Portrait of Ian McShane

Birthday profile

Ian McShane

Ian McShane, English actor

Born
September 29, 1942
Age in 2026
84
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1942

About Ian McShane

Ian David McShane (born 29 September 1942) is an English actor. His television performances include the title role in the BBC series Lovejoy (1986, 1991–1994), Al Swearengen in Deadwood (2004–2006) and its 2019 film continuation, and Mr. Wednesday in American Gods (2017–2021). For the original series of Deadwood, McShane won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. As a producer of the film, he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie. His film roles include Harry Brown in The Wild and the Willing (1962), Charlie Cartwright in If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), Wolfe Lissner in Villain (1971), Teddy Bass in Sexy Beast (2000), Frank Powell in Hot Rod (2007), Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda (2008), reprised the role in Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024), Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), and Winston Scott in the John Wick franchise (2014–present). McShane shared a flat with Hurt, whom he called his "oldest friend in the business", and was still a student at RADA when he appeared with Hurt in his first film, The Wild and the Willing, in 1962. Among science fiction fans McShane is known for playing Robert Bryson in Babylon 5: The River of Souls. His television performances include the title role in the BBC series Lovejoy, Al Swearengen in Deadwood (2004–2006) and its 2019 film continuation, and Mr. Wednesday in American Gods (2017–2021).

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Ian McShane timeline

  1. McShane shared a flat with Hurt, whom he called his "oldest friend in the business", and was still a student at RADA when he appeared with Hurt in his first film, The Wild and the Willing, in 1962.
  2. His television performances include the title role in the BBC series Lovejoy, Al Swearengen in Deadwood (2004–2006) and its 2019 film continuation, and Mr. Wednesday in American Gods (2017–2021).

The world when Ian McShane was born

Ian McShane was born in 1942. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1942

  • #1 song"White Christmas" – Bing Crosby
  • Top movieCasablanca
  • Best-selling bookThe Song of Bernadette – Franz Werfel

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst Negro League World Series
  • Top headlineBattle of Midway becomes turning point of WWII in the Pacific
  • Technology milestoneEnrico Fermi achieves first nuclear chain reaction
  • Defining fadRationing and war bonds
  • Notable inventionNapalm
  • World population2.35 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population134.9M

1942 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Ian McShane's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19422026
Gas$0.20$3.45/gal
Average home$5,600$435,000
Average income$3,800$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.27$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population134.9M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.