His brother is a high school shop teacher in his hometown of Toronto, Canada.

Moved to Los Angeles, California, USA in 1982.

Father of Adrienne Ironside.

Has a daughter Findlay (born 1998) by second wife Karen.

A talented arm wrestler in his youth, he ironically often loses an arm and / or other limb in his films: Total Recall (1990), Starship Troopers (1997), Maquinista, El (2004) and Guy X (2005). If he hadn't been too bulky he also would have played Murphy in RoboCop (1987), who loses both his arms.

Was for some time attached to play the title role in RoboCop (1987), but the crew had to give up on the idea when they realized that he would have to have a much smaller frame to fit into the costume envisaged.

Came to notice in the Canadian sci-fi horror classic Scanners (1981) in which he played the mind-controlling, head-blowing megalomaniac Daryl Revok, which led to a dynamic, infamous career of out-and-out baddies or edgy anti-heroes.

His daughter Adrienne is from a previous marriage.

Good friends with WWE Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler.

Huge fan of Professional Wrestling.

Said in an interview he is mostly recognized by the public from his voice over work in the Splinter Cell (2002) (VG) series.

Like Terence Stamp, he has played both a Superman foe and friend. The foe he played was Darkseid, one of Superman's greatest enemies, in the animated show "Justice League" (2001). The friend he played was Gen. Sam Lane, father of Lois Lane (Clark Kent's future bride) on the TV show "Smallville" (2001).

At the age of fifteen he wrote a play called "The Shelter" which won first prize in a Canada-wide university contest. He used the prize money to mount his own production of said play.