Michael Ironside

Michael Ironside

Active - 1977 - 2023  |   Born - Feb 12, 1950 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada  |   Genres - Drama, Romance, Family & Personal Relationships

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Biography by AllMovie

Canadian actor Michael Ironside has specialized in tough, steel-fisted villainous film roles. Ironside played the ruthless brain-splitting cult leader in Scanners (1981), the unethical cop in Cross Country (1983), and the megalomaniacal cyborg in Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1984), among other wicked characterizations. He was also seen as Dick Wetherly in Top Gun, 1986's biggest hit, and as General Katana in Highlander II: The Quickening (1991). He'd go on to appear in films like The Machinist and Terminator Salvation, as well as TV series like ER, SeaQuest DSV: 2032, and Desperate Housewives.

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Factsheet

  • At age 15, he wrote a play called The Shelter that won first prize in an all-Canada university contest, and used the prize money to produce it.
  • Worked in the construction industry as a roofer before his career in movies and television took off.
  • Breakthrough role was in David Cronenberg's Scanners.
  • Best-known films are Top Gun, Total Recall, The Perfect Storm, Terminator Salvation, Free Willy.
  • Voices Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell video games.