Michael Ironside
Michael Ironside (born Fred Ironside February 12, 1950 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian character actor. He has also worked as a producer, film director, and screenwriter in movie and television series in various Canadian and American works. He is best known for playing villains or "tough guy" heroes, though he has also portrayed sympathetic characters and he is considered one of Canada's most in-demand actors.
His breakthrough role was in the television series V. He then cemented his ability to play the intimidating non-compromising character in Top Gun and then Total Recall where he has a memorable final fight scene with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Michael is a method actor who keeps in character between takes.
He has recently become a major star in the realm of video games, as he has voiced Tom Clancy's character of Sam Fisher in the three, and soon fourth, Splinter Cell games.
Brief Filmography
Actor
- Scanners (1981)
- Visiting Hours (1982)
- Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)
- V (1984)
- Top Gun (1986)
- Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
- Total Recall (1990)
- Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
- Guncrazy (1992)
- Free Willy (1993)
- Major Payne (1995)
- seaQuest 2032 (1995)
- The Arrow (1997)
- Starship Troopers (1997)
- The Arrangement (1999)
- The Omega Code (1999)
- Jett Jackson: The Movie (2001)
- The Last Chapter (2002)
- The Machinist (2004)
- Smallville (television series) (2004)
- Andromeda (television series) (2004)
- Deepwater (movie) (2005)
Voice acting
- in animated series
- in video games
- Run Like Hell (2002) ...as Cmdr. Mason
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (2002) ...as Sam Fisher
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (2004) ...as Sam Fisher
- Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005) ...as Sam Fisher
Director
- The Arrangement (1999)
Screenwriter
- The Arrangement (1999)
- Chaindance (1990)