Photo
- Caption: Michael Ironside as Captain Oliver Hudson in SeaQuest DSV (1993)
- Description:
Captain Hudson is a military captain, he is not into scientific research like Bridger.
Biography: Michael Ironside
Michael Ironside's creative seeds as a writer and actor were first planted and nurtured by his father, a master storyteller who would regale his young son with spectacular tales spun from equal parts history and legend. "My relationship with my dad was like Atticus Finch and Scout in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'," says Ironside. "He believed that imagination and creativity were one and the same thing, and he plied me with books at a very young age. I credit my love of acting and entertaining to my father's ability to tell a story. Being Scot-Irish, he could have had some blarney in them, but he encouraged my fantasy life."
Ironside was born on February 12, 1950 in Toronto, Canada, and was raised there. His father, Robert, worked as a streetlight maintenance man, and his mother, Patricia was a hard working housewife. His Mother had 16 siblings. Mike grew up on a street with 30 of his realitives. Five families in total on one street! He has 4 younger siblings, two sisters and two brothers.
A voracious reader, young Ironside consumed "Moby Dick" when he was 7 and tried to write his first novel at 12. Guided by a helpful teacher, he won a national award for a play that was produced in Toronto. He attended Ontario College of Art. He honed his writing and directing skills at a workshop sponsored by the Canadian National Film Board for four years and only reluctantly studied acting as a means of improving his writing. He made his first recorded appearance in "Look Back in Anger," a CBC production, and soon realized that he had the necessary acting instincts. Nevertheless, Ironside operated a roofing and construction firm with his brother while he continued studying, secure in the knowledge that he had a genuine trade to lean on in case his entertainment career collapsed. "Much later, while on 'Total Recall,' a stunt coordinator asked me why I was so concerned when I hurt my leg during filming," he recalls. "I was more upset that my roofing career was over and I would have nothing to fall back on." By the mid-1970s, Ironside was busy learning the film business from the ground up, laboring in crafts services, wardrobe, carpentry and as a grip.
Ironside achieved some cult notoriety when he starred as the telekinetic mutant in "Scanners" in 1981. A year later, he arrived in Los Angeles and was a regular in the NBC science-fiction mini-series and series versions of "V." A few years later, he appeared as a hard-nosed pilot trainer in the hit feature film "Top Gun," and soon, his film credits included "Free Willy," "Highland II," "Extreme Prejudice," director Charles Burneft's "The Glass Shield," and the recently completed "Portraits of Innocence." After an 11-year absence from TV, Ironside recurred on NBC's "ER" last spring as Dr. William Swift, head of the emergency room. Ironside prefers to spend quiet time at home in Los Angeles with his wife, Karen. He has a 21-year-old daughter, Adrienne, from a previous marriage. He also enjoys reading, writing, renovating his house, and tinkering with his 1968 KFR Shelby and 1967 500 Shelby. - Actor/Actress/Director: Michael Ironside
- Movie:
- Id: 10318727
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