Biography

CIA analyst Jack Ryan first appeared in The Hunt for Red October, although Patriot Games (Clancy's third novel) begins his story ...

The son of a nurse and a police officer, both of whom died in a plane crash, Ryan is a 6'1" former US Marine. He served as second lieutenant on the USS Guam, until his military career was cut short at the age of 23 when his platoon's helicopter crashed during a NATO exercise over Crete. Ryan's back was badly injured in the crash; he has hated flying ever since.

After leaving the Marine Corps, Ryan became a successful stockbroker in Baltimore where he came to the attention of his company's Vice-President, Joe Muller. Jack met Muller's daughter, Caroline (Cathy), a medical student at John Hopkins and subsequently they fell in love. She introduced Jack to her teacher, a professor of neurosurgery, who operated on Jack's back and cured his back pain. Cathy later went on to become an ophthalmic surgeon.

Jack, who holds a degree in history, left the world of stock broking after 4 years to complete his doctorate. He then took a job at the US Naval Academy where he became involved in consulting work for the CIA.

Following his successful intervention in an assassination attempt against the Prince and Princess of Wales by the Ulster Liberation Army, Ryan was invested as a Knight Commander of the Victorian Order by the Queen.

He was also asked to join the CIA permanently by the DDI (Deputy Director Intelligence) James Greer and, following a retaliatory assassination attempt on his wife and daughter, decided to accept. His consistent bravery was rewarded with rapid promotion and he moved swiftly from being Greer's assistant to taking his place as DDI. From there it was a short step to becoming National Security Advisor to the President, and when the unimaginable happened, to inauguration as the President of the United States of America.

Estimates put Jack's age at around 42 years old by the time he becomes President. He and his wife Cathy have 3 children: Sally, Jack Junior and Katie. At the start of Patriot Games Jack is 31 years old and Sally is 4. Jack Junior is born at the end of Patriot Games.

 

Jack Ryan Series

The Hunt for the Red October(1984)
Here is the runaway bestseller that launched Tom Clancy's phenomenal career. A military thriller so gripping in its action and so convincing in its accuracy that the author was rumored to have been debriefed by the White House. Its theme: the greatest espionage coup in history. Its story: the chase for a top secret Russian missile sub. Lauded by the Washington Post as "breathlessly exciting." The Hunt for Red October remains a masterpiece of military fiction by one of the world's most popular authors, a man whose shockingly realistic scenarios continue to hold us in thrall..Somewhere under the Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision. The Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. And the most incredible chase in history is on. Buy it at Barnes and Noble

Patriot Games(1987)
In this novel by the author of Red Storm Rising (BRD 1986), Jack Ryan,the protagonist of Mr. Clancy's first work of fiction, The Hunt for Red October (1984), foils an attack on members of the British royal family by the Ulster Liberation Army (U.L.A.), a Maoist splinter group of the provisional wing ofthe Irish Republican Army. When Ryan returns to the United States where he teaches history at Annapolis, U.L.A. terrorists attempt to take their revenge. Buy it at Barnes and Noble

The Cardinal Of The kremlin( 1988)
In this book Jack Ryan, the protagonist of earlier Clancy novels, again becomes involved in cold war intrigue. "By the time . . . Ryan steps in to investigate mysterious structures on the Soviet-Afghan border, the Soviets have struck again by . . . {attacking} a satellite with a free electron laser. The title's cardinal, an elite, well-placed source in the Kremlin, leaks details of this secret activity to the United States. . . . Intelligence is transferred back and forth and there are attacks and counterattacks." Buy it at Barnes and Noble

Clear And Present Danger(1989)
This novel begins with National Security Adviser, Vice Admiral James "Cutter's winning presidential approval for a covert operation against the Colombian drug cartel. The ill-conceived plan: insert four platoons of elite U.S.Army light infantrymen into the Colombian jungle to identify drug-running planes and disrupt cocaine production. . . . Clancy recounts the training of Sergeant 'Ding' Chavez and the other 'light-fighters' (fast-moving small units unencumbered by heavy equipment) for their quasi-legal mission. Almost as soon as Chavez and his fellow grunts hit the ground, things begin to go awry. . . . {The book's protagonist}, CIA man Jack Ryan, mounts a . . . maneuver to rescuethe light-fightersBuy it at Barnes and Noble

The Sum Of All Fears(1991)
"the cold war is over and the Gulf war has made a MiddleEast settlement possible. . . . {But} Palestinian terrorists, European ultra-radicals and former East German secret police and military scientists . . . get together, obtain a slightly damaged Israeli nuclear weapon and try to turn it into an H-bomb. Buy it at Barnes and Noble

 

Debt Of Honor(1994)
Jack Ryan, "now National Security Advisor to the President, is called on to save America from a double-pronged attack, economic and military, by revenge-seeking Japanese.

Buy it at Barnes and Noble

 

Executive Orders(1996)
The plot of this novel "picks up where its predecessor, Debt of Honor,left off. Most of Washington's political establishment having been wiped out, the reluctant and supposedly interim Vice President, Jack Ryan, has to take charge. Among the problems he must face are an impending clash between China and Taiwan, a murderous attack on his own family, and a new Gulf War.Buy it at Barnes and Noble

 

The Bear And the Dragon (2000)
Newly elected in his own right, Jack Ryan has found that being President has gotten no easier: domestic pitfalls await him at every turn; the Asian economy is going down the tubes; and now, in Moscow, someone may have tried to take out the chairman of the SVR - the former KGB - with a rocket-propelled grenade. Things are unstable enough in Russia without high-level assassination, but even more disturbing may be the identities of the potential assassins. Were they political enemies, the Russian Mafia, disaffected former KGB? Or, Ryan wonders, is something far more dangerous at work here? Ryan is right to wonder. For even while Russian investigators pursue the case, and some of his most trusted eyes and ears, including antiterrorism specialist John Clark, head to Moscow, forces in China are moving forward with a plan of truly audacious proportions. Tired of what they view as the presumption of the West, eager to fulfill their destiny, they are taking matters into their own hands. If they succeed, the world as we know it will never look the same. If they fail...the consequences may be unspeakable.Buy it at Barnes and Noble

Jack Ryan Movies

The Hunt ForThe Red October (1990) The very first Jack Ryan movie Starring Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan. It is the pre-Glasnost era, and the captain of a Soviet sub intends to betray his brutal government and defect, but as the deadly "Red October" approaches the eastern seaboard of the United States, only special agent Jack Ryan might be able to head off a nuclear confrontation. More on IMDB View Trailer Window Media Player

 

Patriot Games (1992)
Harrison Ford took on the role of Jack Ryan this time.His days as a CIA analyst behind him, Jack Ryan travels to London to vacation with his family. Outside Buckingham Palace, he is caught in the middle of an attack on a member of the royal family but manages to foil the attempt and dispatch one of the terrorists. The Irish terrorists vow revenge. More on IMDBView Trailer Window Media Player

 

Clear And Present Danger (1994)
Jack Ryan acting as Head of the CIA when his mentor Admiral Greer falls prey to cancer. On his watch, the President of the United States orders a covert operation to attack some South American druglords responsible for a friend's death. Ryan, who swears before Congress not to engage in covert action, must choose between loyalty and integrity. More on IMDBView Trailer Windown Media Player