Micheal was born Frederick Reginald Ironside on February 12 1950, in Toronto Ontario.
He was raised in a working class family in Toronto. His father, Robert, a retired WW2 R.C.A.F. veteran,
who worked as a streetlight maintenance man, and his mother, Patricia (dec) who was a hard working housewife.
Sadly, Michael lost his father on November 10, 2000.
Michael has two sisters Winnifred and Beverley, and two brothers William and Robert. Michael is the oldest.
At last count, Michael had 11 nephews and nieces.
His first marriage resulted in a daughter Adrienne, an actress. Adrienne has been in films since she was
5 or 6 years old.
Mike and Adrienne were in "Captive" together. Adrienne was Assistant Director
on seven of Mikes films, and some of his TV appearances.
In 1984 he met Karen Dinwiddie, they married in 1986. In November 1998,
Karen and Michael became the proud parents of a daughter,named Findlay.
Some Facts
Mick started out in life as factory cleaner at night, he was also a roofer at one time,
and operated a business with his brother-in-law.
Mike attended the Ontario College of Art. Mike actually went to College to study the goings on behind
the camera. But as fate would decree, and for which we fans are all thankful for he switched to in front
of the cameras. Mike did take several jobs behind the camera before getting his break in front of it.
As a student, he starred as a caring psychiatrist in a
CBC production of "Look back in Anger".
He read the book "Moby Dick" when he was 7. Mike tried to write his first novel at 12.
He is very close to his family. He does help out when needed, but doesn't let anyone take advantage of him.
His father did almost all the woodworking in the family home, and who Mike gets his mannerisms and talent from.
His father contributed to his writing and creativity skills.
His good looks he gets from his mother!
Mike is a very quiet and private man. He still keeps in contact with his ex-wife.
One of his brothers, who still lives in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada; does woodworking.
He makes chess sets and Mike has one of them. He surprised one of his sisters, by showing up at her wedding,
after saying he couldn't make it!
His character on ER was based on his father. His favourite film: "Total Recall".
He is presently restoring a 1970 GTO Convertible. He also owns: a 1968 KFR Shelby, and a 1967 500 Shelby.
Mike was voted "Canadian of the Month" for the month of October 1997 by the Canadian Celebrities Web Page!
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 (1982) 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's biggest disappointment. He also appeared in such TV series as "E.R." and "Seaquest DSV:2032." -- Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Other TV appearances include V: The Final Battle and V: The Series.
Trivia
Came to notice in the Canadian sci-fi horror classic Scanners (1981) in which he played the mind-controlling, head-blowing megalomaniac Daryl Revok, which led to a dynamic, infamous career of out-and-out baddies or edgy anti-heroes.
Has a daughter Findlay (born 1998) by second wife Karen.
His brother is a high school shop teacher in his hometown of Toronto, Canada.
Father of Adrienne Ironside.
Said in an interview he is mostly recognized by the public from his voice over work in the Splinter Cell (2002) (VG) series.
His daughter Adrienne is from a previous marriage.
Moved to Los Angeles, California, USA in 1982.
Was for some time attached to play the title role in RoboCop (1987), but the crew had to give up on the idea when they realized that he would have to have a much smaller frame to fit into the costume envisaged.
At the age of fifteen he wrote a play called "The Shelter" which won first prize in a Canada-wide university contest. He used the prize money to mount his own production of said play.
Like Terence Stamp, he has played both a Superman foe and friend. The foe he played was Darkseid, one of Superman's greatest enemies, in the animated show "Justice League" (2001). The friend he played was Gen. Sam Lane, father of Lois Lane (Clark Kent's future bride) on the TV show "Smallville" (2001).
A talented arm wrestler in his youth, he ironically often loses an arm and / or other limb in his films: Total Recall (1990), Starship Troopers (1997), Maquinista, El (2004) and Guy X (2005). If he hadn't been too bulky he also would have played Murphy in RoboCop (1987), who loses both his arms.
Good friends with WWE Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler.
Huge fan of Professional Wrestling.
Personal Quotes
I like to play bad guys, since good guys are always beaten up several times during the movie. Bad guys are beaten only once, in the end.
I get to bring these misshapen, emotionally unbalanced people to life.
If I didn't like the attention, I suppose I wouldn't be doing this job. What do you do? Destroy someone's fantasy about you or play it to the limit? I still haven't quite worked it all out and I don't know how to resolve it. It's said actors act because they fear death and it's the one and only certainty for some kind of immortality. My attitude is: screw the future, let's get on with here and now. You don't know how long it'll last.
The weirder the role, the more toys around to help suspend reality, the easier it is - and the better I think my work gets. All of these things make it easier to take risks. Children - and actors - take risks all the time.
Acting itself is a very childlike thing. You're asked to suspend reality and to play - and what better place than when you're sitting there looking like the most weird villain imaginable? You have all these toys around you. It brings out the child in you much easier than when you're standing around in a suit playing a cop.
[in a 1984 magazine interview] The characters I've played until now have been very sick people. These people are emotionally or physically damaged. Since I played killers so well, they wanted me to play a killer the next time. I used to call my roles "dog-eating" parts; you know, the director says, "We need somebody to bite a dog in this scene. Let's call Ironside".
[on being typecast as a villain] I use the analogy that if you hit an old lady on screen with a shovel and kill her and somebody makes money from that moment, then they really don't want you to step out from that parameter. They don't want you to do anything but hit more old ladies with shovels and if that's the trunk that I have to build my tree from, that's fine.
The word "career" scares me! It's the sort of thing you say about dead actors, old guys. I think this festival wanted to do a retrospective on me a few years ago and I told them to fuck off. Jesus, that's for guys that are on crutches and in wheelchairs and that you need to spoon-feed . . . Aargh! I plan to be around for at least another 20 years!
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