Jeremy Irons

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.^[7] 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 Pope Alexander VI.^[8]

Film

Irons at 2011 Berlin Film Festival

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, the voice of Scar in The Lion King (1994), 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 in 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 the latter.

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.^[9]

In 2013, it was announced that Irons would appear in A Magnificent Death From a Shattered Hand.^[10] In 2014, Warner Bros. announced that Irons will play Alfred Pennyworth in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.^[11]

Theatre

Irons has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company three times in 1976, 1986–87 and 2010.^[12][13] 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.^[14]

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.^[15][16]

In 2009, Irons appeared on Broadway opposite Joan Allen in the play Impressionism.^[17] The play ran through 10 May 2009 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.^[17]

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.^[18][19]

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 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,^[20] and The Last Lions, which was released on 18 February 2011.^[21] 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.^[22] 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.^[1] He married Irish actress Sinéad Cusack on 28 March 1978.^[1] They have two sons, Sam (b. 1978), who works as a photographer, and Max Irons (b. 1985), also an actor. Both of Irons's 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."^[23]

Irons owns Kilcoe Castle (which he had painted a rusty pink) in County Cork, Ireland,^[24] 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.^[25]

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.^[26][27] Also in 2008, Irons was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Southampton Solent University.^[28]

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.^[29][30] 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.^[31][32][33]

In 2010, Irons starred in a promotional video^[34] for The 1billionhungry project^[35] – 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.^[36] He also provided the narration of the documentary "Sahaya Going Beyond"^[37]", 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 its return to government after 18 years in opposition.^[38] 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".^[39]

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."^[40][41]

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.^[42]

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.^[43]

Work

Theatre

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References