Jack Lord

John Joseph Patrick Ryan (December 30, 1920 – January 21, 1998), best known by his stage name, Jack Lord, was an American television, film and Broadway actor, director and producer. He starred as Steve McGarrett in the CBS television program Hawaii Five-O, which ran from 1968 to 1980. Early years Born in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York, Lord was the son of Irish-American parents. His father, William Lawrence Ryan, was a steamship company executive. He grew up in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York. As a child, Lord developed his equestrian skills on his mother's fruit farm in the Hudson River Valley. He started spending summers at sea, and from the decks of cargo ships painted and sketched the landscapes he encountered—Africa, the Mediterranean and China. He was educated at St. Benedict Joseph Labre School, John Adams High School, in Ozone Park, Queens, and the United States Merchant Marine Academy, then located at Fort Trumbull in New London, Connecticut, graduating as an Ensign with a Third Mates License. He attended New York University (NYU) on a football scholarship, and earned a degree in Fine Arts. Lord spent the first year of the United States' involvement in World War II with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, building bridges in Persia. He returned to the Merchant Marine as an able seaman before enrolling in the deck officer course at Fort Trumbull. While making maritime training films, Lord took to the idea of acting.