Jill Ireland(1936-1990)

Jill Ireland was born Jill Dorothy Ireland on April 24, 1936, in London, England, to a wine merchant, Jack Ireland, and his wife, Dorothy, who were fated to outlive their daughter. She had a brother who also survived her. Young Jill started her entertainment career at age 16 as a dancer, and made her credited screen debut in 1955, in Michael Powell's Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955), after a bit part in another movie. Two years later, she married actor David McCallum, whom she met on March 28, 1957, and co-starred in the Stanley Baker action picture, Hell Drivers (1957). In the mid-1960s, they moved to the United States so McCallum could star as agent "Ilya Kuryakin" in the TV series, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). She got steady work on American television and would co-star with her husband in five episode of the series in 1964, 1965 and 1967.

Ireland divorced McCallum, with whom she had three sons, in 1967. The following year, she married Charles Bronson, who was several years away from coming into his own as a leading man. They had first met when McCallum introduced them on the set of The Great Escape (1963). With Bronson, she had two children, a daughter born to the couple, and an adopted daughter. They co-starred together in the French movie, Rider on the Rain (1970). She had previously appeared in one scene opposite him in Villa Rides (1968) and had also played an uncredited bit part in his movie, Lola (1970), released that same year. This film made Bronson a major star in Europe. They starred in 13 more pictures in the next 17 years, a period during which Bronson rivaled Clint Eastwood as the biggest movie star in the world in the early and mid-1970s before his star waned in the 1980s. During her marriage to Bronson, Ireland appeared in only one TV episode, one TV-movie and one theatrical picture that didn't star her husband.

She was diagnosed with cancer in her right breast in 1984 and underwent a mastectomy. She wrote about her battle and became an advocate for the American Cancer Society, which led to the organization giving her its Courage Award. Ireland was presented with the award by President Ronald Reagan. Tragically, she lost her battle with the disease after it metastasized and died at her home in Malibu, California, on May 18, 1990, aged only 54. She was survived by her husband, children, parents, brother, and extended family.