Happy 70th Birthday, Ian McShane!

Ian McShane is smokin’ at the Pirates of the Caribbean premiere. (Photo via AP)

Ian McShane celebrates his 70th birthday today. This feisty actor has mastered the art of playing the bad boy, making his mark in BBC’s Lovejoy (1986-1994) as the dastardly yet charming antiques dealer; then crossing the Atlantic to appear in the evening soap opera Dallas (1989) as a cad-tastic English lothario by the name of Don Lockwood.

Fast forwarding a bit, he won a Golden Globe for his brute role as Al Swearengen in HBO’s Deadwood (2004-2006). He gave Johnny Depp a run for his money in the “charmingly relentless” category as Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011). Keep an eye out for McShane as King Brahmwell in the forthcoming modern fairy tale Jack the Giant Killer (March 2013).

“The bad boy: always more fun,” McShane told The New York Times. “I had a knack for it from the start.” Grrr, you go tiger.

In celebration of his 70 years, let’s take a peek at Ian making bad look good:

Lovejoy