John Ireland (actor)

John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor and film director.

Early life

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, like many children at that time, 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.