
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 19, 1990                   TAG: 9005190271
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD                                LENGTH: Medium

JILL IRELAND DIES OF CANCER AT 54

Jill Ireland, the British-born actress who helped others by writing books about her battle with cancer and her son's addiction to drugs, died Friday at her Malibu home. She was 54.

She slipped into a coma early Friday and succumbed at 11:30 a.m. to the spreading cancer she had fought for six years.

Her husband and frequent co-star, actor Charles Bronson, whom she credited with helping her endure intensive radiation and chemotherapy treatments, was at her side when she died.

Paul and Valentine McCallum, her sons from her first marriage to actor David McCallum, and her daughter Zulieka Bronson, her mother, Dorothy, and brother, John, also were at her bedside Friday, according to publicist Lori Jonas.

Ireland was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984. She wrote about her mastectomy and recovery in her first book, "Life Wish," and made upbeat talks and appearances to bolster cancer victims and raise money for cancer research.

In February 1989, doctors told her that the cancer had reappeared and metastasized to her lungs. The disease quickly spread to her hip, femur and thyroid. She was given two to three years to live.

A different tragedy struck in November, interrupting her chemotherapy and prompting a cross-country flight in a chartered plane from her much-loved Vermont farm.

Jason McCallum, 27, the son she had adopted at infancy with McCallum, had died of ingested and injected drugs.

She had chronicled his drug addiction and treatment in her second book, "Life Lines," and had believed that he was "clean" when the sudden death occurred.

Ireland was born April 24, 1936, in London. She was trained as a ballet dancer and first performed professionally when she was 12. For a time, she appeared with the Monte Carlo Ballet.

She began performing in British TV and films while still a teen-ager, making her film debut in 1955 in "Oh, Rosalinda" with Sir Michael Redgrave.

Her 10-year marriage to McCallum ended in 1967, and a year later, she married Bronson, becoming his permanent leading lady in a string of action films beginning with "Villa Rides."

In the late 1970s, looking for new challenges, Ireland co-produced some of their movies.

by CNB