Michael Ironside

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Michael Ironside

2004 London Film and Comic Con
Born Frederick Reginald Ironside
February 12, 1950 (1950-02-12) (age 59)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupation Actor, Producer, Screenwriter, Director, Editor, Playwright
Years active 1977–present
Spouse(s) Karen Dimwiddie (1986-present)

Michael Ironside (born February 12, 1950) is a Canadian actor. He has also worked as a voice actor, producer, film director, and screenwriter in movie and television series in various Canadian and American works. He is best known for playing villains, "tough guy" heroes and amputees, though he has also portrayed sympathetic characters. Ironside is a method actor, who keeps in character between takes.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Ironside was born Frederick Reginald Ironside[1] in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Patricia June (née Passmore), a homemaker, and Robert Walter Ironside, who worked in maintenance as a street lighting technician and laborer.[1] He attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and wrote a play at the age of fifteen, "The Shelter", winning the first prize in a university contest.[2] He also won the Senior writing award for Riverdale Collegiate Institute in 1967.

[edit] Career

One of Ironside's first roles was a memorable turn as evil telepath Darryl Revok in Scanners (1981), an early film by David Cronenberg. His breakthrough role was in the television miniseries V: The Final Battle (1984) as Ham Tyler. He is also known for his roles in Top Gun (1986) as Naval Aviator Lieutenant Commander Rick 'Jester' Heatherly, Extreme Prejudice (1987) as Major Paul Hackett, and Total Recall (1990) as Richter (the murderous henchman of Ronny Cox's villain Cohaagen). Ironside played the villainous General Katana in the sci-fi sequel Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) and, after a brief stint in ER's inaugural season, he was tapped to replace Roy Scheider as captain of the high-tech submarine seaQuest in the third season of seaQuest DSV as Captain Oliver Hudson. However, NBC cancelled the series after only thirteen episodes with Ironside as the star. In 1997, Ironside was reunited with Total Recall director Paul Verhoeven for Starship Troopers. He also appeared in The Perfect Storm (2000) and The Machinist (2004).

Ironside has also been recognized for his voice acting. He played iconic comic book villain Darkseid in Superman: The Animated Series and its spin-off, Justice League to great accolade. In one episode of The New Batman Adventures, he played Batman in a Batman: The Dark Knight Returns sequence. Another part he also happened to play in the DC Comics universe was Lois Lane's father, General Sam Lane in two episodes of Smallville.

He has also worked in video games as the voice-talents of Tom Clancy's character Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell games and is cast as the Global Defense Initiative's Lieutenant General Jack Granger in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. Ironside recently signed a 5-year deal to portray Captain Jonas Trager in the Spaceworks Television scifi series, Ice Planet.

[edit] Personal Life

Michael Ironside has a daughter Findlay (born 1998) by second wife Karen and daughter Adrienne Lynne Ironside is from a previous marriage.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Actor

[edit] Voice acting

[edit] Director

[edit] Screenwriter

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Celebrity Page by theboop
  2. ^ Michael Ironside Biography - Yahoo! Movies

[edit] External links


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