A winner of Oscars, Emmys and Tonys, Jeremy Irons has been delivering top-notch performances for four decades now, and as he has been turning his sights back to television in recent years. I suspect that we are in store for many more great performances to come.
Irons is one-for-one at the Academy Awards, winning for his only nomination in Barbet Schroeder‘s “Reversal of Fortune” as suspected murderer Claus von Bülow, considered by many to be one of the definitive performances of the ’90s. It also brought Irons his first Golden Globe Award. Irons is also perfect at the Tony Awards, winning the Best Actor award for Tom Stoppard‘s 1984 production of “The Real Thing” (hint: when Irons is nominated, he tends to win). And he was won three of the five Emmy Awards for which he has been nominated, both as an actor and as a narrator (especially with that voice).
Irons last graced American TV screens in the superhero drama series “Watchmen” on HBO, which brought him an Emmy nomination. He previously won television’s top honor for his supporting turn in “Elizabeth I” and for his narration of “The Great War and the Shaping of American History” and “Big Cat Week,” competing once more for “Brideshead Revisited.”
Let’s take a moment to raise a glass to Irons. Our photo gallery ranks his 12 greatest movie performances from worst to best, including “The Lion King,” “Dead Ringers,” “The Mission” and more.
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12. DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE (1995)
Image Credit: Barry Wetcher/Cinergi/20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: John McTiernan. Writer: Jonathan Hensleigh. Starring Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L. Jackson, Colleen Camp.
Irons has had more than his share of deadly serious roles, many of which he has pulled off brilliantly. But once in a while, he gets to be delicious, and so he is here as the brother of the late equally-delicious terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) from the first “Die Hard” movie. As Simon Gruber, Irons gets to humiliate and terrorize Lt. John McClaine (Bruce Willis), the man who killed his brother. There are very few contemporary actors who can summon the silken sliminess of a George Sanders in “All About Eve” — Rickman was one, Irons is another, an ability that Irons uses most effectively in his very best roles. As comparatively minor as “Die Hard With a Vengeance” might be, Irons gives it his all here, and all we can do is sit back and luxuriate.
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11. M. BUTTERFLY (1993)
Image Credit: Geffen/Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: David Cronenberg. Writer: David Henry Hwang, based on his play. Starring Jeremy Irons, John Lone, Barbara Sukowa, Ian Richardson.
In a role that brought John Lithgow a Tony nomination in 1988, Irons stars in the film adaptation as Rene Gallimard, a rather low-level civil servant at the French embassy in China in the 1960s. Rene becomes more-than-smitten with Peking Opera star Song Liling, and the two embark on a torrid love affair. It is only well into their relationship that Rene realizes that Song Liling is actually a man (John Lone), and how these two people juggle their still-passionate feelings despite this news is the crux of the drama. Irons’ subtle reactions to this revelation is what really gives his performance here its weight.
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10. DAMAGE (1992)
Image Credit: Sophie Baker/Skreba/Nef/Canal+/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Louis Malle. Writer: David Hare. Starring Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche, Miranda Richardson, Rupert Graves, Leslie Caron.
English news was filled with governmental sex scandals in the four decades from 1960 to 1990, and Louis Malle’s film takes on a fictional depiction of a typical one. Dr. Stephen Fleming (Irons) is married to Ingrid (Oscar nominee Miranda Richardson), but he finds himself sexually attracted to young Anna (Juliette Binoche), who just happens to be the girlfriend of his son Martyn (Rupert Graves). Irons never plays Stephen as a cad or a stock villain — he’s a man who knows what he’s doing crosses a line but chooses instead to follow his heart and his loins. Malle is a master of sensual filmmaking, and he brings out the best in Irons here.
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9. APPALOOSA (2008)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director: Ed Harris. Writers: Robert Knott, Ed Harris. Starring Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Renée Zellweger, Jeremy Irons, Timothy Spall.
Irons even dipped his toe into the Western genre in this labor of love from star/director/co-writer Ed Harris for this look at 1882 New Mexico where the town of Appaloosa is being terrorized by bad guy Randall Bragg (Irons, at his silimiest), whose intention is to take over Appaloosa. His plans are thwarted, however, when strong new marshal Virgil Cole (Harris) and his deputy Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) take charge and wrest control of the town from Bragg and his henchmen by arresting Bragg and charging him with three counts of murder. Irons is clearly having a ball with the role, a delight that translates easily to the audience.
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8. BETRAYAL (1983)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director: David Jones. Writer: Harold Pinter, based on his play. Starring Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley, Patricia Hodge.
Harold Pinter’s play, based on a real-life affair that the playwright once conducted, is probably the leading theatrical example of the use of reverse chronology in storytelling. The first scene takes place after the affair has ended, and the play is told backwards from there until the final scene shows the lovers first meeting. It’s a bold way to tell a story but one which Pinter kept in his screenplay. The material is strong and gives the film’s trio — publisher Robert (Ben Kingsley), wife Emma (Patricia Hodge) and Robert’s best friend, literary agent Jerry (Irons) — deep character details with which to work. Irons, in particular, gives a performance that only cemented his reputation as an up-and-coming film star.
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7. MARGIN CALL (2011)
Image Credit: Before The Door Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock Writer/Director: J.C. Chandor. Starring Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci.
Irons scored his best role of the decade in J.C. Chandor’s Wall Street-set drama focusing on the financial crisis of 2007-2008. In Chandor’s Oscar-nominated script, Irons plays John Tuld, the CEO of an investment bank that gets early wind of the collapse to come and agrees to a plan to dump the firm’s toxic assets before word gets out about the financial crisis to come. Irons has played many a sleazy character in his day, and he is especially effective maneuvering around in this shark tank of deceit, with Chandor providing him with a rich playground in which to play.
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6. THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN (1981)
Image Credit: United Artists/REX/Shutterstock Director: Karel Reisz. Writer: Harold Pinter, based on the novel by John Fowles. Starring Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons.
Irons received his first BAFTA nomination as Best Actor for his dual performance as Mike, a contemporary film actor playing the role of Charles Henry Simpson, a Victorian gentleman who works as a palaeontologist. Harold Pinter’s script, based on the John Fowles novel, tells its story on two tracks — the first is Mike’s interactions with his co-star Anna (Oscar nominee Meryl Streep), and the second is Simpson’s story, told in Victorian times, of his affair with Sarah Woodruff (also Streep), who is commonly known as “the French lieutenant’s woman.” It’s an elaborate dance that both actors have to pull off, but their palpable chemistry helps to make it work.
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5. THE MISSION (1986)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director: Roland Joffé. Writer: Robert Bolt. Starring Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally, Aiden Quinn.
Roland Joffé’s Oscar-nominated film is considered by many (including The Vatican) to be one of the best religious-themed films of all time. Set in 18th Century South America, “The Mission” follows Spanish Jesuit priest Father Gabriel (Irons) as he tries to convert the native Guaraní tribe to Christianity, a mission that risks his own life. At the same time, Father Gabriel finds himself coming face-to-face with mercenary Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro) whose goal is to kidnap the Guarani and selling them to nearby plantations. For his performance as Father Gabriel, Irons earned his first Golden Globe nomination as Best Actor.
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4. DEAD RINGERS (1988)
Image Credit: ITV/Shutterstock Director: David Cronenberg. Writers: David Cronenberg, Norman Snider. Starring Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold.
One of Irons’ wildest performances just happens to be one of his best. In another dual-character performance, Irons stars as twin gynecologists Beverly and Elliott Mantle who have a successful practice in Toronto that is filled with lots of women. Womanizer Beverly seduces his female patients until he is tired of them and passes them on to the more passive Elliott. The system works just fine for both men…until it doesn’t, and all hell begins to break loose. For his performances as Beverly and Elliott, Irons was voted the year’s Best Actor by the New York Film Critics Circle.
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3. MOONLIGHTING (1982)
Image Credit: Michael White Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock Writer/Director: Jerzy Skolimowski. Starring Jeremy Irons, Eugene Lipinki.
To this day, Jerzy Skolimowski’s “Moonlighting” remains one of Irons’ best but least known films, still maintaining a remarkable 100% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes 37 years after its release. In this fish-out-of-water drama, Irons plays Nowak, a master electrician who moves from Warsaw to London with a trio of Polish workmen to illegally renovate a local house. As Nowak is the only member of the group who speaks English, it’s up to him to scrounge food and supplies to sustain them while the work gets done. It’s Irons’ show from beginning to end, and his command of his craft helps to make this unlikely premise a dramatically riveting one.
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2. THE LION KING (1994)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Disney Directors: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff. Writers: Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, Linda Woolverton. Voices: Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Whoopi Goldberg.
Generations of children still to come will continue to be absolutely terrorized by the satiny menace of Irons’ voice work as Scar, the homicidal younger brother of Mufasa (James Earl Jones), the lion king of Pride Rock, in Walt Disney’s animated classic. When it becomes clear that Mufasa’s son Simba (Matthew Broderick) will become the new lion king, Scar hatches a plan to murder both Mufasa and Simba so that he can take over the throne that he has coveted for so long. In a film filled with brilliant voice work, it is perhaps Iron’s oozing villainy that will be most remembered for decades to come.
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1. REVERSAL OF FORTUNE (1990)
Image Credit: Pressman/Shochiku Fuji/Sovereign/REX/Shutterstock Director: Barbet Schroeder. Writer: Nicholas Kazan. Starring Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, Ron Silver, Uta Hagen.
Irons won the Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of the aristocratic Claus von Bülow, who was accused to plotting to kill his socialite wife Sunny (Glenn Close) by sending her into a coma following a diabetic attack. The brilliance of Irons’ performance is that he makes you wonder whether Claus actually tried to kill his wife or not, and you never really know. The accent that Irons uses sounds like a phony aristocrat, and his entire personality may just be an elaborate artifice. Iron’s performance is that good that you the big question is never fully answered. For his performance as von Bülow, Irons also won his first Golden Globe Award as Best Actor.
