan won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Sally Albright in that iconic film.

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How Ryan Became America's Sweetheart

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Sony Pictures
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Ryan was so effervescent and likable in When Harry Met Sally... that Nora Ephron actually dubbed her "America's Sweetheart," and Nora Ephron knew a thing or two about romantic comedies. In 1993, Ryan starred in Sleepless in Seattle alongside Tom Hanks. If we didn't see her as America's sweetheart before, this movie certainly drove that point home.

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In 1994, Ryan started taking on more serious roles. That year she starred in When a Man Loves A Woman. Her versatility only added to her popularity. Also, that same year, People magazine named her one of "The 50 Most Beautiful People in the World."

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Meg Ryan Was Made For Romance

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Even though she could take on dramatic roles, romance was definitely her forte. In 1998, she reached her peak with City of Angels, a film she starred in with Nicolas Cage. That movie grossed nearly $200 million at the box office. Critic Roger Ebert said, "Meg Ryan is so sunny and persuasive... This is one of her best performances."

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Next, Ryan starred in You've Got Mail which made just over $250 million at the box office. She and Tom Hanks again proved that they had some insane on-screen chemistry.

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The 2000s Weren't Kind To Her

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Photo: Columbia/Tristar
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Meg Ryan's career pretty much ended in the '90s. For some reason, after a hugely successful year in 1998, Ryan wouldn't appear on screen again until 2000. She teamed up with Nora Ephron for a movie called Hanging Up. Unfortunately, that film was a critical and commercial flop.

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It was a comedy-drama about three sisters who bond over their father's death. The concept didn't sit well with audiences, even though Ryan delivered a solid performance.

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One Bad Movie After Another

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Photo: Warner Brothers/Getty Images
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After Hanging Up, Meg Ryan starred in Proof of Life, an action thriller co-starring Russell Crowe. Critics hated this movie, and this time, they actually had some pretty harsh things to say about Ryan's performance.

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Steven Holden of The New York Times wrote: "What ultimately sinks this stylish but heartless film is a flat lead performance by the eternally snippy Meg Ryan... Ms. Ryan expresses no inner conflict, nor much of anything else beyond a mounting tension."

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What Happened To That On-Screen Chemistry?

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Photo: Frank Connor/Newsmakers
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Meg Ryan was able to stir up on on-screen sparks with Tom Hanks and Billy Crystal in the '80s, but she and Russell Crowe just weren't convincing as on-screen

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Newsweek's David Ansen wrote, "[Neither] Crowe, Ryan nor the topical subject keeps 'Proof of Life' from feeling recycled." Ironically, Ryan and Crowe had plenty of chemistry behind the scenes. In fact, it was the off-screen relationship between Ryan and Crowe that dealt the final blow to Meg Ryan's career.

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An Illicit Affair Tainted America's Sweetheart

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Photo: Warner Brothers/Getty Images
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Meg Ryan was still married to Dennis Quaid while she was working on Proof of Life. During filming, she and Russell Crowe started acting like more than co-sars. Rumors about an affair started floating around.

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In 2001, Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid got divorced. The public blamed Ryan for the split, especially because she began a public relationship with Crowe after her first marriage ended. The illusion of her "America's sweetheart" image was totally shattered.

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One Last Moderately Successful Film

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Photo: James Scott/Getty Images
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Proof of Life didn' do very well a the box office at all, but in 2001, Ryan starred in Kate & Leopold with Hugh Jackman. In that film, Jackman plays a 19th-century British Duke travels through time to the present day and falls in love with Ryan's character, Kate.

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The film opened to mixed reviews, but it was clear that Ryan performed better in this film than any movie she was in post-1998. Kate & Leopold only grossed $70 million, which is nothing compared to what Meg Ryan's movies used to make.

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Meg Made Some Bad Movie Choices

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Photo: James Devaney/WireImage
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In the early 2000s, Meg's star power was beginning to fade. She tried to branch out of the romantic comedy genre with a movie called In the Cut in 2003. In 2004, she starred in Against the Ropes. Neither movie was very well received.

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Ryan took a break from acting for a few years and returned to Hollywood in 2007 with In the Land of Women. The Los Angeles Times called the film, "the best work [she] has done in forever."

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A Straight To DVD Situation

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Photo: Jemal Countess/WireImage
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For a minute there, it looked like Ryan's career was going to see a resurgence. Then she starred in a bunch of other mediocre (at best) movies. In 2008, she acted in The Deal opposite William H. Macy. It was so bad that no studios wanted to release it, so it was released straight-to-DVD.

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The same thing happened with her 2006 movie, My Mom's New Boyfriend. Meg Ryan was once an extremely sought after A-list actress, and now her movies were unsellable.

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A Move From Hollywood To New York

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Photo: Marcel Thomas/FilmMagic/Getty Images
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Meg decided to move to New York City to raise her children away from the Hollywood environment. She continued to act, but her career may have suffered even more because she left the movie capital of the world.

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Meg had just been through a messy divorce, and she needed a change of scenery. "[Living in New York] makes you different... Los Angeles is just about movies. New York is about so much more than that, and so is Meg," friend Delia Ephron once told People.

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She Never Felt Like Her Innocent Image Suited Her

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Photo: Bob Grant/Fotos International/Getty Images
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Even though Nora Ephron called Meg Ryan "America's Sweetheart," Meg never really identified with that moniker. Ryan once said, "It felt... like ideas were being projected onto me that had nothing to do with me."

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After all of the drama with her affair and her divorce, Ryan was ready for a more low profile life. She confessed, "I didn't have to care what people thought. I have gotten to do what I guess I secretly wanted to do. Be totally under the radar and live my life."

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A Literal Change Of Face

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Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
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Meg Ryan mostly stayed out of the spotlight in the later 2000s and the 2010s. In 2016, she presented an award at the Tony Awards, and people were shocked to see how much her face had changed over the years.

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Tabloids started speculating that she had had work done. People were talking about botox and lip fillers and cheek implants. Ryan has never responded to the rumors, so we'll never know exactly what happened to her face.

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Her Complicated Relationship With Dennis Quaid

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Even though Meg never talked to the press about her plastic surgery, she did publically address the rumors surrounding her marriage to Dennis Quaid. These two had been married for three years before they separated in 2000.

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The actress told Us Weekly, "Dennis was not faithful to me for a very long time, and that was very painful. I found out more about that after I was divorced... [But] I am not a victim. I was there. I was in that marriage for a really long time... The tabloid culture can't tell a complicated story."

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She Couldn't Get A Job On Television

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Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Bentonville Film Festival
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After she realized that her movie career was going down the drain, Meg Ryan decided to return to television. In 2013, it was rumored that she was going to star in a new NBC comedy about an editor in New York. Unfortunately, that project never made it past the pilot stage.

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In 2014, Ryan was supposed to voice the narrator in How I Met Your Dad, a spin-off of How I Met Your Mother, but with a female lead. That project never made it off the ground either.

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She's Not Good At Being Famous

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There's no way that Meg Ryan could have ever achieved fame in this social media driven landscape. Ryan confessed to Vanity Fair, "I am a terrible celebrity."

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She continued, "If I started my career today, I wouldn't have a chance. It's a totally different experience. Social media has changed things... I couldn't handle the constant attention and the judging—but some aspects of social media are wonderful. People can speak directly to their audience, and they don't have to get interpreted."

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She Doesn't Like Being Famous

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Meg Ryan prefers a private life over the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. She's dealt with so much drama in her life that now she's just ready to stay under the radar.

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She told Vanity Fair how much she enjoys her life in New York: "I don't feel like I have quotes around myself and labeled as a celebrity when I'm walking around during the day. I can be myself." Even though Ryan likes her privacy, she still enjoys acting.

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Meg Ryan's Directorial Debut

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Photo: Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
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A career behind the camera allows for more privacy than a career on camera. In 2015, Meg Ryan made her directorial debut with Ithaca, a drama based on the 1943 novel The Human Comedy.

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She couldn't fight that acting bug, though. She also starred in the film alongside her son, Jack Quaid, and her former co-star, Tom Hanks. Meg said that she may have found her new calling: "Once you do it, you get the bug... I like the behind-the-scenes thing. I really do. Acting for a while was really fun and it still is—but directing is something even more."

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She Could Have Starred In Pretty Woman

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Julia Roberts plays a prostitute in Pretty Woman, which is not exactly a role you would call "safe," but Ryan was so determined to shed her "America's sweetheart" image that she turned down the lead role in this film. Apparently, it wasn't risky or different enough for her. Ryan wanted to take on grittier, more serious roles.

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This move actually ended up doing more harm than good to Ryan's career. Julia Robert's career took off after Pretty Woman and Meg Ryan's definitely stalled.

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Plastic Surgery Wasn't Doing Her Any Favors

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Photo Credit: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic via Getty Images
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It's hard to age as a woman in Hollywood. There is so much pressure to stay looking as young as possible. As Meg Ryan got older, rumors began to circulate that she was "fixing" herself with plastic surgery.

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We still don't know if the rumors are true— but let's face it, lips don't get that suddenly full without the help of a little bit of botox. All of those cosmetic procedures made it more difficult for Meg to move her face and be expressive— both very important things for an actress.

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She Tried To Escape Hollywood Culture

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Even before moving to New York to raise her family there, Ryan escaped to New York to evade what she deemed to be the toxic culture of Hollywood. Ryan had spent four decades on the West coast, and she knew it was time for a change.

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New York was the perfect antidote to the Hollywood environment. Delia Ephron, one of Ryan's close friends, said, "Los Angeles is just about movies. New York is about so much more than that, and so is Meg."

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Ryan Isn't Even Her Real Last Name

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Photo Credit: JOHN MOTTERN/AFP/Getty Images
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Meg Ryan was born Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra in 1961. Her father's last name wasn't "Ryan." His name was Harry Hrya, and he was a math teacher in Connecticut. The last name Ryan comes from Meg's maternal grandmother's maiden name.

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When Meg registered with the Screen Actors Guild, she chose to go by a name that was easier to pronounce than her traditional Polish surname. Many actors and actresses change their names when they enter the movie business.

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She Once Appeared In A Burger King Commercial

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Photo Credit: Ron Galella/WireImage via Getty Images
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Before Meg Ryan made it big, she was just a struggling actress trying to make ends meet. At the time, she got an acting gig in a Burger King commercial. In the ad, a young Meg Ryan seems very excited about a new deal at the fast-food restaurant.

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The year was 1982, and Meg Ryan was starting to gain momentum in the advertising industry. The same year, she also starred in a toothpaste commercial. She starred in a commercial for MTV in 1987.

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There's A Haircut Named After Her

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Photo Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage via Getty Images
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The '80s and '90s saw a lot of iconic haircuts. Of course, Jennifer Aniston popularized "the Rachel," but do you remember "the Meg?" "The Meg" is a short, almost bob haircut that's curled at the ends.

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This hairstyle was created by Sally Hershberger for Ryan's role in French Kiss. Ryan was supposed to look like a tourist, "stranded in Paris without luggage, money or a place to live, so it was a stretch to think she had much opportunity to shampoo.”

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Meg Ryan's Son Is Also An Actor

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Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid had one child together before they separated. Their son, Jack Quaid, was born in 1992. He caught the acting bug just like his famous parents. Meg Ryan had to struggle for years and do silly commercials before she made it big, but Jack was born with some pretty sweet connections.

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Jack landed the role of Marvel in The Hunger Games, very likely due to his famous parents' position in Hollywood. This kid has been building quite the career though. He recently appeared in Rampage with Dwayne Johnson and Logan Lucky with Daniel Craig.

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She's Still A Woman Of Influence

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Photo Credit: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Kelly Hoppen
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Even though her career in Hollywood has dwindled since the '90s, Meg Ryan still has a lot of power and influence. According to Premiere in 2016, Meg Ryan was the 57th most powerful people in Hollywood. Her place on this list is due to her behind the camera work.

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Meg Ryan has been able to expand her talents and work as a producer as well as a director. People haven't forgotten her star power, and people are still watching her older films.

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She And Tom Hanks Are Friends In Real Life

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Photo Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage via Getty Images
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Even though Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks have played love interests on screen many times, these two have never dated. They have become quite close friends over the years, though. They first worked together in 1990 on the film Joe Vs. The Volcano. They've never really stopped working together, and in 2016, they starred in Ithaca together, a film that Ryan directed.

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Tom Hanks is endlessly supportive of his friend. We hope that these two hang out when Hanks is in New York City.

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Her Brother Became A Successful Musician

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Photo Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage via Getty Images
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Meg Ryan has three siblings— two sisters and one brother. Her brother, Andrew Hyra, is also a performer. He was a member of the folk duo Billy Pilgrim from 1991 to 2001. The name of the duo comes from the main character in the Kurt Vonnegut novel Slaughterhouse-Five.

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The pair behind Billy Pilgrim went their separate ways in 2001, but in 2016, they reunited for a Thanksgiving show in Decatur, Georgia. They may be older now, but they still know their way around a guitar.

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Meg Ryan Never Finished College

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Photo Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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Meg Ryan had just one semester left of college when she dropped out to pursue an acting career. At the time, Meg was already getting regular acting roles, and she didn't need college to help further her career.

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When she left college, she had already begun appearing on the soap opera As The World Turns. It wouldn't be long before she would get that now-famous part in When Harry Met Sally... We think Meg definitely made the right decision.

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Joe Versus The Volcano Wasn't An Instant Success

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Photo Credit: Warner Brothers
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Joe Versus The Volcano has managed to gain popularity in the years following its release, but back when it came out in 1990, it looked like the movie was a huge failure. This movie didn't do nearly as well as When Harry Met Sally...

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Luckily for Ryan, Sleepless In Seattle put her career back on track. That movie was released in the same year as Jurassic Park and it was still able to draw in audiences at the cinema.

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Ryan Dated John Mellencamp After Things Ended With Crowe

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Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images
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Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan had a rocky relationship, which was to be expected given that it started out as an affair. After Crowe and Ryan broke up, Ryan stared dating rock star John Mellencamp. These two were in a relationship for four whole years.

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Mellencamp's 18-year marriage had just ended, and Ryan's marriage had recently ended, and these two found comfort in each other. It wasn't made to last, but we're sure it was fun while it lasted.

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Oh Wait, They're Back On Again?

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Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images
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Well, just when it looked like things were over between Meg Ryan and John Mellencamp, these two rekindled their romance. The pair broke up in 2014 but then got back together in 2017. As far as we know, these two are still together today.

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There are rumors that the couple is planning to get married on the East coast. Ryan has denied the rumors, but we wouldn't be surprised if one day the just announce that they're actually already married.

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Her First Marriage Wasn't An Honest One

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Photo Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage via Getty Images
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Before Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid got married, Quaid promised that he would quit drugs. Ryan wouldn't have married him otherwise.

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Dennis followed through with his promise, and he hasn't touched cocaine in years. Even though Meg and Dennis are no longer married, Dennis is still keeping his promise. Meg Ryan might be the reason that Quaid is alive and functional today. If they had never gotten married, Quaid may never have kicked his drug habit.

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Could Ryan Be Returning For Top Gun 2?

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Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures/Archive Photos/Getty Images
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It's been over 30 years since the first Top Gun movie came out. Recently, a sequel titled Maverick has been announced. So far, we know very little about the project. We do know that the story will involve the son of Goose, whose mother was played by Meg Ryan.

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We still don't know if Ryan will appear in the film or if she had any interest in being in a Top Gun sequel. At this point, we can only hope.

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Meg Ryan Could Have Been In Silence Of The Lambs

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Photo Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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Pretty Woman wasn't the only major film that Meg Ryan passed on. She decided not to act in two other movies that went on to become huge successes. One of those movies is Ghost, the other is Silence of the Lambs.

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Now we can't imagine anybody but Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, but can't you sort of see Meg Ryan as Demi Moore's character in Ghost? Jodie Foster won an Oscar for her work in Silence of the Lambs. Ryan has never been nominated for an Oscar.

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She Took Up Boxing For A Part

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Photo Credit: Giulio Marcocchi/Getty Images
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During Meg Ryan's dry spell in the 2000s, she starred in a boxing drama called Against the Ropes. Ryan actually learned how to box so that her character would feel more authentic in the movie. She learned about all of the boxing jargon, and by the end of her classes, she was pretty good at getting in those jabs.

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Despite her dedication, the movie didn't do very well. One critic even said, "A miscast Ryan struggles with a Detroit accent and a script that goes nowhere."

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Savage Garden Wrote A Song About Meg Ryan

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Photo Credit: Kane Hibberd/Getty Images
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You may know Savage Garden as the band who sings "Truly, Madly, Deeply." That song isn't about Meg Ryan, but "All Around Me" is.

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According to the band's singer, "in our little home studio there's about 14 or 15 pictures of Meg... some of them wall-mounted... We wrote a song... for Meg Ryan to dance to." The singer claims that his obsession with Ryan is totally healthy and not creepy at all. Whatever you say, man...

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Meg Ryan Enjoyed Her Rom-Com Era

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Photo Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for goop
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Even though Ryan desperately tried to shed her "sweetheart" image in. the early 2000s, she doesn't regret anything about her rom-com days.

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In 2018, she told Gwyneth Paltrow, "For the most part, I had a lot of fun... you get reactions that have almost nothing to do with you and some that have everything to do with you, and you have to be this jiu-jitsu master to figure out what mirror you should actually be looking in."