Jeremy Irons Biography

Jeremy John Irons (born 19 September 1948) is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Godspell, Richard II and Embers. In 1984, he made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and received a Tony Award for Best Actor.

Irons's first major film role came in the 1981 romantic drama The French Lieutenant's Woman, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. After starring in such films as Moonlighting (1982), Betrayal (1983) and The Mission (1986), he gained critical acclaim for portraying twin gynaecologists in David Cronenberg's psychological thriller Dead Ringers (1988). In 1990, Irons played accused murderer Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune, and took home multiple awards including an Academy Award for Best Actor. Other notable films have included Kafka (1991), The House of the Spirits (1993), The Lion King (1994), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Lolita (1997), The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), The Merchant of Venice (2004), Being Julia (2004), Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Eragon (2006), Appaloosa (2008), and Margin Call (2011).

Irons has also made several notable appearances on TV. He earned his first Golden Globe Award nomination for his breakout role in the ITV series Brideshead Revisited (1981). In 2006, Irons starred opposite Helen Mirren in the historical miniseries Elizabeth I, for which he received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Since 2011, he has been starring in the Showtime historical series The Borgias.

In October 2011, he was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Early life

Irons was born in Cowes, Isle of Wight, the son of Barbara Anne Brereton Brymer (née Sharpe; 1914"1999), a housewife, and Paul Dugan Irons (1913"1983), an accountant. His Dundee-born, paternal great-great-grandfather was one of the first Metropolitan Policemen, and later a Chartist; one of his mother's ancestors had been from County Cork, Ireland, where Irons lives as of at least February 2011. Irons has a brother, Christopher (born 1943), and a sister, Felicity Anne (born 1944). He was educated at the independent Sherborne School in Dorset, (c. 1962"66). He was the drummer and harmonica player (including a rendition of "Stairway to Heaven" 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.

Acting career

Early work

Irons trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and later became president of its fundraising appeal. He performed a number of plays, and busked 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 Roundhouse on 17 November 1971 before transferring to Wyndham's Theatre playing a total of 1,128 performances.

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).

The role which brought him fame was that of Charles Ryder in the television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1981). Brideshead reunited him with Anthony Andrews, with whom he had appeared in The Pallisers seven years earlier. In the same year he starred in the film The French Lieutenant's Woman opposite Meryl Streep.

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.

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? 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 would star as photographer Alfred Stieglitz with Joan Allen as painter Georgia O'Keeffe, in a Lifetime Television biopic, Georgia O'Keeffe (2009). Irons also appeared in the documentary for Irish television channel TG4, Faoi Lan Cheoil in which he learned to play the fiddle.

On 12 January 2011, Irons was a guest-star in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit called "Mask". He played Dr. Cap Jackson, a sex therapist. He reprised the role on an episode titled "Totem" that ran on 30 March 2011.

Irons stars in the 2011 U.S. premium cable network Showtime's series The Borgias, a highly fictionalised account of the Renaissance dynasty of that name. Irons portrays patriarch Rodrigo Borgia, better known to history as Pope Alexander VI.

Film

Irons made his film debut in Nijinsky in 1980. He appeared sporadically in films during the 1980s, including the Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Mission in 1986, and in the dual role of twin gynecologists in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers in 1988. Other films include Danny the Champion of the World (1989), Reversal of Fortune (1990), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, Kafka (1991), Damage (1993), M. Butterfly (1993), The House of the Spirits (1993) appearing again with Glenn Close and Meryl Streep, Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) co-starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty (1996), the 1997 remake of Lolita, and as the musketeer Aramis opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1998 film version of The Man in the Iron Mask.

Other roles include the evil wizard Profion in the film Dungeons and Dragons (2000) and Rupert Gould in Longitude (2000). He played the Über-Morlock from the film 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".

In 2005, he appeared in the films Casanova opposite Heath Ledger, and Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. He has co-starred with John Malkovich in two films; The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) and Eragon (2006), though they did not have any scenes together in Eragon.

In 2008, Irons co-starred with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen in Appaloosa, directed by Harris. In 2011, Irons appeared alongside Kevin Spacey in the thriller Margin Call.

In 2013, it was announced that Irons would appear in A Magnificent Death From a Shattered Hand.

Theatre

Irons has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company three times in 1976, 1986"87 and 2010. In 1984, Irons made his New York debut and won a Tony Award for his Broadway performance opposite Glenn Close in The Real Thing.

After an absence from the London stage for 18 years, in 2006 he co-starred with Patrick Malahide in Christopher Hampton's stage adaptation of Sándor Márai's novel Embers at the Duke of York's Theatre.

He made his National Theatre debut playing Harold Macmillan in Never So Good, a new play by Howard Brenton which opened at the Lyttelton on 19 March 2008.

In 2009, Irons appeared on Broadway opposite Joan Allen in the play Impressionism. The play ran through 10 May 2009 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.

Other ventures

Audio

Irons read the audio book recording of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, the audio book recording of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (he had also appeared in the 1997 film version of the novel), and the audio book James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.

One of his best known film roles has turned out to be lending his distinctive voice to Scar in The Lion King (1994) serving as the main antagonist of the film. Irons has since provided voiceovers for three Disney World attractions. He narrated the Spaceship Earth ride, housed in the large geodesic globe at Epcot, from October 1994 to July 2007. He was also the English narrator for the Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic at the Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris. He also voiced H.G. Wells in the English version of the former Disney attraction The Timekeeper. He also reprised his role as Scar in Fantasmic.

He is also one of the readers in the 4x CD boxed set of The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, produced by Marc Sinden and sold in aid of the Royal Theatrical Fund.

He was originally to star as the Phantom in a 2006 French musical adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera, though the project was cancelled. He will be the narrator for Val Kilmer and Bill Pullman's brand-new Lewis and Clark film from Revolution Studios.

He serves as the English language version of the audio guide for Westminster Abbey in London.

Irons has served as voice-over in two big cat documentary films by National Geographic: Eye of the Leopard, which was released in 2006, and The Last Lions, which is a 2011 motion-picture, released on 18 February. He also currently narrates the French-produced documentary series about volcanoes, Life on Fire. The series premiered in the United States on 2 January 2013 on PBS, though the six episodes were previously released in France from 2009 to 2012 with a different, French-speaking narrator.

Music

In 1985, Irons directed a music video for Carly Simon and her heavily promoted single, "Tired of Being Blonde". In 1994, he had a cameo role in the video for Elastica's hit single "Connection".

Irons has contributed to other musical performances, recording William Walton's Façade with Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale conducted by the composer, and in 1987 the songs from Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, released on the Decca label. Irons sang segments of "Be Prepared" in the film The Lion King. After his voice gave out during toward the end of that musical number, Jim Cummings (who voiced Ed the Hyena) took over as Scar's singing voice. He sang a selection of Noël Coward at the 1999 Last Night of the Proms in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Coward's birth. In 2003 he played Fredrik Egerman in a New York revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, and two years later appeared as King Arthur in Lerner and Loewe's Camelot at the Hollywood Bowl. He performed the Bob Dylan song "Make You Feel My Love" on the 2006 charity album Unexpected Dreams " Songs From the Stars.

In 2009, Irons appeared on the Touchstone album Wintercoast, recording a narrative introduction to the album. Recording took place in New York City, New York in February 2009 during rehearsals for his Broadway play Impressionism.

Personal life

Irons married Julie Hallam in 1969 and subsequently divorced. He married Irish actress Sinéad Cusack on 28 March 1978. They have two sons, Sam (b. 1978), who works as a photographer, and Maximilian Paul Diarmuid Irons (b. 1985), also an actor. Both of Irons' sons have appeared in films with their father " Sam as the eponymous hero in Danny, Champion of the World and Max in Being Julia. Irons' wife and children are Catholic; of himself, he has stated, "I don't go to church much because I don't like belonging to a club, and I don't go to confession or anything like that, I don't believe in it. But I try to be aware of where I fail and I occasionally go to services. I would hate to be a person who didn't have a spiritual side because there's nothing to nourish you in life apart from retail therapy."

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.

Irons was bestowed an Honorary-Life Membership by the University College Dublin Law Society in September 2008, in honour of his contribution to television, film, audio, music and theatre. Also in 2008, Irons was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Southampton Solent University.

Activism

Charity work

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. He supports a number of other charities, including the Prison Phoenix Trust and Evidence for Development, for both of which he is an active patron.

In 2010, Irons starred in a promotional video for The 1billionhungry project " a worldwide drive to attract at least one million signatures to a petition calling on international leaders to move hunger to the top of the political agenda. He also provided the narration of the documentary "Sahaya Going Beyond"", about the work of the charity Sahaya International.

Politics

In 1998, Irons and his wife were named in the list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party, a year after their return to government after 18 years in opposition. In 2004, he publicly declared his support for the Countryside Alliance, referring to the hunting ban as an "outrageous assault on civil liberties" and "one of the two most devastating parliamentary votes in the last century".

Same-sex marriage

In April 2013, Irons was asked by Huffpost Live host Josh Zepps his opinion on the fight for same-sex marriage in the United States. Irons responded, "Could a father not marry his son?" Zepps responded with an argument that laws against incest prevent such a union. Irons argued that "it's not incest between men. Incest is there to protect us from inbreeding, but men don't breed," and wondered whether same-sex marriage might allow fathers to bequeath their estates to their sons to avoid taxation. On the issue of advocates calling for same-sex marriage as opposed to civil unions, he said, "It seems to me that now they're fighting for the name," and, "I worry that it means somehow we debase, or we change, what marriage is. I just worry about that."

He later clarified his comments, saying he was providing an example of a situation that could cause a "legal quagmire" under the laws that allow same-sex marriage, and that he had been misinterpreted. He added that some gay relationships are "healthier" than their straight counterparts.

Alternative medicine

He has been criticised in the British Medical Journal for his fundraising activities in support of The College of Medicine, an alternative medicine lobby group in the UK linked to Prince Charles.

Work

Theatre

Following training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre school Irons initially stayed with the company:

Year	Production	Role	Venue
1969	The Winter's Tale	Florizel	Bristol Old Vic
1969	Hay Fever	Simon	Bristol Old Vic
1969	What the Butler Saw	Nick	Bristol Old Vic
1969	Major Barbara		Bristol Old Vic
1969	A Servant of Two Masters		Bristol Old Vic
1969	Macbeth		Bristol Old Vic
1969	The Boy Friend		Bristol Old Vic
1970	As You Like It		Bristol Old Vic
1970	Oh! What a Lovely War		Little Theatre Bristol
1970	The School for Scandal		Little Theatre Bristol
1971"1973	Godspell	John/Judas	Roundhouse and Wyndham's Theatre
1973	The Diary of a Madman	The Madman	Act Inn
1974	Much Ado About Nothing	Don Pedro in	Young Vic
1974	The Caretaker	Mick	Young Vic
1975	The Taming of the Shrew	Petruchio	Roundhouse
1976	Wild Oats	Harry Thunder	Aldwych Theatre
1977	Wild Oats	Harry Thunder	Stratford and Piccadilly Theatre
1978	The Rear Column	Jameson	Globe Theatre
1984	The Real Thing	Henry	New York
1986	The Winter's Tale	Leontes	Royal Shakespeare Theatre
1986	The Rover	Willmore	Swan Theatre and Mermaid Theatre
1986	Richard II	Richard II	Royal Shakespeare Theatre
1987	Richard II	Richard II	Barbican Theatre
2003	A Little Night Music	Fredrik Egerman	New York
2005	Celebration	Russell	Gate Theatre and Albery Theatre
2006	Embers	Henrik	Duke of York's Theatre
2008	Never So Good	Harold Macmillan	National Theatre
2009	Impressionism	Thomas Buckle	Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
2013	The Mystery Plays	God	Gloucester Cathedral and Worcester Cathedral

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1971	The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes	Nephew George	TV series (1 episode: "The Case of the Mirror of Portugal")
1974	The Pallisers	Frank Tregear	TV series (6 episodes)
1974	Notorious Woman	Franz Liszt	TV mini-series
1975	The Liberty Tree		TV film
1975	Churchill's People	Samuel Ross	TV series (1 episode: "Liberty Tree")
1977	Love for Lydia	Alex Sanderson	TV series (6 episodes)
1978	BBC2 Play of the Week	Otto Beck	TV series (1 episode: "Langrishe Go Down")
1979	BBC Play of the Month	Edward Voysey	TV series (1 episode: "The Voysey Inheritance")
1980	Nijinsky	Mikhail Fokine
1981	'	Charles Henry Smithson/Mike
1981	Brideshead Revisited	Charles Ryder	TV mini-series (11 episodes)
1982	Moonlighting	Nowak
1982	Spaceship Earth	3rd Edition Narrator	Short
1983	The Captain's Doll	Captain Alex Hepworth	TV film
1983	Betrayal	Jerry
1984	'	Harold
1984	Swann in Love	Charles Swann
1985	Rabbit Ears: The Steadfast Tin Soldier	Storyteller	Short
1986	'	Father Gabriel
1988	Dead Ringers	Beverly Mantle/Elliot Mantle
1989	'	Guy Jones
1989	Australia	Edouard Pierson
1989	Danny, the Champion of the World	William Smith
1989	The Dream		TV film
1990	The Civil War	Various	TV mini-series (9 episodes)
1990	Reversal of Fortune	Claus von Bülow
1991	'	Prisoner
1991	Kafka	Kafka
1992	'	H.G. Wells	Short
1992	Waterland	Tom Crick
1992	Performance	Odon Von Horvath	TV series (1 episode: "Tales from Hollywood")
1992	Damage	Dr. Stephen Fleming
1993	M. Butterfly	René Gallimard
1993	'	Esteban Trueba
1994	Spaceship Earth	Narrator
1994	'	Scar (voice)
1995	Die Hard with a Vengeance	Simon Gruber
1996	The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century	Siegfried Sassoon	TV series (3 episodes)
1996	Stealing Beauty	Alex
1997	Chinese Box	John
1997	Lolita	Humbert Humbert
1998	'	Aramis
1999	Faeries	The Shapeshifter (voice)
1999	Islands of Adventure: Poseidon's Fury: Escape from the Lost City	Poseidon (voice)	Short
2000	Dungeons & Dragons	Profion
2000	Longitude	Rupert Gould	TV series (4 episodes)
2000	Ohio Impromptu	Reader/Listener	Short
2001	The Short Life of Anne Frank	Narrator	Dutch TV documentary
2001	'	Jack Elgin
2002	Callas Forever	Larry Kelly
2002	Last Call	F. Scott Fitzgerald	TV film
2002	'	Über-Morlock
2002	And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen	Valentin Valentin
2003	Freedom: A History of Us	King James I/Lord Grey/Thomas Paine	TV series (3 episodes)
2003	Comic Relief 2003: The Big Hair Do	Snape	TV film
2004	Mathilde	Col. De Petris
2004	'	Antonio
2004	Being Julia	Michael Gosselyn
2005	Kingdom of Heaven	Tiberias
2005	Casanova	Pucci
2005	Elizabeth I	Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester	TV mini-series
2005	Once Upon a Halloween	Cauldron (voice)	Video
2006	Inland Empire	Kingsley Stewart
2006	Eragon	Brom
2008	'	Havelock Vetinari	TV film
2008	Appaloosa	Randall Bragg
2009	The Magic 7	Thraxx (voice)	TV film
2009	'	Alonso Avellaneda
2009	Georgia O'Keeffe	Alfred Stieglitz	TV film
2011	Margin Call	John Tuld
2011	The Last Lions	Narrator
2011	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Dr. Cap Jackson	TV series (2 episodes)
2011"2013	'	Rodrigo Borgia	TV series (29 episodes)
2012	The Words	The Old Man
2012	Trashed	Himself
2012	The Simpsons	Bar Rag (voice)	TV series (1 episode: "Moe Goes from Rags to Riches")
2012	Henry IV Part I and Part II	Henry IV
2013	Life on Fire	Narrator	TV documentary series (6 episodes)
2013	Night Train to Lisbon	Raimund Gregorius	Post-production
2013	Beautiful Creatures	Macon Ravenwood

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Work	Result
1981	BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role	The French Lieutenant's Woman
1981	British Academy Television Award for Best Actor	Brideshead Revisited
1981	Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor " Miniseries or a Movie	Brideshead Revisited
1981	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	Brideshead Revisited
1986	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama	The Mission
1988	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor	Dead Ringers
1988	Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role	Dead Ringers
1988	New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor	Dead Ringers
1988	Saturn Award for Best Actor	Dead Ringers
1990	Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role	Reversal of Fortune
1990	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor	Reversal of Fortune
1990	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor	Reversal of Fortune
1990	David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actor	Reversal of Fortune
1990	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture Drama	Reversal of Fortune
1990	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor	Reversal of Fortune
1990	National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor	Reversal of Fortune
1994	Annie Award for Best Achievement for Voice Acting	The Lion King
1994	MTV Movie Award for Best Villain	The Lion King
1996	Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture	Stealing Beauty
1997	Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance	The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century: War Without End
2004	Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor " Motion Picture	Being Julia
2005	Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Elizabeth I
2005	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television	Elizabeth I
2005	Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Movie	Elizabeth I
2009	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film	Georgia O'Keeffe
2011	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Television Series Drama	The Borgias