Celebrity Biographies
Jeremy Irons
Highest representative of the illustrious British school, Jeremy Irons is one of the most versatile actors on the current scene. There are no common traits in his characters, except for the intensity with which he plays them. But he stands out especially when he is played by elegant characters, who hide dark secrets and tormented souls inside. He’s especially good at playing evil characters. His exemplary portrayal of Antonio, the Christian merchant who asks for a loan in The Merchant of Venice , has once again shown that Jeremy Irons deserves a prominent place on the cinematic Olympus.
The son of an accountant, Jeremy John Irons was born in Cowes, a small town on the Isle of Wight (Great Britain). As a young man, he didn’t even think that he would end up as an actor. “As a teenager, I was very worried about having to decide what to do for the rest of my life,” the actor revealed. The first thing he thought of was dedicating himself to music and he formed a rock group, in which he played the drums. Ultimately, he ended up starting a veterinary degree at college, but dropped out to enroll at the Melbourne acting school. “I ended up dedicating myself to acting because I always wanted to live outside of the real world. It was an ideal profession for me, because I really like to work intensely on one thing, with a group of people, but only for a short period of time,” said Irons. As soon as he finished his studies, he joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, a theater group where he performs works by Shakespeare. During his stay in this formation he fell in love with another of the actresses, Sinead Cusack, today his wife with whom he has two children. He debuted on the big screen in 1980, inNijinsky , biopic of the famous dancer who went unnoticed. But the following year, Irons became a worldwide celebrity after the success of the eleven-episode television series Brideshead Revisited , a successful British production – indeed one of the masterpieces in television history that adapted the masterful novel. by Evelyn Waugh . Despite the enormous impact of this work, the interpreter tried not to let fame go to his head. “Fame hurts you and those around you, so I prefer my life to be as private as possible,” Irons said.
He never left the theater, and he even won a Tony Award – the most prestigious award on the American scene – for his work in The Real Thing , a Broadway performance in which he shared the stage with Glenn Close . On film, Irons was playing increasingly complex characters, such as the romantic actor in love with his co-star Meryl Streep . in The French Lieutenant’s Wife , the two opposing twins in Inseparables , by David Cronenberg , or Father Gabriel, a Spanish Jesuit committed to the rights of the natives of Brazil, in The Mission, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. He would win this award and the Oscar for best actor for The Von Bulow Mystery , where he played his most valued role, as the ambiguous and cynical suspect in the murder of his wife.
Once his prestige was recognized by the Hollywood Academy, Irons’ career became more irregular. Since then, the actor has dedicated himself to combining difficult roles in risky productions with jobs in commercial films that fatten his pockets. His interpretations in Kafka and El país del agua , where he shared the limelight with his wife, belong to his first group . His successful compositions of the vengeful terrorist from Die Hard fit into the other category. Revenge , which left a magnificent taste in the mouth, and his interpretation of Aramis, the musketeer turned priest in The Man in the Iron Mask. And although he has worked with several of the most prestigious directors on the world scene, such as Louis Malle ( Wound ), Bernardo Bertolucci ( Stolen Beauty ) and Franco Zeffirelli ( Callas Forever ), it has not always gone well for him, as he also hit rock bottom with the evil, flat characters from Dungeons and Dragons and The Time Machine .
In recent years, Irons has lavished more than ever on the screen. We saw him in the aforementioned The Merchant of Venice , as an unfaithful husband in the wonderful Knowing Julia and as Tiberias, counselor to the king, in The Kingdom of Heaven . He has not yet been released in Spain Casanova , by Lasse Hallström , where he plays a brief role, nor the historical telefilm Elizabeth I . He prefers not to think about tomorrow – “the only way to make God laugh is to tell him your plans for the future”, he declared. But it is clear that he will continue to succeed, since he has finished filming Inland Empire , David Lynch ‘s latest paranoiaand from a television version of The Phantom of the Opera , in which he plays the Phantom. He is currently shooting Eragon , a dragon and fantasy adventure movie in which he shares the screen with John Malkovich .