Reversal of Fortune

Background:

“I’ve never been passionate about acting, and I find more and more that I work to live the life I want to live. An actor like Al Pacino lives to act. I’m not sure though, there’s something about the detachment I have, the feeling of the lack of importance about what I do, that is healthy.” Jeremy Irons

Elegant and attractive British lead actor Jeremy Irons received a wealth of appreciation and recognition with his Academy Award starring turn as accused wife murderer and conceited worldwide playboy Klaus von Bulow in Barbet Schroeder’s Reversal of Fortune (1990), opposite Glenn Close. In addition to the Oscar, his magnificent performance in the drama film also handed him a Chicago Film Critics Association award and a Boston Society of Film Critics award, as well as earned a Golden Globe nomination. Before the massive victory, Irons, who was first noticed as Franz Liszt in the miniseries “Notorious Woman” (1974), launched his status as a worldwide star with such memorable performances as playing Charles Ryder in the international hit miniseries “Brideshead Revisited” (1981), where he received nominations at the Golden Globes, Emmys and BAFTA, and Charles Henry Smithson/Mike in the Karel Reisz-helmed movie The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981). In 1988, the actor picked up a New York Critics award after portraying dual roles Beverly Mantle/Elliot Mantle in David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers, and two years before, in 1986, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his good acting in The Mission. Irons was also praised for his portrayal of a cheating spouse in Damage (1992), for which he netted a 1994 Sant Jordi award.

Irons is also remembered for playing roles in such films as Moonlighting (1982), Betrayal (1983), Kafka (1991), the mega-hit The Lion King (1994, voiced the cunningly villainous Scar), Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995, with Bruce Willis), The Man In the Iron Mask (1998, starring Leonardo DiCaprio), the adventure film Dungeons & Dragons (2000), Last Call (2002, TV), The Merchant of Venice (2004), Being Julia (2004) and Tom Hopper’s Elizabeth I (2005, TV).

On stage, Irons made a name for himself as the star of the Broadway play “The Real Thing,” directed by Tom Stoppard, where he won a Tony Award. He also scored a huge success with the highly successful musical “Godspell” (1973), starring as John the Baptist.

This classically-trained, gaunt actor with Byronic looks and a rich, haunting voice is set to play roles in the forthcoming David Lynch’s Inland Empire (2006), Eragon (2006), the drama Poslednji krug u Monci 2 (2006), the musical Fantôme de l'opéra (2006, TV) and the Predrag Antonijevic-helmed The Night of the Iguana (2006).

Off screen, one of the jury members for the Cannes Film Festival in 2000, Irons owns Kilcoe Castle in County Cork, Ireland, and is involved with regional politics. On a more private note, he was once married to actress Julie Hallam, but the relationship was annulled in 1969. He is now the husband of Ireland native Sinead Cusack and has two sons with her.


King

Childhood and Family:

Son to Paul Dugan Irons and Barbara Anne, Jeremy John Irons was born on September 19, 1948, in Cowes, Isle of Wight, England. An apathetic student, Jeremy spent four years at a boarding school called Sherborn in Dorset, where he acted in several school plays. While there, he also became known as the harmonica player and drummer in the school band, along with three of his peers, and half of a comic duo. Upon graduation, he enrolled at a veterinary school but switched gears to become a stage actor after failing to meet the entrance test scores. Following a stint as an assistant stage manager in a small rep theater, Jeremy attended Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and worked with the school company for three years before relocating to London to pursue a career as a film and stage actor.

Jeremy Irons, whose nicknames is King, married actress Julie Hallam in 1969, but the marriage was annulled. Nine years after the annulment, on March 28, 1978, he tied the knot with Ireland-born actress Sinead Cusack (born in 1948), with whom he shares two sons, Samuel James Brefni Irons (actor; born on September 16, 1978) and Maximillian Paul Diarmiud Irons (born in 1985).


Brideshead Revisited

Career:

A native of Cowes and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Jeremy Irons, who once took a job as an assistant stage manager, launched his stage career in Bristol by making his first stage appearance in “Hay Fever.” After staying with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre company for three seasons, where he portrayed the young lead in plays by Noel Coward, Shakespeare and Joe Orton, Irons relocated to London to give acting a more serious try. Just like other struggling actors, however, he met with difficulties in finding work and had to take a number of odds jobs to earn a living while waiting for a break. Two years later, Irons’ acting career began to blossom when he debuted on the London stage with the very successful musical “Godspell,” where he played the lead of John the Baptist. He continued to triumph in his early career with the West End theatre.

The success subsequently put Irons on the radar of casting directors for television and film and in 1974 he won his first notice as Franz Liszt in the British miniseries “Notorious Woman.” He continued to take on TV roles, but it was the TV serial adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” (1981) that garnered him international recognition. Playing witness-to-aristocratic-decadence Charles Ryder, Irons was so convincing that he earned many nominations, including one for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special, a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV and a BAFTA Best Actor nomination. As for the miniseries, it was a phenomenal worldwide success. The same year, Irons, who had made his wide screen debut a year before with Herbert Ross’ biopic Nijinsky, solidified his reputation as an international star with Karel Reisz’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, opposite Meryl Streep. For his bright starring turn as Charles Henry Smithson/Mike, Irons was nominated for Best Actor at the BAFTA awards.

Irons was in high demand and more roles soon followed, such as Finishing Moonlighting (1982), The Wild Duck (1983) and The Captain’s Doll (1983, TV). He was then cast opposite Ben Kingsley and Patricia Hodge in David Jones’ film version of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal (1983), playing the caddish lover Jerry. In 1984, Irons once again attracted attention when he made his Broadway debut, opposite Glenn Close, in Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing,” where his brilliant performance won a 1984 Tony for Best Actor.

Continuing his film acting, Irons starred in Swann in Love (1984), received a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of a Jesuit priest in Roland Joffe’s The Mission (1986, opposite Robert De Niro), and played Guy Jones in A Chorus of Disapproval (1988). He was also seen as William Smith in Danny the Champion of the World (1989, TV) and Edouard Pierson in Australia (1989). Irons’ breakthrough big screen role arrived when director David Cronenberg had him portray the unhinged twin brother, protagonists Beverly Mantle/Elliot Mantle, in Dead Ringers (1988). His performance in the thriller film was critically applauded, and Irons won a New York Critics for Best Actor.

The gifted actor gained even more recognition in the following year when he reunited with Glenn Close for the drama Reversal of Fortune (1990). With Barbet Schroeder directing at the helm, Irons’ spectacular performance as arrogant international playboy and murder suspect Claus von Bulow won him a 1991 Best Actor Oscar, as well as a Chicago Film Critics Association and a Boston Society of Film Critics award. Additionally, he earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama.

After the award-winning performance, Irons went on to demonstrate his versatility by portraying an obsessed insurance clerk in Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller Kafka (1991), a history teacher haunted by childhood memories in Waterland (1992) and a conventional British politician undone by a neurotic affair with the girlfriend of his son in Damage (1992). Irons’ bravura acting in the latter film even handed him a 1994 Sant Jordi for Best Foreign Actor. The next year, the actor failed to make an impression on audiences and critics with the disappointing M. Butterfly (1993) and seemed miscast as a South American aristocrat, alongside Meryl Streep and Glenn Close, in The House of the Spirits (1993). Irons was put back into the mainstream with the animated Disney mega-hit The Lion King (1994), in which he was nominated for MTV Movie’s Best Villain award for his fine work in voicing the cunningly villainous Scar. In the mid 90s, despite mixed reviews, Irons’ collaboration with Hollywood A-list actor Bruce Willis in Die Hard With a Vengeance earned him extra fame. 1996-1999 saw roles in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty (1996), Mirad (1997, TV), the Wayne Wang-directed Chinese Box (1997), Adrian Lyne’s remake of Lolita (1997, received a MTV Movie nomination for Best Kiss), the movie adaptation of the classic Alexander Dumas adventure The Man In the Iron Mask (1998, starring Leonardo DiCaprio), Faeries (1999, provided voice), Poseidon’s Fury: Escape from the Lost City (1999, did voice over) and CTS: Toronto (1999, TV).

Entering the new millennium, the recipient of the 1997 Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Sebastián International Film Festival opened up the new era with a couple of TV films, the British TV drama Longitude and Ohio Impromptu (2000) and the adventure film Dungeons & Dragons (2000). He followed these up with performances in such films as The Fourth Angel (2001, with Forest Whitaker), The Time Machine (2002), And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen... (2002, opposite Patricia Kaas) and director Franco Zeffirelli’s biopic Callas Forever (2002, costarring Fanny Ardant). Before the made-for-television films Comic Relief 2003: The Big Hair Do (2003) and Dame Edna Live at the Palace (2003), Irons was widely praised as F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Showtime telepic Last Call (2002).

In 2004, after Nina Mimica’s Mathilde (2004), Irons offered a good performance as Michael Gosselyn, the pleasantly cuckolded husband-manager of an aging, diva-like 1930s stage actress (Annette Bening) in director Istvan Szabo’s radiant Being Julia. He was then seen as scornful Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, a Shakespearian adaptation set in 16th century Venice and costarring Al Pacino.

In the following years, he teamed up with director Ridley Scott in the unsatisfactory Kingdom of Heaven (2005), had a supporting role in one of the most ill-conceived and disappointing films of the year, Casanova (2005, starring Heath Ledger), and was cast as the Earl of Leicester, opposite veteran Helen Mirren as the Virgin Queen, in the lavish HBO film Elizabeth I (2005), for director Tom Hopper and scripted by screenwriter-novelist Nigel Williams.

Recently providing the voice of Thraxx in the animated telefilm The Magic 7 (2006), the 58-year-old actor will soon be seen acting in David Lynch’s Inland Empire (2006) and the family film Eragon (2006), opposite Edward Speleers and Djimon Hounsou. He is also scheduled to play roles in the forthcoming films: the drama Poslednji krug u Monci 2 (2006), the musical Fantôme de l'opéra (2006, TV) and the Predrag Antonijevic-helmed The Night of the Iguana (2006).


Awards:

- César: Honorary Award, 2002
- European Film: Special Achievement Award, 1998
- Emmy: Best Voice Over Performance, The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century, 1997
- San Sebastián International Film Festival: Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award, 1997
- Sant Jordi: Best Foreign Actor, Damage, 1994
- Chicago Film Critics Association: Best Actor, Reversal of Fortune, 1991
- Boston Society of Film Critics: Best Actor, Reversal of Fortune, 1991
- Oscar: Best Actor, Reversal of Fortune, 1991
- New York Critics: Best Actor, Dead Ringers, 1988
- Tony: Best Actor, The Real Thing, 1984