Jeremy Irons
British actor (born 1948)
Jeremy Irons: a career across stage, television and film
Training and theatre
Jeremy Irons trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and worked on stage before becoming widely known on screen. Theatre gave him a foundation in voice and character work that remained evident in later roles. His career did not begin with a Hollywood film: British stage and television work came first.
Television breakthrough
The television adaptation Brideshead Revisited brought Irons broad attention in 1981 as Charles Ryder. The long-form drama gave him room to develop a character over many episodes, quite different from a brief film appearance. It helped establish him as a leading screen actor while he continued to move between performance formats.
Film recognition
In the 1990 film Reversal of Fortune, Irons portrayed Claus von Bülow. The performance won him the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 1991 ceremony. Other film roles have shown a willingness to shift between period drama and contemporary stories. The Oscar marks a specific career milestone, not the whole measure of his work on stage and television.