John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian-born American actor and film director. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia and raised in New York City, he came to prominence with film audiences for his supporting roles in several high-profile Western films, including My Darling Clementine (1946), Red River (1948), Vengeance Valley (1951), and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jack Burden in All the King's Men (1949), making him the first British Columbia-born actor to receive an Oscar nomination.
Ireland's other film roles include A Walk in the Sun (1945), Joan Of Arc (1948), Spartacus (1960), 55 Days at Peking (1963), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), The Adventurers (1970), and Farewell, My Lovely (1975). He also appeared in many television series, notably The Cheaters (1960–62). In the late 1960s and 1970s, he worked in Italian cinema, including the Spaghetti Westerns Run, Man, Run (1968), the giallo One on Top of the Other (1969), and the controversial war drama Salon Kitty (1976).
In 1960, Ireland was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to the television industry.
Ireland was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on January 30, 1914. He lived in New York City from a very early age, where he was raised in poverty in Harlem. Ireland's formal education ended at the 7th grade, and he worked to help his family make ends meet.
He never knew his natural father; his mother, a Scottish piano teacher Gracie Ferguson, remarried to Michael Noone, an Irish vaudevillian, and had three other children, a daughter Kathryn, a son named Thomas (the future actor-comedian Tommy Noonan), and another son, Michael. Their last name was Noone; Ireland never knew for sure where his last name came from.
He was a swimmer, once competing with Johnny Weissmuller. He performed underwater stunts at a carnival and worked as a barker. One of his jobs was in a water carnival where he wrestled a dead octopus.
One day he was passing the Davenport Free Theater in Manhattan. He entered, thinking it offered a free show and instead received free training. He slept in a dressing room and was paid a dollar a day to work backstage while rehearsing lines.
In 1941 he made his Broadway debut in a production of Macbeth with Maurice Evans and Judith Anderson. Other Broadway plays followed.
Ireland signed with 20th Century Fox and made his screen-debut as Private Windy, the thoughtful letter-writing GI, in the 1945 war film A Walk in the Sun, directed by Lewis Milestone.
This was followed by Wake Up and Dream (1946); Behind Green Lights (1946) with Carole Landis; and It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog (1946), again with Landis. He played Billy Clanton in John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946).
Ireland had his first lead role in Railroaded! (1947), directed by Anthony Mann for Eagle-Lion. He went back to support parts for The Gangster (1947) for the King Brothers and I Love Trouble (1948) for Columbia.
Ireland played the lead in Open Secret (1948) for Eagle-Lion, then had a support role in Anthony Mann's classic noir, Raw Deal (1948).
Ireland had a vital support part in Howard Hawks' 1948 film Red River as the gunslinger Cherry Valance. However, Ireland's part was reduced when Hawks became annoyed with the actor. One theory claims Hawks was jealous of Ireland's romance with leading lady (and future wife) Joanne Dru. However, Hawks claimed it was due to Ireland's consumption of alcohol and marijuana. Ireland was an army captain in the Ingrid Bergman spectacular, Joan of Arc (1948).
In April 1948 Ireland signed a contract with Columbia Pictures at $500 a week going up to $1500 a week. Ireland was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his powerful 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.
Ireland played cynical muckraking reporter Henry "Early" Byrd in the quirky Glenn Ford/Evelyn Keyes vehicle "Christmas movie" (though released in August 1949) Mr. Soft Touch.
Ireland was featured as Bob Ford in the low budget I Shot Jesse James (1949) the first movie directed by Sam Fuller. He was a villain in the Western Roughshod (1949) and a love rival for Paulette Goddard in Anna Lucasta (1949).
In December 1949 Columbia suspended him after walking out after filming one scene on One Way Out (released as Convicted). He sued the studio. He and Columbia parted ways in February 1950 after Ireland agreed to pay the studio 25% of his earnings for the next five years.
Lippert Pictures gave Ireland the lead in The Return of Jesse James (1950) and he appeared opposite his then-wife Joanne Dru in support parts in Vengeance Valley (1951)