John Ireland (actor)
| John Ireland | |
|---|---|
from the trailer for
Vengeance Valley (1951) |
|
| Born |
John Benjamin Ireland January 30, 1914 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Died | March 21, 1992 (aged 78) Santa Barbara, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Santa Barbara Cemetery, Santa Barbara |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1938–1992 |
| Spouse(s) | Elaine Sheldon Rosen (1940-48) (divorced) 2 children Joanne Dru (1949-57) (divorced) Daphine Myrick Cameron (1962-92) (his death) 1 child |
John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor and film director.
Ireland was born John Benjamin Ireland in Vancouver, British Columbia on January 30, 1914. He lived in New York City from a very early age. Ireland's formal education ended at the 7th grade; and he worked to help his family make ends meet. He never knew his father. His mother remarried and had three other children, a daughter Kathryn, a son named Tommy (became Tommy Noonan who co-starred in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"), and another son Michael. Their last name was Noone. Ireland never knew for sure where his last name came from. One of his jobs was in a water carnival where he wrestled a dead octopus. His discovery of acting was by accident, but he fell in love with it and studied Shakespeare as his "formal" education. Tall and lean, he appeared on Broadway and toured in Shakespeare in the late 1930s and early 1940s before entering film in the mid-1940s.
Ireland made his screen-debut as Private Windy, the thoughtful letter-writing GI, in the 1945 war film A Walk in the Sun. This was followed by Wake Up and Dream in 1946. A supporting actor in several notable Westerns including John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946) and Howard Hawks' 1948 film Red River. Having a lead in small noirs like Railroaded! (1947), Ireland was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his forceful performance as Jack Burden, the hard-boiled newspaper reporter who evolves from devotee to cynical denouncer of demagogue Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford) in All the King's Men (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Academy Award nomination.
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