Actor. Born John Joseph Patrick Ryan, but called himself Jack Lord when he began acting in the early 1950s. He was an accomplished artist. Two of his paintings were acquired by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum of Modern Art by the time he was twenty. He became a member of the Actors Studio. He acted by night and sold cars by day. He appeared on Broadway, replacing Ben Gazzara as Brick in the original production of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," before going to Hollywood. Lord appeared in several classic feature films, among them "Man of the West" (1958) starring Gary Cooper. Early in his career, he met his wife, Marie de Narde. He was a fine arts major at NYU and was there on a football scholarship. Marie soon left her career as a successful fashion designer, to support Jack in becoming an actor. He appeared in the movie "Dr. No," but mainly did television, where he was cast in a succession of villain roles. Through the late 1950s and 1960s, he made guest appearances on scores of TV series. His first starring role in a TV series was in the western, "Stoney Burke," which lasted only a year. When that series was over, he worked for several years singing western songs at rodeos and fairs. A veteran of theater, film and television, Lord will be remembered best for the role that made him famous, that of Steve McGarrett, on the television show "Hawaii Five-O," which ran from 1968 to 1980 in 284 episodes. He directed many of the episodes. The series was seen in 80 countries, with a weekly audience estimated at more than 300 million. It's still seen daily on hundreds of stations in reruns. The show was shot entirely on location at Lord's insistence. He died of congestive heart failure at his home in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the age of 77.