Michael Ironside

Frederick Reginald "Michael" Ironside (born February 12, 1950) is a Canadian actor and filmmaker. He is known for playing villains and antiheroes, but has also portrayed sympathetic characters. Early life Frederick Reginald Ironside was born in Toronto on February 12, 1950, the son of housewife Patricia June (née Passmore) and street lighting technician Robert Walter Ironside. He has four siblings and is of English, Irish, and Scottish descent. He attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. At age 15, he wrote a play called The Shelter, which won first prize in a university contest. He also won the senior year writing award at Riverdale Collegiate Institute in 1968. Career 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 (1982) and appeared in 1983 as Miler Crane in The A-Team episode "Taxicab Wars" 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 and its following 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 (1987) as Major Paul Hackett, Watchers (1988) as a conscience-free mutant assassin, and 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'''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. 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. He appeared in The Perfect Storm (2000) and The Machinist (2004).