Biography for
Michael Ironside

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Michael Ironside has made a strong and indelible impression with his often incredibly intense and explosive portrayals of fearsome villains throughout the years. He was born as Frederick Reginald Ironside on February 12, 1950 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ironside was a successful arm wrestler in his teenage years. His initial ambition was to be a writer. At age fifteen Michael wrote a play called "The Shelter" that won first prize in a Canada-wide university contest; he used the prize money to mount a production of this play. Ironside attended the Ontario College of Art, took acting lessons from Janine Manatis, and studied for three years at the Canadian National Film Board. Ironside worked in construction as a roofer prior to embarking on an acting career. He first began acting in movies in the late 70s. Ironside received plenty of recognition with his frightening turn as deadly and powerful psychic Darryl Revok in David Cronenberg's "Scanners." He was likewise very chilling as vicious misogynistic psychopath Colt Hawker in the underrated "Visiting Hours." Other memorable film roles include weary Detective Roersch in the sadly forgotten thriller "Cross Country," the crazed Overdog in the immensely enjoyable "Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone," the hard-nosed Jester in the blockbuster smash "Top Gun," ramrod Major Paul Hackett in "Extreme Prejudice," loner Vietnam veteran Ben in "Nowhere to Hide," the ferocious Lem Johnson in "Watchers," and lethal immortal General Katana in "Highlander II: The Quickening." Moreover, Ironside has appeared in two highly entertaining science fiction features for Paul Verhoeven: at his savage best as the evil Richter in "Total Recall" and typically excellent as the rugged Lieutenant Jean Rasczak in "Starship Troopers." Ironside showed a more tender and thoughtful side with his lovely and touching performance as a hardened convict who befriends a disabled man in the poignant indie drama gem "Chaindance;" he also co-wrote the script and served as an executive producer for this beautiful sleeper. Michael was terrific as tough mercenary Ham Tyler on the epic TV mini-series "V," its follow up "V: The Final Battle," and subsequent short-lived spin-off TV show. Ironside also had a recurring role on the TV series "SeaQuest DSV." Among the television programs Michael has done guest spots on are "The A-Team," "Hill Street Blues," "Mike Hammer," "The Hitchhiker," "Tales from the Crypt," "Superman," "Walker, Texas Ranger," "The Outer Limits," "ER," "Smallville," "ER," "Desperate Housewives," "Justice League," and "Masters of Horror." More recently Ironside garnered a slew of plaudits and a Gemini Award nomination for his outstanding portrayal of shrewd biker gang leader Bob Durelle in the acclaimed Canadian mini-series "The Last Chapter." In addition to his substantial film and TV work, Michael Ironside has also lent his distinctive deep voice to TV commercials and video games. He's the father of actress Adrienne Ironside.

Spouse

Trivia

Came to notice in the Canadian sci-fi horror classic Scanners (1981) in which he played the mind-controlling, head-blowing megalomaniac Daryl Revok, which led to a dynamic, infamous career of out-and-out baddies or edgy anti-heroes.

Has a daughter Findlay (born 1998) by second wife Karen.

His brother is a high school shop teacher in his hometown of Toronto, Canada.

Father of Adrienne Ironside.

Said in an interview he is mostly recognized by the public from his voice over work in the Splinter Cell (2002) (VG) series.

His daughter Adrienne is from a previous marriage.

Moved to Los Angeles, California, USA in 1982.

Was for some time attached to play the title role in RoboCop (1987), but the crew had to give up on the idea when they realized that he would have to have a much smaller frame to fit into the costume envisaged.

At the age of fifteen he wrote a play called "The Shelter" which won first prize in a Canada-wide university contest. He used the prize money to mount his own production of said play.

Like Terence Stamp, he has played both a Superman foe and friend. The foe he played was Darkseid, one of Superman's greatest enemies, in the animated show "Justice League" (2001). The friend he played was Gen. Sam Lane, father of Lois Lane (Clark Kent's future bride) on the TV show "Smallville" (2001).

A talented arm wrestler in his youth, he ironically often loses an arm and / or other limb in his films: Total Recall (1990), Starship Troopers (1997), Maquinista, El (2004) and Guy X (2005). If he hadn't been too bulky he also would have played Murphy in RoboCop (1987), who loses both his arms.

Good friends with WWE Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler.

Huge fan of Professional Wrestling.

Is of Scottish, English and Irish heritage.

His father, Robert, was a streetlight maintenance man, his mother, Patricia, a housewife.

Personal Quotes

I like to play bad guys, since good guys are always beaten up several times during the movie. Bad guys are beaten only once, in the end.

I get to bring these misshapen, emotionally unbalanced people to life.

If I didn't like the attention, I suppose I wouldn't be doing this job. What do you do? Destroy someone's fantasy about you or play it to the limit? I still haven't quite worked it all out and I don't know how to resolve it. It's said actors act because they fear death and it's the one and only certainty for some kind of immortality. My attitude is: screw the future, let's get on with here and now. You don't know how long it'll last.

The weirder the role, the more toys around to help suspend reality, the easier it is - and the better I think my work gets. All of these things make it easier to take risks. Children - and actors - take risks all the time.

Acting itself is a very childlike thing. You're asked to suspend reality and to play - and what better place than when you're sitting there looking like the most weird villain imaginable? You have all these toys around you. It brings out the child in you much easier than when you're standing around in a suit playing a cop.

[in a 1984 magazine interview] The characters I've played until now have been very sick people. These people are emotionally or physically damaged. Since I played killers so well, they wanted me to play a killer the next time. I used to call my roles "dog-eating" parts; you know, the director says, "We need somebody to bite a dog in this scene. Let's call Ironside".

[on being typecast as a villain] I use the analogy that if you hit an old lady on screen with a shovel and kill her and somebody makes money from that moment, then they really don't want you to step out from that parameter. They don't want you to do anything but hit more old ladies with shovels and if that's the trunk that I have to build my tree from, that's fine.

The word "career" scares me! It's the sort of thing you say about dead actors, old guys. I think this festival wanted to do a retrospective on me a few years ago and I told them to fuck off. Jesus, that's for guys that are on crutches and in wheelchairs and that you need to spoon-feed . . . Aargh! I plan to be around for at least another 20 years!

Where Are They Now

(November 2004) Completed Guy X.

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