Michael Ironside: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|Canadian actor}}

{{Use mdyCanadian datesEnglish|date=FebruaryJuly 20212024}}

| birth_place = [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]], [[Canada]]

'''Frederick Reginald''' "'''Michael'''" '''Reginald Ironside''' (born February 12, 1950), is a Canadian actor and filmmaker. HeA prominent [[character actor]] with over 270 film and television credits, he is known for playing villains and antiheroes, but has also portrayed sympathetic characters. He is best known for his roles in [[Action film|action]] and [[Science fiction films|science fiction]] films, and had his breakthrough performance in the 1981 [[David Cronenberg]] film ''[[Scanners]]''.

One of Ironside's first roles was as evil telepath Darryl Revok in ''[[Scanners]]'' (1981), an early film by [[David Cronenberg]]. He played the role of a serial killer, Colt Hawker, in the slasher film ''[[Visiting Hours (film)|Visiting Hours]]'' (1982) and appeared in 1983 as Miler Crane in ''[[The A-Team]]'' episode "Taxicab Wars" (1983)as well as Overdog McNab in ''[[Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone]]''.

Ironside's breakthrough role was as cynical antihero Ham Tyler in the television miniseries ''[[V The Final Battle|V: The Final Battle]]'' and its following [[V (1984 TV series)|19-episode series]] (1984). He is also known for his roles in ''[[Top Gun]]'' (1986) as [[Naval Aviator]] [[Lieutenant Commander]] Rick "Jester" Heatherly, ''[[Extreme Prejudice (film)|Extreme Prejudice]]'' (1987) as Major Paul Hackett, ''[[Watchers (film)|Watchers]]'' (1988) as a conscience-free mutant assassin, and ''[[Total Recall (1990 film)|Total Recall]]'' (1990) as Richter, the murderous henchman of [[Ronny Cox]]'s villain Cohaagen. Ironside played the villainous General Katana in the science fiction sequel ''[[Highlander II: The Quickening]]'' (1991) and, after a brief stint in ''[[ER (TV series)|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 1992, he starred as [[M. Emmet Walsh]]'s brother in [[David Winning]]'s thriller ''[[Killer Image (1992 film)|Killer Image]]''. In 1993, he played Dial, the main antagonist of ''[[Free Willy]]''. In 1994, Ironside starred as Luck Hatcher in the western ''Dead Man's Revenge''. In 1995, Ironside had a brief cameo as Lt. Col. Stone in ''[[Major Payne]]''. In 1997, Ironside was reunited with ''Total Recall'' director [[Paul Verhoeven]] for ''[[Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers]]''. He appeared in ''[[The Perfect Storm (film)|The Perfect Storm]]'' (2000) and ''[[The Machinist]]'' (2004). He starred in the film ''[[Chaindance]]'' as a small-time crook, unable to make it on the outside, who was paired up with a disabled man. Ironside starred as Resistance General Hugh Ashdown in ''[[Terminator Salvation]],'' reunited with his co-star from ''The Machinist'', [[Christian Bale]].<ref name="Iro">{{cite web |first=Drew |last=Tinnin |url=https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/87280/exclusive-michael-ironside-talks-turbo-kid/ |title=Exclusive: Michael Ironside Talks Turbo Kid |website=[[Dread Central]] |date=January 26, 2015}}</ref> In 2003, Ironside guest starred in season 3 episode 20 ("Twilight of the Idols") of ''[[Andromeda (TV series)|Andromeda]]''.

Ironside voiced comic book villain [[Darkseid]] in the [[DC Animated Universe]], including ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'', ''[[Justice League (TV series)|Justice League]]'' and ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]''. He later reprised the role in 2020the 2018 video game ''Lego DC Supervillains'' and the 2020 [[DC Universe (streaming service)|DC Universe]]/[[HBO Max]] web series ''[[Harley Quinn (TV series)|Harley Quinn]]''. In one episode of ''[[The New Batman Adventures]]'', he voiced [[Batman]] in a ''[[Batman: The Dark Knight Returns]]'' sequence. Another part he played in the DC Comics universe was Lois Lane's father, General [[Sam Lane (comics)|Sam Lane]] in three episodes of ''[[Smallville (TV series)|Smallville.]]''.

Ironside has worked in video games as the voice of [[Tom Clancy]]'s character [[Sam Fisher (Splinter Cell)|Sam Fisher]] in the ''[[Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell]]'' games and [[Characters of the Global Defense Initiative#General Jack Granger|Jack Granger]] in ''[[Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars]]''. He signed a five-year deal to portray Captain Jonas Trager in the SpaceWorks Television science-fiction series, ''[[Ice Planet (film)#TV series|Ice Planet]]'' but the show was not produced.

In 2018, he played [[J. P. Morgan]] in 4 episodes of [[TNT (American TV network)|TNT]]'s ''[[The Alienist]]''.