Ironside first began acting in movies in the late 1970s. He received plenty of recognition with his frightening turn as deadly and powerful psychic Darryl Revok in David Cronenberg’s Scanners. He was likewise very chilling as vicious misogynistic psychopath Colt Hawker in Visiting Hours. Other memorable film roles include weary Detective Roersch in the thriller Cross Country, the crazed Overdog in the immensely enjoyable Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, the hard-nosed Jester in the blockbuster smash Top Gun, ramrod Major Paul Hackett in Extreme Prejudice, loner Vietnam veteran “Ben” in Nowhere to Hide, the ferocious Lem Johnson in Watchers, and lethal immortal General Katana in Highlander II: The Quickening.
Moreover, Ironside has appeared in two highly entertaining science fiction features for Paul Verhoeven: At his savage best as the evil Richter in Total Recall and typically excellent as the rugged Lieutenant Jean Rasczak in Starship Troopers. Ironside showed a more tender and thoughtful side with his lovely and touching performance as a hardened convict who befriends a disabled man in the poignant indie drama gem Chaindance; he also co-wrote the script and served as an executive producer. Michael was terrific as tough mercenary Ham Tyler on the epic miniseries ‘V,’ and its follow up ‘V: The Final Battle,’. He appeared in The Perfect Storm and The Machinist. Ironside starred as Resistance General Hugh Ashdown in Terminator Salvation. Ironside guest starred in season 3 episode 20 (“Twilight of the Idols”) of Andromeda.
Ironside also had a recurring role on the television series SeaQuest 2032. Among the television series he has done guest spots on are The A-Team, Hill Street Blues, The New Mike Hammer, The Hitchhiker, Tales from the Crypt, Walker, Texas Ranger, The Outer Limits, ER, Smallville, Desperate Housewives, and Masters of Horror. Ironside garnered a slew of plaudits and a Gemini Award nomination for his outstanding portrayal of shrewd biker gang leader Bob Durelle in the acclaimed Canadian miniseries The Last Chapter II: The War Continues. Ironside appeared in the film: X-Men: First Class, playing the Captain of the 7th Fleet. He appeared in Justified playing a supporting role as a Detroit hitman the following year
In addition to his substantial film and television work, Ironside has also lent his distinctive deep voice to video games and movies such as Transformers (voice of Ultra Magnus. Ironside voiced comic book villain Darkseid in the DC Animated Universe, including Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. He later reprised the role in the 2018 video game Lego DC Supervillains and the 2020 DC Universe/HBO Max web series Harley Quinn. In one episode of The New Batman Adventures, he voiced Batman in a Batman: The Dark Knight Returns sequence.
In video games Ironside is well known as the voice of character Sam Fisher in the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell games and Jack Granger in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.
