Jack Ryan (character) Jack Ryan (character) John Patrick "Jack" Ryan, Sr. is a fictional character created by author Tom Clancy and featured in his Ryanverse novels, which have consistently topped the New York Times best seller list over 30 years. Since Clancy’s death in 2013, four other authors have continued the Ryan franchise and its other connecting series with the approval of the Clancy family estate: Mark Greaney, Grant Blackwood, Mike Maden, and Marc Cameron. The son of a Baltimore police detective and a nurse, Jack Ryan is a former U.S. Marine and stockbroker who became a history teacher at Boston College in
Parker (Stark novels character) in "Slayground"), Mel Gibson (as Porter in "Payback"), and Jason Statham (as Parker in "Parker"). Author Dan Simmons has paid homage to Westlake and his Parker character with three hard-boiled action novels featuring the character of Joe Kurtz, a past and current private investigator who spent time in Attica prison. The first novel, "Hardcase", is dedicated to Richard Stark/Donald Westlake. In the third Kurtz novel, "Hard as Nails", Kurtz mentions that he did not know his father, but that he was a career criminal thief who went by a single name and would have sex with women after a job,