Actress Jill Ireland Dies; Battled Cancer for 5 Years

Jill Ireland, the British actress whose courageous five-year battle against breast cancer brought hope and inspiration to the ailing and the healthy, died today from the disease. She was 54.

Ireland, the wife of her frequent action movie co-star Charles Bronson, died at her Malibu home at 11:30 a.m.

Her husband, mother Dorothy, brother John, sons Paul and Valentine McCallum and daughter Zulieka Bronson were with her, said publicist Lori Jonas.

The actress first underwent surgery in 1984 for removal of a cancerous right breast and eight lymph nodes under her arm. The cancer, after a brief remission, spread to her lungs.

Last April, Ireland began feeling pain in her shoulder. The condition was diagnosed as cancer that had spread to her lungs, hip, femur and thyroid.

In two books and frequent lectures about her battle with the disease, Ireland spoke eloquently about self-respect and optimism in the face of devastating illness. She called herself a survivor, not a victim.

“I don’t want to die,” she said in early 1989. “It’s not an OK thing. Not right now. We all die one day, but I am not in the mood to do it yet.”

Her life was filled with calamity. Her adopted son, Jason McCallum, a longtime drug abuser, died in November after injecting a drug mixture. He was to have been married a few days later.