BORN:
Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, September 19, 1948 (male).

EDUCATION:
Attended Sherbourne School in Dorset, England.
Attended Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England.

OTHER-JOBS:
assistant stage manager
house-cleaner
"busker" (singing and playing guitar outside movie theatres)
gardener

MILESTONES:

1971: Made stage debut in "Hay Fever" with Bristol Old Vic company; company member for three years
1973: London stage debut as John the Baptist in "Godspell," Round House Theatre (later at Wyndham's Theatre for two years)
1975: TV debut as Franz Liszt in BBC miniseries "Notorious Woman" (shown on PBS's "Masterpiece Theatre" November-December of same year)
1979: Breakthrough TV role, Charles Ryder in "Brideshead Revisited"
1980: Film debut as Mikhail Fokine in "Nijinsky"
1981: Cast opposite Meryl Streep in "The French Lieutenant's Woman"
1983: Co-starred with Ben Kingsley and Patricia Hodge in "Betrayal"
1984: Broadway debut in "The Real Thing"
1984: Starred in "Swann in Love", adapted from Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu"
1985: Directed video for Carly Simon's song "Tired of Being Blonde"
1986: Teamed opposite Robert De Niro in "The Mission"
1988: Breakthrough screen role, played twins in David Cronenberg's "Dead Ringers"
1990: Earned acclaim and a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Claus von Bulow in "Reversal of Fortune"
1991: Cast in title role of Stephen Soderbergh's "Kafka"
1993: Played a cheating spouse in "Damage"
1993: Acted the role of a French diplomat who falls in love with a Chinese performer who harbors a secret in "M Butterfly"; second film with Cronenberg
1994: Voiced the villainous Scar in Disney's "The Lion King"
1995: Played the villain in "Die Hard With a Vengeance"
1996: Cast as a dying writer in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty"
1997: Portrayed Humbert Humbert in Adrian Lyne's remake of "Lolita"; released in the USA in 1998
1998: Offered a fine turn as the swashbucling Aramis, one of the original Musketeers, in "The Man in the Iron Mask"
2000: Co-starred in the British TV drama "Longitude", written and directed by Charles Sturridge
Cast opposite Forest Whitaker in "The Fourth Angel" (lensed 2000)

BIOGRAPHY:
This classically trained, gaunt actor with Byronic looks and a rich, haunting voice began his career on the London stage. Irons has specialized in playing upper-class types, frequently in period roles, and has achieved star status without compromising his reputation as a serious actor. He first gained notice for his performance as Franz Liszt in the British miniseries "Notorious Woman" (PBS, 1975) and achieved stardom with his performance as the observant narrator Charles Ryder in the TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited" (PBS, 1981). He won a Tony Award for his 1980 Broadway debut in the Mike Nichols-directed "The Real Thing", which co-starred Glenn Close. After making a less than stellar debut as Mikhail Fokine in Herbert Ross' biopic "Nijinsky" (1980), Irons rose to screen stardom as Meryl Streep's leading man in Karel Reisz's "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1981). He went on to more eclectic roles, including the caddish lover in David Jones' film version of Harold Pinter's "Betrayal" (1983), but seemed miscast as Proust's hero in "Swann in Love" (1984) and as a Jesuit priest in Roland Joffe's "The Mission" (1986). He gave a bravura performance as the deranged twin brother protagonists of David Cronenberg's "Dead Ringers" (1988) and won an Oscar as haughty international playboy and murder suspect Claus von Bulow in Barbet Schroeder's "Reversal of Fortune" (1990), which reteamed him with Glenn Close. Irons continued to display his versatility as a paranoid insurance clerk in Steven Soderbergh's psychological thriller, "Kafka" (1991), a history teacher haunted by memories of childhood in "Waterland" and a conservative English politician undone by an obsessive affair with his son's girlfriend in "Damage" (both 1992). Although he tried gamely, his reunion with Cronenberg for "M. Butterfly" (1993) failed to impress critics or audiences. His second film with both Streep and Close, "The House of the Spirits" (also 1993), found them all miscast as South American aristocrats. Irons fared better providing the sinuous voice of the subtly villainous Scar in the animated Disney's megahit "The Lion King" (1994). His attempt to cross-over to more mainstream fare as the dyed-blond antagonist to Bruce Willis in "Die Hard With a Vengeance" (1995) met with mixed results. Irons' next two roles were schematically linked: in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty" (1996), he was an ailing writer who is reinvigorated when confronted with the voluptuous teenaged Liv Tyler, while in Adrian Lyne's remake of "Lolita" (1997), he was Humbert Humbert, enamored of the pubescent title character.

AWARDS:

Received Clarence Derwent Award for "The Rear Column" (1978).
Received Tony for Best Actor in a Play for "The Real Thing" (1984).
Received New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for "Dead Ringers" (1988).
Received Genie for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for "Dead Ringers" (1988).
Received Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor for "Reversal of Fortune" (1990).
Received Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama for "Reversal of Fortune" (1990).
Received National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor for "Reversal of Fortune" (1990).
Received Oscar for Best Actor for "Reversal of Fortune" (1990).
Received Emmy for Outstanding Voiceover Performance for "The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century--War Without End" (1996/97). shared award with Rik Mayall cited for "Willows in Winter".
Received European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award (1998).

FAMILY-MEMBERS:
Father: Paul Dugan Irons.
Mother: Barbara Anne Irons (nee Sharpe).
Son: Samuel James Brefni Irons. Actor. Born c. 1978; mother, Sinead Cusack.
Son: Maximilian Paul Diarmuid Irons. Born c. 1985; mother, Sinead Cusack.

COMPANIONS:
Wife: Julie Hallam. Married 1969; divorced.
Wife: Sinead Cusack. Actor. Married March 28, 1978; Irish; father was actor Cyril Cusack.

NOTES:
Created an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 1998 "I do, I know, present a man who appears to be thinking. I'm thinking about the crossword or the design of a particular building I'm looking at. But I know that I do play the area, and it's quite a fertile area for characters. My area I sort of call the Bill Hurt area, and that's fine. There are a lot of interesting roles within that area. And I do like secrets. I do like internal conflict. Those sort of roles give me the best time. "I'm not really a character actor. I don't really want to disguise myself completely. I don't like makeup. I don't like stuff that covers. I'm not very good at pretending to be other people. What I always try to do is find a bit of myself that relates to the other person. --Jeremy Irons (LOS ANGELES TIMES CALENDAR, December 1, 1991)

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