Who is Jack Lord?
John Joseph Patrick Ryan, better known by his stage name Jack Lord, was an American television, film, and Broadway actor, director, and producer who was born on December 30, 1920 and died on January 21, 1998. From 1968 to 1980, he starred as Steve McGarrett in the CBS television series Hawaii Five-O.
Jack Lord was the son of steamship company executive William Lawrence Ryan. He learned to ride at his mother’s fruit farm in the Hudson River Valley. At the age of 15, he began spending summers at sea in the Merchant Marine, painting and sketching the landscapes he encountered; Africa, the Mediterranean, and China. Education: New York public schools, Trumbull Naval Academy in New London, Connecticut, where he graduated as an Ensign with a Third Mates License. On a football scholarship, he attended New York University and earned a degree in Fine Arts. New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actor’s Studio He served in the Merchant Navy during WWII. During the Korean War, he became interested in acting while making maritime training films. This is when he decided to attend the Neighborhood Playhouse, while also working as a Cadillac salesman in New York to help pay for his studies. He later studied at the Actor’s Studio with Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, and Marilyn Monroe. His first Broadway roles were in “Traveling Lady” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and his first in Hollywood were in “Court Martial of Billy Mitchell” with Gary Cooper.
Jack Lord Cause of Death
He died of congestive heart failure on January 21, 1998, at the age of 77, at his home in Honolulu, leaving a $40 million estate. He was a philanthropist, and after his wife Marie died in 2005 at the age of 100, his entire estate was donated to Hawaiian charities.
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