In 1966 Ryan appeared in The Saint (S5,E9 'The Better Mousetrap') as Bertha Noversham, a French Riviera jewel thief.

Her film appearances included Summer Holiday (1963), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Frenzy (1972), and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?

Ryan established herself as a theatre actor and member of the Independent Co. in Sydney, Australia, playing the role of Birdie Hubbard in The Little Foxes at the Independent and the Princess Theatres in 1948, while living in Epping, then a rural setting on Sydney’s outer fringe.

[6] In 1964, she played Kath in the original London production of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane.

The Independent wrote, "as the dreadful Kath, ageing seductress and murderous landlady...Madge Ryan's cruel, cool but undeniably comic acting provoked one critic to describe her work...as 'something very close to perfection'.