Michael Ironside (born Frederick Reginald Ironside on February 12, 1950) is a Canadian method actor who has also worked as a voice actor, producer, film director, and screenwriter. He is best known for playing villains and “tough guy” heroes, though he has also portrayed sympathetic characters.
Michael first appeared on the CULT FACTION radar was in 1981 when he played the evil telepath Darryl Revok in Scanners, then he went on to appear in The A-Team as Miler Crane (Taxicab Wars) and then landed the role of Ham Tyler in V: The Final Battle. Other notable turns include Naval Aviator Lt Commander Rick “Jester” Heatherly in Top Gun; Major Paul Hackett in Extreme Prejudice; Lem in Watchers; Richter in Total Recall and as General Katana in Highlander II: The Quickening.
Ironside also had major television roles in ER and seaQuest DSV in the 1990’s before returning to films like Killer Image, Starship Troopers, Perfect Storm, Chaindance. In 2004 he played Christian Bale’s co-worker in The Machinist and reunited with Bale in 2009 for the film Terminator: Salvation.
Ironside has also been recognized for his voice acting. He played iconic comic book villain Darkseid in Superman: The Animated Series and its sequel, Justice League to great accolade. In one episode of The New Batman Adventures, he played Batman in a Batman: The Dark Knight Returns sequence. Another part he also happened to play in the DC Comics universe was Lois Lane’s father, General Sam Lane in three episodes of Smallville.
He has worked in video games as the voice-talents of Tom Clancy’s character Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell games and is cast as the G.D.I. Lieutenant General Jack Granger in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. Ironside signed a 5-year deal to portray Captain Jonas Trager in the SpaceWorks Television science fiction series, Ice Planet but the show was not produced.
In 2009, he starred in The Beacon under the direction of Michael Stokes and the following year guest starred in Burn Notice. You can also spot Ironside in X-Men: First Class, Justified, and as the voice of Ultra Magnus in Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters.
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