Best Known As: Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune
Jeremy Irons is known as a masterful and slightly unnerving dramatic actor who bounces between serious dramas and popcorn blockbusters. He won a 1991 Oscar as best actor for his uncanny portrayal of the creepy Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune and played twisted twin doctors in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers (1988), but he's also known for his role as Simon in Die Hard: With A Vengeance (1995, starring Bruce Willis) and as the voice of the villainous Scar in Disney's animated hit The Lion King (1994). He also played Humbert Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (1997, with Melanie Griffith) and starred in the 2000 movie version of Dungeons and Dragons. A versatile and respected actor, he also won a Tony Award in 1984 for The Real Thing. His other films include Damage (1992), The Time Machine (2002), The Man in the Iron Mask (1998, starring Leonardo DiCaprio) and Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven (2005, with Orlando Bloom).
(born Sept. 19, 1948, Cowes, Isle of Wight, Eng.) British actor. He made his London stage debut in Godspell (1973) and appeared on Broadway in The Real Thing (1984, Tony Award). After his screen debut in Nijinsky (1980), he won notice for The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) and became widely popular in the television series Brideshead Revisited (1980 – 81). His performances were notable for their sensitivity and sophistication, and he offered deliciously wicked turns in Dead Ringers (1988) and Reversal of Fortune (1990, Academy Award). His later films include Damage (1992), The Lion King (1994), and Lolita (1997).
Born: Sep 19, 1948 in Cowes, Isle of Wight, England
Occupation: Actor
Active: '80s-2000s
Major Genres: Drama, History
Career Highlights: Dead Ringers, Dead Ringers, Brideshead Revisited
First Major Screen Credit: Notorious Woman (1974)
Biography
With a long-limbed elegance and the voice of a serpent crossed with an angel, Jeremy Irons has long been described as swoon fodder for the thinking woman. Tall, brooding, and impossibly well-spoken, Irons has often been cast as a haunted aristocrat, but has on occasion used his well-heeled attributes to more sinister effect, most notably in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers.
Born September 19, 1948, on the Isle of Wight, Irons was educated at Sherborne. While a student there, he formed a band with four of his friends called the Four Pillars of Wisdom. Irons played drums -- badly, by his own estimation -- and the band attained a limited fame playing at various parties. After failed attempts to enter veterinary school, Irons decided to become an actor and received classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His training there led to a two-year stint with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company, where Irons performed in a large number of plays. On the side, he supported himself by doing odd jobs, including busking (singing on the streets), and it was thanks to his musical inclinations that he got his big break in the 1972 London production of Godspell. Singing for his supper alongside David Bowie, Irons won acclaim for his portrayal of John the Baptist and was soon a respected figure on the London theater scene.
Irons made his screen debut in the 1980 film Nijinsky, but didn't find true fame until the following year, when he starred in the 11-part television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. As part of a glittering cast that included Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, and Claire Bloom, Irons won raves on both sides of the Atlantic for his portrayal of the lovelorn, conflicted Charles Ryder. Following this success, the actor was in demand as a romantic lead and could soon be seen starring opposite Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981). After trying his hand at playing a Polish laborer in Moonlighting (1982) and an adulterous lover in Betrayal (1983), Irons again played a tortured aristocrat in Swann in Love (1984).
Following work in a few minor films and a Tony Award for his 1984 Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, Irons once again struck gold with his role as a conscientious missionary in The Mission (1986), in which he starred opposite Robert De Niro and received a 1987 Golden Globe nomination for his work. He next went completely against type, playing insane twin gynecologists in David Cronenberg's 1988 thriller Dead Ringers, a dual performance that both shocked his longtime fans and won him some new ones. For his portrayals, he garnered a New York Film Critics Circle Award, acclaim that was to be heightened two years later with his Oscar-winning turn as millionaire murder suspect Claus Von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune. Irons also won a Golden Globe for his work and settled into a real-life role as one of the most respected actors on both sides of the Atlantic.
Throughout the 1990s, Irons' career was one of great variety and sometimes varying quality. Less acclaimed work included 1992's Waterland, in which he starred with his wife, Sinéad Cusack; the star-studded 1993 adaptation of The House of the Spirits; and The Man in the Iron Mask, a big-budget 1998 historical action piece in which Irons appeared to be competing with Gabriel Byrne, John Malkovich, and Gérard Depardieu to see who could wear the worst wig. Irons' more acclaimed films included Louis Malle's psychological drama Damage (1992); Disney's animated The Lion King (1994), to which Irons lent his voice as the villainous Scar; the following year's Die Hard With a Vengeance, in which Irons once again explored his sinister side, as a terrorist; Stealing Beauty (1996), which cast the actor as a dying artist; Chinese Box (1997), in which he portrayed yet another dying man; and Adrian Lyne's controversial adaptation of Lolita (also 1997), in which Irons gave a subtle, heartbreaking performance as Humbert Humbert.
In 2000, Irons' relatively small role in the ultimately mediocre adaptation Dungeons & Dragons was once again noted as one of the highlights of an otherwise so-so film. Shortly afterward, Irons played the leading role in The Fourth Angel, which featured the actor as a magazine editor-cum-freedom fighter after his wife and three children were killed when their airplane was hijacked by terrorists. Though his performance was generally viewed as good, few Americans would enjoy it -- the original (and uncanny) plan for a United States theatrical release in fall of 2001 was canceled after the 9/11 attacks. Luckily for Irons and his loyal fan base, the 2002 releases of The Time Machine and the musical drama Callas Forever were not similarly hindered. In the same year, Irons would play the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald in director Henry Bromell's biographical feature Last Call with great success. 2003 was a busy year for Irons' vocal chords, as he provided one of the starring voices in the lavish, multi-episode television documentary Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites.
Irons appeared in two small but well-received 2004 releases, taking a role alongside screen legend Al Pacino in Michael Radford's The Merchant of Venice, and showing up in the comedy drama Being Julia with Annette Bening and Sheila McCarthy. However, the following year, he could be seen in director Ridley Scott's big-budget box-office dud Kingdom of Heaven, an historical film about the Crusades that failed to find an audience in the wake of similar pictures such as Troy and Alexander. Irons once again snared great notices for his work in the period drama Elizabeth I opposite Helen Mirren, winning the Golden Globe for his supporting work in that television production. He next displayed his remarkable versatility by appearing in two very different motion pictures, the fantasy action film Eragon and David Lynch's Inland Empire.
An Englishman to the last, Irons has resisted the temptation to settle in Hollywood and continues to reside in England. He starred with one of his two sons, Samuel, in the 1989 television adaptation of Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Irons was born in Cowes, Isle of Wight, the son of Barbara Anne Brereton Brymer Sharpe Irons (née Sharpe), a housewife (1914–1999), and Paul Dugan Irons (June 1913 in Croydon – 1983), an accountant.[1] Part of his maternal ancestry is Irish,[2] and his great-grandfather was one of the first Metropolitan Policemen and later a chartist. Irons has a brother, Christopher (born 1943) and a sister, Felicity Anne (born 1944), both older. He was educated at the independent Sherborne School in Dorset, (c. 1962–1966). He achieved some fame as the drummer and harmonica player (most memorably for his rendition of "Moon River" on harmonica) in a four-man school band called the Four Pillars of Wisdom. They performed, in a classroom normally used as a physics lab, for the entertainment of boys compulsorily exiled from their houses for two hours on Sunday afternoons. He was also known within Abbey House as half of a comic duo performing skits on Halloween and at end-of-term House Suppers.
Career
Irons trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and is now president of its fundraising appeal. He performed a number of plays and supported himself by busking on the streets of Bristol, before appearing on the London stage as John the Baptist and Judas opposite David Essex in Godspell, which opened at the Round House on 17 November 1971 before transferring to Wyndham's Theatre playing a total of 1,128 performances.[3]
Irons was bestowed an Honorary-Life Membership by the Law Society (University College Dublin) in September 2008, in honour of his contribution to television, film, audio, music and theatre.
Television
He made several appearances on British television, including the children's television series Play Away and as Franz Liszt in the BBC 1974 series Notorious Woman. More significantly he starred in the 13-part adaptation of H.E. Bates' novel Love for Lydia for London Weekend Television (1977), and attracted attention for his key role as the pipe-smoking German student, a romantic pairing with Judi Dench in Harold Pinter's screenplay adaptation of Aidan Higgins' novel Langrishe, Go Down for BBC television (1978).
Almost as a 'lap of honour' after these major successes, in 1982 he played the leading role of an exiled Polish building contractor, working in the Twickenham area of South West London, in Jerzy Skolimowski's independent film Moonlighting, widely seen on television, a performance which extended his acting range. Irons voiced Devious Diesel in Thomas and Friends.
In 2005, Irons won both an Emmy award and a Golden Globe award for his supporting role in the TV mini-series, Elizabeth I. A year later Irons was one of the participants in the third series of the BBC documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?[4][5] In 2008 he played Lord Vetinari in Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, an adaptation for Sky One.
On 6 November 2008, TV Guide reported he will star as photographer Alfred Stieglitz with Joan Allen as painter Georgia O’Keeffe, in a Lifetime Television O’Keeffe biopic.[6] Irons also appeared in the documentary for Irish television channel TG4, Faoi Lan Cheoil in which he learned to play the fiddle.
Other roles include playing the evil wizard Profion in the film Dungeons and Dragons (2000). He played Rupert Gould in Longitude (2000). He played the Über-Morlock from the movie The Time Machine (2002). In 2004, Irons played Severus Snape in Comic Relief's Harry Potter parody, "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan". Irons and Alan Rickman (who plays Snape in the Harry Potter film series), played the Gruber brothers, Simon and Hans, respectively, in the Die Hard film series.
One of his best known film roles has turned out to be the voice of Scar in The Lion King (1994). Irons has since provided voiceovers for two Disney World attractions. He narrated the Spaceship Earth ride, housed in the large geodesic globe at Epcot, from November 1994 to July 2007. He also voiced H.G. Wells in the English version of the former Disney attraction The Timekeeper.
He serves as the English-language version of the audio guide for Westminster Abbey in London.
Music
In 1985, Irons directed a music video for Carly Simon and her heavily promoted single, "Tired of Being Blonde". Although the song was not a hit, the video —featuring the fast cutting, parallel narratives and heavy use of stylized visual effects that were a staple of pop videos at the time— received ample attention on MTV and other outlets.
In 1994 Jeremy Irons had a cameo role in the video for Elastica's hit single 'Connection'. Irons was one of the many naked men sitting down around Elastica as they performed the song. Irons has since claimed that this 3 minute slice of nudity was his most enjoyable work to date.
Jeremy Irons also has a full song named "Be Prepared" that takes part in the movie The Lion King. However he only actually sang a section of the song after having vocal problems, Jim Cummings finished the last few lines of the song. This song can be found in the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of the movie.
Irons has twice worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1976 and 1986–87.[8] In 1984, Irons made his New York debut and won a Tony Award for his Broadway performance opposite Glenn Close in The Real Thing.
In 2009 Irons appeared on Broadway opposite Joan Allen in the play Impressionism.[12] The play ran through 10 May 2009 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.[12]
Personal life
Irons is married to Irish actress Sinéad Cusack and is the father of two sons, Samuel James Brefni Irons (16 September 1978), who works as a photographer, and Maximilian Paul Diarmuid Irons (17 October 1985), also an actor who appeared in the 2006 Burberry fashion campaign. Both of Irons' sons have appeared in films with their father, Sam in Danny, Champion of the World and Max in Being Julia. Irons now lives in the small town of Watlington in Oxfordshire.
He is also the patron since 2002 of the Thomley Activity Centre,[13] an Oxfordshire non-profit activity centre for disabled children. Irons owns Kilcoe Castle (which he had painted a rusty pink) in County Cork, Ireland, and has become involved in local politics there. He also has another Irish residence in The Liberties, Dublin. Irons is a patron of the Chiltern Shakespeare Company.[14] He is a fan of English football club Portsmouth.[15]
At the 1991 Tony Awards, Irons was one of the few celebrities to wear the recently created red ribbon to support the fight against AIDS, and he was the first celebrity to wear it onscreen.[16][17] He supports a number of other charities, including The Prison Phoenix Trust of which he is an active patron.[18]
Politics
In 1998 Irons was named, along with his wife Sinéad Cusack, in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party (UK). [19]
Work
Theatre
Following training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre school Irons initially stayed with the company:
