A 17-year-old Jack Lord (John Joseph Ryan) in the John Adams High School yearbook, 1938. 

The team picture of the John Adams Varsity Football Team, 1938 (with a close-up of Jack) and another team picture featuring a very young Jack, possibly from the year before.

"Why don't you write the true story of Jack Lord?" suggested a new acquaintance of mine who had graduated with him in the 1938 class at John Adams High School in Queens, New York. "And, while you're about it," she urged, "start with the fact that, in December, he will be 50. All this publicity, insisting he's still in his mid-30s, makes him seem like an aging juvenile, which he isn't - he's become a tremendous actor. Besides," she laughed, "that age bit makes the rest of us from that class feel so ancient, by comparison!"... Did she have any suggestion as to how I might proceed in the matter of discovering and writing the "true" story of Jack Lord?... "Easy," she said. Start at John Adams High. It's considered a ''tough school now, though it was a fine middle-class neighborhood school back then. So take a man with you, for safety. Anyway, there are school officials still there who will remember Jack - or John, as we all knew him. They will give you all the 'leads' you need."

Her advice was well taken. The school must have changed since Jack Lord went there, for I did feel safer having a male escort - I, too, had seen recent "scare" headlines in New York papers about clashes between John Adams students and the police. And I did find people who "knew John when" and were willing to help me "set the record straight" about him.

I also learned to my surprise that the six-foot-two, eyes-of-blue Jack Lord, who portrays tough, confident Steve McGarrett, head of the special police force on CBS-TV's Hawaii Five-0, hasn't changed much from the quiet "loner" he was regarded as being in his high school days.

The first school official I approached, I told I was writing a story about alumnus Jack Lord, and would be grateful for any help. "You mean John Ryan," came the pleasant reply, "for that was his real name."

And then, little by little, all the pieces about Jack Lord-John Ryan began to fall into place, all the untold, unpublicized facts, all the answers that surely make this the first totally accurate story ever to see print about Jack Lord... 

He was born John Joseph Patrick Ryan, December 20, 1920, second son of William Ryan, who was a policeman during Jack's high school years, and grew up on 125th Street in Morris Park, New York. In those days Jack had no thought of becoming an actor. Instead he anxiously followed in his big brother Bill's footsteps. They both graduated from John Adams High in Queens, as did their two younger brothers, Thomas and Robert, and their kid sister Josephine. Jack, like Bill, played football, painted, joined the Merchant Marines and graduated from NYU.

Where the world of canvas and paint remained Bill's "bag", though, the world of acting and grease paint became Jack's. What prompted Jack to switch fields was something that happened, almost accidentally, when he was in his mid-20s.

During Bill Ryan's high school days, he was considered the school's best artist. (Later, the same honor was bestowed upon Jack.) He was awarded the St. Gaudens Medal by the School Art League. Bill graduated from John Adams in 1934 (one year prior to Jack's entry) and went on to NYU. In November of '36, Bill was celebrated by John Adams High during Open School Week and 30 of his paintings and lithographs were on exhibit. Even at so early an age, he had already acquired acclaim among art critics all over the world. A front-page story on William Lawrence Ryan in the school's paper, The Campus, told at length of his work and his plans for the future. The article closed with: "There is no doubt that Ryan will go far in the world of art, and then you Adamsites will have the chance to say - 'I knew him when'."

Back in those early years, Jack envisioned that he would become an artist like Bill. Apparently Bill was his idol because Jack, at 14, during the summer, joined his brother and began yearly summer sailings of the seas working on freighters, and giving life to his dream of becoming an artist.

In June 1938, when he was 17, Jack was graduated from John Adams High - with a variety of honors. The Senior Issue of the school's yearbook, The Clipper, carries a lengthy roster of his achievements:

RYAN, JOHN - Bronze, Silver "A"s; Honor, Meritorious, Distinguished Service Certificates; Senior Life Saving; Major "A"; Intramurals; P.S.A.L. Pins; Varsity Football Team; Dean's Squad; Art Editor, "Campus Clipper" Art Staff; Art Office; Key of Courtesy, President, Student Supervisor Arts and Crafts, Secretary Newman, Etching, Young Scientists Clubs. - New York University. [this referred to the school he would next attend.]

There were 576 people in Jack Lord's graduating class - 32 years ago and that's a huge chunk of time. But I found and talked to scores of his ex-classmates, all of whom remembered him. And almost all knew he had gone on to fame as Jack Lord.

Emanuel Halper, who now lives on Long Island, said, "John was a good artist even then. His paintings constantly adorned the main hall. He was a nice fellow. I didn't know him well, but I didn't forget him, either, because about ten years ago, when my wife and I, along with our two daughters, were vacationing in Williamsburg, Virginia - Jack Lord was in a film we were watching.

Easy to spot - and remember

"Before you enter the Colonial Village there, they show you a forty-minute orientation film about Colonial times - the Revolution - and there was no cast of characters. But after a few minutes I said, 'That man looks familiar.' By the time the film was over, there was no doubt in my mind that Jack Lord was John Ryan. He still looks very much the same as he did in school."

Mr. Peter Troyano, now Dean of Boys at John Adams, was, during John's time, their football coach.

"I remember John Ryan quite well," he said. "Handsome boy. Looked 16 at 17. He was capable, reliable and the essence of courtesy. In fact, I organized the Key of Courtesy Club and made him the president. The purpose of the club was to entertain and receive guests at the school functions, dances and plays (we had a play every semester at that time). John was in charge of it all. He became an above-average student the last year and a half.

"During that time he became really mature and became a top-flight student in his senior year. He began to acquire one honor after another and was selected as chairman of the senior prom. The seniors accorded him four honors: Most Popular, Best Looking, Most Dignified and Class Artist. He was every bit of it. He also became the columnist of the art department. There was hardly a Clipper issue that didn't have his picture in it and/or something he had written during the last eight months. He was on our Varsity Team and the Dean's Squad."

Since Jack was so active in all the social as well as academic programs, I asked Mr. Troyano if Jack ever had time for dating.

"No, I don't recall he dated much," he answered. "I know he was a target for a lot of young ladies and I think when he dated it wasn't steady. I got the impression that he was much too serious about his school work. He seemed much more concerned about that than about girls. He was never boisterous or exuberant. Always seemed serious and always behaved like a young man with a purpose. He seemed to know what he wanted out of life and where he was going. I had no doubt that he would go to college and see it through and do something successfully.

"Of course, I never dreamed he would become an actor. In fact, he had been on television some time before I was told Jack Lord was John Ryan. Over the many years at John Adams I can truthfully say I haven't found young men like John often." Mr. Troyano laughed. "You can tell Jack Lord if he would like my autograph, I'll oblige."

What they say about Jack

Of all the school people I contacted about Jack, only one was reluctant to talk about him. This was Mr. William Clarke, retired principal of John Adams High, to whom I turned when I was told he knew Jack Lord and his family well. When I questioned him about Jack he began: "Some years ago before my retirement - around 1963 - I had a similar request from a reporter. My answer then was, I would have to have a written request from Jack first. Later on, he wrote me, not knowing I was no longer the principal, and commended me on the answer I gave. I will tell you this: He was a splendid boy and a natural leader. I know his family. His parents were splendid people - patrons of our school. He is one of five children, Bill being the oldest. They all went to John Adams and were all a credit to the school. If Jack gives me the okay, I'll talk."

But all the others could, would, and did talk! 

Mildred Cleary Santopolo, now a housewife, mother and schoolteacher, was one of the six "Adamsites", as was Jack, to receive an academic scholarship. She was their first girl G. O. president and the second girl to become president of the senior class. "Certainly I remember John. He was interested in art and athletics in those days. He was a very serious boy and spent all his free time in the art rooms. He was a loner. I can't remember ever seeing him with a special group of kids." She laughed. "John ran against me for presidency once and lost the election. I don't understand how he became the most popular. He was very personable, but not a talkative, outgoing type.

"Recently I took my old class book to a neighbor and pointed to John's picture. I asked her if she recognized the person from television. She quickly said, 'Of course. That's Jack Lord!' I can say one thing for him: He certainly hasn't changed much except he's much thinner now. The old expression 'Nice guys finish first' certainly applies to him."

George Norwig, who was voted class orator and poet, is now WCSC-TV sales executive and sports director in Charleston, South Carolina. He had this to say - in astonishment: "Jack Lord of Hawaii Five-0 is John Ryan? I've watched the show many times and never made the connection! Sure, I remember John. We both dated the same girl for a while. John was a very good dancer, I remember that about him. So, Jack Lord is John J. Ryan... what about that?"

Tricked out of a date?

Margaret Eschmann, a divorcee who now lives in Minneola, L. I., said, "John was voted best-looking boy and I was voted best-looking girl and he invited me to the senior prom, but some girl who was jealous of me, I guess, told me he had also invited someone else. It was just a vicious trick, but I believed it and told him I couldn't go with him, that I had another date - to save face, you know. I think he then invited Dorothy Dreher - I'm not sure.

"John was quiet - certainly not an extrovert. He never had much to say, but if he had to speak out on an issue, he would do so and with authority. He was a person of few words. If he was popular it was more because of his ability than 'personality'. He had a lot on the ball. He always accomplished what he set out to do. Everyone liked him, but he didn't get close to anyone. He never ran around with a crowd.

"I worked two years on the campus paper with him. He was very conservative and a neat dresser, but you had to be in those days," she laughed. "Between Mr. Clarke, our principal, and Miss Keller, you couldn't escape being gentlemanly or ladylike. I never knew John's family and he never talked about his personal life. He was very reticent and you had to take the time to draw him out. I always thought he was exceptionally mature for his age."

Gerald Regan, of New Hyde Park, played football with Jack. "My wife and I get a kick out of the stories we read about him," Regan said. "One article said he didn't go to high school. Another said the big league teams had asked him to work for them. I certainly don't believe that because I don't think he was a great athlete, yet they said he was a 'major' athlete. We recognized him as being John the first time we saw him on TV."

Thomas Carbone, who still lives in Queens, was another football team buddy. "John was a real team worker, always right there to take care of anything that needed to be done. My wife told me he was Jack Lord -- I couldn't believe it. I had been watching Hawaii Five-0 week after week and didn't recognize him."

Sam Williams, who was voted class scholar and is now in business for himself, said, "We were in the same art classes. He lived at 97-25 125th Street, right around the corner from me, but I didn't know his family at all. His father was a policeman, that's about all I knew of John's family. I used to walk home with him quite often, as he lived a block away, but I can't remember anything we talked about except school and our plans for college. Neither of us dated very often, we were too involved in scholastic studies."

Andrew Power, now a New York attorney, said, "John was always well dressed. He wore suits - even then. I was interested in dramatics so we didn't have much in common." He laughed, "I wanted to be an actor in those days and here I am a lawyer. Back then, John looked more the lawyer than I. I didn't know him at all, other than seeing him at school, but my kid sister dated him a few times. Nice fellow. He wanted to be an artist - that's about all I remember of him."

It would certainly appear that the serious-minded John Ryan-Jack Lord intended to be a professional artist, but Destiny was busily preparing another, far more rewarding and illustrious career for him -- after some unexpected detours!

During his four years at NYU, Jack and brother Bill opened their Village Academy of Arts where they directed art courses, and Jack's intention heightened to follow his childhood dream. In 1941 the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired two of his linoleum cuts, entitled "Vermont" and "Fishing Shacks, Block Island". 

Until he graduated in 1942, he continued his sea journeys during the summers and then served in the merchant marine throughout World War II. 

Headed for heartbreak

Clifford Craven, now dean of Oneonta College in Oneonta, NY, had this to say of Jack: "He was very active socially during our high school years. I don't think anyone disliked him. He talked about wanting to be an artist, and I remember that later on he and his brother opened an art school, but we lost track of each other until 1943, when I bumped into him at Liverpool. He was a seaman first mate and he took me on a tour of his ship. I knew he had gotten married and I believe she was French. I met an old school chum [he named him] who had been a close friend of John's in New York in 1946, and he told me John had also become the father of a child, a son."

Researching this story, I found that the story of Jack Lord's first marriage - it took place when he was 19 - had been printed in just one magazine, though many thousands of words have been written about him in the past decade. It was Jack Lord himself who gave the story to just one writer, his friend, the late Jerry Asher. And it is a sad story...

When Jack, at 19, was an officer on a Mediterranean cruise ship, he related, he met and fell instantly in love with a young passenger, a beautiful girl from Buenos Aires. The wedding was performed by the ship's captain, who gave Jack a five-week leave for a Riviera honeymoon. When that was over, the girl's parents insisted she go on to school in Switzerland, while Jack rejoined his ship.

Three months later, Jack learned he was to become a father. When the boy was born, Jack arranged a leave to visit his wife and new son in Marseilles. There, he learned to his distress that his young wife had no desire to live in America. Nothing could change her mind on that.

Still later, she asked for a divorce, to which he agreed.

Thirteen years passed and great tragedy came to Jack Lord, who had scarcely had a chance even to know his son. The boy died.. suddenly...his young life snuffed out instantly in an accident.

Clings to privacy

Today, Jack Lord never talks to anyone about this. He is a man of few words who keeps his private life to himself. The pattern was set when, as a teenager, he never discussed his personal life as most young people do. So it is not out of character that, except for telling it one time, he has kept all this locked up within himself. And it is not surprising that so few know anything about his youthful marriage, or about the greatest tragedy in his life.

William Meyerriecks, another classmate who now has his own art school in New York, said: "John and his brother William were in the Merchant Marine and they shipped out on Liberty ships, getting bonuses for their daring voyages. John made out quite well and invested the money in radio surplus equipment which paid off handsomely. With that money, he financed his dramatic training. The last time I saw him was around 1950. The guy has earned what he has, and is, through hard work, dedication and perseverance. He deserves what he's got. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy."

When World War II ended, Jack spent a year in Persia as a steel worker with the US Engineering Department. Returning home in 1946, he worked for a couple of years with the US Maritime Service in Washington - making maritime training films. This consisted of his being photographed by movie cameras while splicing lines, launching lifeboats and illustrating other duties of a deckhand. After he finished some 25 if these movie-manuals, it occurred to him that acting might be an interesting way to make a living. He tucked a can of film under his arm and began making the rounds of New York theatrical agents. He also began serious study with drama coach Sanford Meisner.

He was getting a late start. After all, he wasn't a kid any longer, he was past his mid-20s. But now, he had a real dream, and a definite goal in sight.

Soon, too, he had a lovely girl at his side to help him reach that goal. In 1948, he met and married Marie De Narde, who vigorously supported his acting ambitions. His success was something they both struggled for, all the way up. Today, they live the life of millionaires (which they are) in Honolulu, where Hawaii Five-0 is filmed, in a palatial Kahala Beach lanai beside a golden sand strip and a jade lagoon.

Then, though, they never guessed what a long road lay ahead of them.

In 1949, Jack appeared in his first Hollywood film, the long-forgotten Project X. He also did 50 or more "live" TV shows in New York before getting his first break on Broadway, opposite Kim Stanley, in 1954.

Jack once made the statement, "Art is a sucker's game. A man has to have a fantastic ability for survival." He survived. He got where he wanted to get - to the top. But before TV's Stoney Burke turned the tide for him in a big way, before his never-to-be-forgotten portrayal of Brick in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof on Broadway, Jack worked - between acting jobs -- as a car salesman in New York and made rather a handsome living doing it.

Ralph Horgan, formerly a Ford dealer who employed Jack Lord for over a year (beginning in 1948) and now a Wall Street stockbroker with Cantella & Co., spoke enthusiastically about the star. "When he first joined us, he was doing bit parts in little theaters around New York while studying acting," Mr. Horgan began. "I liked him instantly. He was bright and eager to be a success. He was a better than average salesman and earned $10,000 a year or more. But he left us in 1949 to go where the grass was greener. He went with Cadillac cars. I wrote him not long ago when I saw an article stating he had been a Cadillac salesman before getting his break in theater, and I reminded him he had been selling 'flivvers' - Fords - before going with the big cars!

"Our relationship was strictly business - 'front and center,' an old expression from my Marine Corps days. He used to kid me that we had both been Marines and I told him there was no comparison. Marines don't make money, but the 'Merchant marines' were cleaning up during the war. They got double and triple pay every time they shipped out.

"Knew he would make it!"

"I remember once offering to get him into The Lambs Club, and he turned it down because he said he couldn't afford it. I remember meeting his wife a few times - pretty brunette. I was sorry to lose him. He was a damn good salesman and dressed more like a stockbroker or an advertising executive than an actor.

"First time I spotted him on TV, I said, 'There's my boy. I knew he would make it!' I've been surrounded by show biz people for years. We sell to a lot of famous names. I had a taste of it myself back around '45 when I got out of the Marines. I worked as Fred Waring's manager for over a year. My daughter is with the New York City Ballet. She's George Balanchine's assistant. So, John's world was not that far removed from my own.

"John never wasted time kidding around. He was there to work and he did very well. He made friends, everyone liked him, but he didn't talk about himself. He was a very thoughtful guy, though. During his stay with us, he sent me birthday cards, holiday greetings... something a lot of people don't bother to do, you know? I'm glad he made it, and frankly, I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly it happened for him."

John left Horgan Ford to join a Cadillac agency on York Avenue and 60th Street. One of the salesman who remembers him, Mr. Carerra, said, "He was a quiet young man - kept to himself. He was very conservative in dress - Brooks Brothers type. Dark blue suits with white pinstripes - that was his style. He was very productive in spite of the hours he took off for acting classes. He worked about every other day and on the days he was in, he left early for classes. Despite that, he was, sales-wise, right along with the rest of us.

"I remember seeing him with his wife at our company parties and I remember he never drank. He was a handsome guy. Dark hair, sort of chestnut. But too thin - thinner than he is now. For a long time after he left, he continued to send us Christmas cards and would drop in to see us whenever he could. I think we all knew he would be famous someday."

Not at liberty to talk

Since all of Jack's old school and business friends had been so cooperative, I decided the time had come to talk to members of his family. Josephine Ryan, Jack's younger sister, is a member of the faculty at a teachers' college in western Connecticut and spends her vacation with the Ryan family at Germantown, New York, on the Hudson River.

When I called Josephine there asking that she tell me a little about the kind of young man Jack had been - the kind of brother he was - she politely, but firmly, said: "I am sorry, but we are not at liberty to discuss Jack in any way. He has asked that we not, and we respect his request. If Jack gives you written consent to talk to us, we will gladly meet with you."

As a writer, I was disappointed, but as a human being, I could certainly understand. However, it did strike me as being odd. First Mr. Clarke, the John Adams principal had refused, and now the family. Whatever could there be that might be told that I hadn't already learned?

Despite the mystery and contradictory stories that previously have been printed about him, Jack Lord stands mighty tall in the Hall of Hollywoodites. His fame didn't come easy, and perhaps that explains why he is such a fine actor. He's got "true grit", he's got character. But that seems to be a Ryan trait, as is evidenced by the art-world success of his brother Bill, who is listed in Who's Who in American Art and has made a reputation for himself as an outstanding painter. His work hangs in the Metropolitan and in other leading museums throughout the country.

According to statements Jack Lord has made, painting is still a vital, creative part of his life, and when he retires he intends to give it his full-time attention. Perhaps he is still following in his big brother Bill's footsteps? Not many actors could have the courage to walk away from the glorious salaries Hollywood offers, but my bet is on Jack. From all I have learned about him, I suspect he knows what is important to living, and piling up the gold hills and lining up the trophies just isn't all there is to "life's riches".