Meg Ryan

‘WHEN I LOOK BACK NOW, IT WAS DEFINITELY EASIER TO BE THE FUNNY PERSON RATHER THAN THE PRETTY PERSON, THE SEXY PERSON’

- Michelle Davies

She was the affable girl next door, who banked millions playing loveable roles that endeared her to audiences, but her relationship with Hollywood and celebrity has been far from plain sailing

The arrival of 12-year-old Meg Ryan midway through the school year in 1974 more than ruffled her new classmates at Bethel High School in Bethel, Connecticut. Blonde, smart and pretty, she was the kind of girl ‘you want to hate’, said Tracy Parsons, a pupil at the time. Instead, Ryan became the most popular girl in school overnight. ‘There was something about her that stood out from the day she walked in, a charisma thing,’ Parsons later revealed. ‘Everyone wanted to be her friend.’

It’s a quality that stood the test of time. Ryan, now 57, became one of the most popular actresses of the 80s and early 90s on the back of being the girl everyone wanted to befriend. Her most celebrated role was as Sally Albright in When Harry Met Sally, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Famous for the restaurant scene in which Ryan simulates an orgasm to prove women do fake them, the film continues to be the benchmark for romantic comedies, largely thanks to her affability. ‘You absolutely know when you see Meg on a screen that if you found yourself next to her you might become friends,’ remarked Nora Ephron, the film’s writer. ‘She has no vanity.’