Lost at Sea
While we all have come to know and love him as Jack Lord, that’s not actually his real name! He was born John Joseph Patrick Ryan, and the story of how he changed his name is very interesting. Six months before the actor was set to finish college, the United States was dragged into World War II.
Photo by FilmPublicityArchive / United Archives / Getty Images
Lord, who was a Merchant Marine, served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers building bridges in Persia (which is now Iran) before going to sea with the U.S. Maritime Service. But the ship he boarded was quickly torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Italy while they were on their way to pick up manganese ore in East Africa.