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From IMDb.com -

Jack Lord will probably be best remembered as Steve McGarett in the long running televison series HAWAII FIVE-O, but he was much more than that however. He starred in several movies, directed several episodes of his show, was in several Broadway productions, and was an acomplished artist. Two of his paintings were acquired by New York's Metrpoltian Museum of Art and the British Museum of Modern Art by the time he was twenty. Lord was also known for being a very cultured man who loved reading poetry out loud on the set of his TV show and as being somewhat reclusive at his Honolulu home. He met his son from his first marriage, who was killed in an accident when he was thirteen, only once as a baby.

Jack Lord was the son of William Lawrence Ryan, steamship company executive. He learned his equestrian skills at his mother's fruit farm in the Hudson River Valley. At age 15 he started spending summers at sea in the Merchant Marine, and from the deck of ships, painted and sketched the landscapes he encountered; Africa, Mediterranean, China. Education: New York school system, Trumbull Naval Academy, in New London, CT., graduating an Ensign with a Third Mates License. On a football scholarship, New York University securing a degree in Fine Arts. Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, and the Actor's Studio. During World War II he served in the Merchant Navy. While making maritime training films during the Korean War he took to the idea of acting. This is when he decided to attend the Neighborhood Playhouse, working as a Cadillac salesman in New York to fund his studies. Later, at the Actor's Studio, he studied with Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, and Marilyn Monroe. His first work on Broadway was in, "Traveling Lady", "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"; followed by his first in Hollywood, "Court Martial of Billy Mitchell" with Gary Cooper.