Jeremy Irons: 40 interesting facts about the actor! (List)

1. Jeremy Irons was born September 19, 1948, in Isle of Wight, England.

2. His mother, Barbara Anne Brereton Brymer worked as a housewife and his father, Paul Dugan Irons, had a career as an accountant.

3. He attended Sherborne School in Dorset from 1962 to 1966.

4. He became known for his sinister vocal performance as Scar in The Lion King, and played the villainous Simon in Die Hard With A Vengeance.

5. In 1972, he landed his big break in a London production of Godspell.

6. After playing Claus in Reversal of Fortune, he received an Academy Award for Best Actor.

7. Attended Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England.

8. He briefly performed in a four man school band called Four Pillars of Wisdom.

9. Received Emmy for Outstanding Voiceover Performance for “The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century-War Without End” (1996/97).

10. In 1980, he made his film debut with Nijinsky, but gained more recognition starring in a TV version of Brideshead Revisited.

11. Since then, he has starred in numerous films, including Reversal of Fortune, The Lion King, Lolita, Being Julia and The Fourth Angel.

12. Received European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award (1998).

13. He played Franz Kafka in the film Kafka.

14. Received an honorary Cesar Award in France (2002).

15. Received Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a TV Miniseries or Movie for “Elizabeth I” (2006).

16. In 2011, he became a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN.

17. He married Sinéad Cusack in 1978. Cusack and Irons have two sons, Samuel “Sam” Irons and Maximilian “Max” Irons. His son Samuel “Sam” Irons is a photographer. His other son Max is an actor.

18. Received Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for “Elizabeth I” (2007).

19. In 1990, Irons played accused murderer Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune, and took home multiple awards, including an Academy Award for Best Actor.

20. Received an Emmy for Outstanding Narrator for “Game of Lions” – (2014).

21. Irons has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company three times in 1976, 1986-87 and 2010.

22. Irons has a brother, Christopher and a sister, Felicity Anne.

23. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many West End theatre productions including The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Godspell, Richard II and Embers.

24. From 2011 to 2013 he starred as Pope Alexander VI in the Showtime historical series The Borgias.

25.  In 1984, he made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing and received a Tony Award for Best Actor.

26.  His middle name is John.

27. After years of success in the West End in London, Irons made his New York debut in 1984 and won a Tony Award for his Broadway performance opposite Glenn Close in The Real Thing.

28. 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.

29. He performed the Bob Dylan song “Make You Feel My Love” on the 2006 charity album Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars.

30. To mark the 100th anniversary of Noël Coward’s birth, Irons sang a selection of his songs at the 1999 Last Night of the Proms held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, ending with “London Pride”, a patriotic song written in the spring of 1941 during the Blitz.

31. Irons is a patron of the Chiltern Shakespeare Company.

32. Irons married Julie Hallam in 1969 and subsequently divorced.

33. 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.

34. In 2009, Irons appeared on the Touchstone album Wintercoast, recording a narrative introduction to the album. Recording took place in New York City, New York in February 2009 during rehearsals for his Broadway play Impressionism.

35. Irons was bestowed an Honorary-Life Membership by the University College Dublin Law Society in September 2008, in honor of his contribution to television, film, audio, music and theatre.

36. Irons owns Kilcoe Castle (which he had painted a rusty pink) in County Cork, Ireland, and has become involved in local politics there. He also has another Irish residence in the Liberties, Dublin.

37. He has played his own twin. Though knowing he had an upbringing in theater helped, he was called on in one movie to play twins. The film was called Dead Ringers and came out in 1988. A chilling film by David Cronenberg, we can only recommend it to those of you with strong stomachs and open minds. And don’t even think about how it was based on a true story. Moving on….

38. Along with his native English, Irons is also fluent in French.

39. Irons’ wife and children are Catholic; Irons has also been described as a practising Catholic. But 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.”

40. In 2008, Irons was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Southampton Solent University.