Sometimes, you just have to know

if a film actor you remember in a minor support role is the same actor you remember in a minor support role from a different movie.

Anne Ryan has an extraordinary start to her filmography; she made her debut as "Angie" in LUCAS, the Corey Haim/Kerri Green/Charlie Sheen coming-of-age vehicle [with Winona Ryder and Jeremy Piven in support roles], in 1986. Ryan then played "Shermerite" ["I heard that if Ferris dies, he's giving his eyes to Stevie Wonder. He's such a sweetie!"] in the iconic comedy FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, released later the same year. In 1987, she returned to the cinema to co-star in the hyperkinetic-but-realistically-awkward high-school-bully cult classic THREE O'CLOCK HIGH. And then, nothing. One assumes that, like Green, Ryan wasn't pressured, immature and/or broken enough to stay in the business at an age when most people go to college and/or learn about the world.

Anyway, you can imagine my surprise to see that Ryan worked on three staples of Generation X's formative media back-to-back-to-back, and then walked away. Where is she now? She's the Artistic Director at the Corn Exchange Theatre Company in Dublin, Ireland, having racked up quite the resume on the stage. That's real "winning," as far as I'm concerned.

[Although going by "Annie" is the ladies' equivalent of the comb-over. Open letter to all Annes of mature age: Hello ladies. You're not fooling anyone with the "ie" -- we all know you hated how much "Annie" made you sound like a little kid when you were a little kid, it's not making you come off younger now.]