Actor
Jeremy Irons works in both theatre and
film. In 1971 he joined Bristol Old Vic repertory company
where he gained experience working in everything from
Shakespeare to contemporary dramas. He landed role
of John the Baptist in the hit musical Godspell. He
went on to a succesfull early career in the West End
theatre and on TV. His work in the West End and at
Stratford culminated with his performance of Richard
II for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1980 the BBC
offered him a starring role in the TV serial adaption
of Evelyn Waugh’s ”Brideshead Revisited”.
He starred opposite Meryl Streep in the The French
Lieutenants’s Womas (1981), and played a Polish
blue collar worker Moonlighting (1982). In 1984 he
made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard’s ”The
Real Thing” opposite Glenn Close, for which he
won both the Drama League Award and the Tony Award
for best actor. In the mid 80’s he and his wife
appeared in three lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare
Company. In David Cronenberg’s thriller Dead
Ringers (1988) he portrayed two twin gynecologists
who slowly but surely drifts into psychological illness.
This won him the New York Critics Best Actor Award.
He then won the Academy Award for best Actor for his
portrayal of suspected killer Klaus von Bulow in Reversal
of Fortune (1990). He went on to play paranoid insurance
clerk in Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller
KAFKA (1991), appeared together with his wife as a
history teacher plagued by childhood memories in Waterland
(1992) and a conservative English politician who has
a very unhealthy affair with his son’s girlfriend
in Damage (1992). Jeremy Irons has played a variety
a roles from his portrayal as a Hispanic aristocrat
in The House of Spirits (1993) alongside Meryl Streep
and Glenn Close, to the delightfully sinister voice
of scar in Disney’s animation The Lion King (1994).
Most recently he has starred in The Merchant of Venice
(2004), alongside Al Pacino and Joseph Fiennes. When
he is not working Jeremy enjoys motorcycling and horseback
riding, sailing, skiing and motorcycling. He is also
partron of the Prison Phoenix Trust, the Archway Foundation
and Action for Sick Children. |
