Michael Ironside’s strong jaw lost him the role of Robocop in Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi classic — he tells BFI that “Robocop” special effects creator Rob Bottin said, “If we were to do [the Robocop look] on Michael, he’d look like a Mack truck.” But his stern look has gained the Canadian actor plenty of work as assorted villains and tough guys across decades.
In the 1980s and ’90s, he would be known for roles like the telepathic psycho killer in Darryl Revok in early David Cronenberg work “Scanners,” and for the hard-boiled Naval Aviator Lieutenant Commander “Jester” Heatherly in Tony Scott’s “Top Gun.”After missing out on “Robocop,” Ironside would get his chance to work with Verhoeven in 1990 with “Total Recall,” where he would play the foil as ferocious enforcer Richter.
He would reunite with the polarizing director again seven years later, this time in an adaptation of a controversial work.
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