Jeremy Irons | Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("https://achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/","20200917235228","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1600386748"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic&display=swap" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">  <title>Jeremy Irons | Academy of Achievement</title> <meta name="description" content=""A career seemed to me something rather like a prison sentence. That was how I viewed a career, that I would start at the bottom and I'd work my way up the ladder and then I'd retire, and after a little bit I'd die. And I thought there's nothing I want to do like that really." Just out of school, with no particular prospects, young Jeremy Irons answered a "help wanted" ad placed by a small theater in Canterbury, England. The ad called for an assistant stage manager, but once inside the theater, Irons knew he had found his calling. He had already made a small name for himself on the London stage when international audiences got their first look at him in the television mini-series Brideshead Revisited. Although Irons made his reputation as a romantic leading man in films such as The French Lieutenant's Woman, he has never shied from unusual or unsympathetic roles. He amazed audiences with his performance in the French language film Swann in Love, and as psychotic identical twins in Dead Ringers. He played a spine-tingling villain in Die Hard: With a Vengeance, a dying artist in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty, and the tormented Humbert in the second screen version of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. After seeing Irons's portrayal of Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune, von Bülow's real-life attorney, Alan Dershowitz, declared that "Jeremy Irons is a better Claus von Bülow than Claus von Bülow." The Motion Picture Academy agreed and gave Irons an Oscar for Best Actor. As familiar as Irons's face may be to adult moviegoers, even more children know his voice as the villainous Scar in The Lion King. Audiences of all ages can be grateful that he has lent his face and voice to an extraordinary variety of roles in some of the most memorable films of the last 30 years."/> <meta name="robots" content="index, follow"/> <meta name="googlebot" content="index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1"/> <meta name="bingbot" content="index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Jeremy Irons | Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">"A career seemed to me something rather like a prison sentence. That was how I viewed a career, that I would start at the bottom and I'd work my way up the ladder and then I'd retire, and after a little bit I'd die. And I thought there's nothing I want to do like that really."</p> <p class="inputText">Just out of school, with no particular prospects, young Jeremy Irons answered a "help wanted" ad placed by a small theater in Canterbury, England. The ad called for an assistant stage manager, but once inside the theater, Irons knew he had found his calling.</p> <p class="inputText">He had already made a small name for himself on the London stage when international audiences got their first look at him in the television mini-series <i>Brideshead Revisited.</i> Although Irons made his reputation as a romantic leading man in films such as <i>The French Lieutenant's Woman,</i> he has never shied from unusual or unsympathetic roles. He amazed audiences with his performance in the French language film <i>Swann in Love,</i> and as psychotic identical twins in <i>Dead Ringers.</i> He played a spine-tingling villain in <i>Die Hard: With a Vengeance,</i> a dying artist in Bernardo Bertolucci's <i>Stealing Beauty,</i> and the tormented Humbert in the second screen version of Vladimir Nabokov's <i>Lolita.</i></p> <p class="inputText">After seeing Irons's portrayal of Claus von Bülow in <i>Reversal of Fortune,</i> von Bülow's real-life attorney, Alan Dershowitz, declared that "Jeremy Irons is a better Claus von Bülow than Claus von Bülow." The Motion Picture Academy agreed and gave Irons an Oscar for Best Actor.</p> <p class="inputText">As familiar as Irons's face may be to adult moviegoers, even more children know his voice as the villainous Scar in <i>The Lion King.</i> Audiences of all ages can be grateful that he has lent his face and voice to an extraordinary variety of roles in some of the most memorable films of the last 30 years.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2018-08-24T13:32:24+00:00"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/irons-Feature-Image-2800x1120-1.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@achievers1961"/> <meta name="twitter:site" content="@achievers1961"/> <script type="application/ld+json" class="yoast-schema-graph">{"@context":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/#organization","name":"Academy of Achievement","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/","sameAs":["https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-academy-of-achievement","https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChe_87uh1H-NIMf3ndTjPFw","https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Achievement","https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://twitter.com/achievers1961"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/#logo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/12.png","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Academy of Achievement"},"image":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/#logo"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/#website","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/","name":"Academy of Achievement","description":"A museum of living history","publisher":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/search/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/irons-Feature-Image-2800x1120-1.jpg","width":2800,"height":1120},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/#webpage","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/","name":"Jeremy Irons | Academy of Achievement","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2016-09-26T06:36:38+00:00","dateModified":"2018-08-24T13:32:24+00:00","description":"\"A career seemed to me something rather like a prison sentence. That was how I viewed a career, that I would start at the bottom and I'd work my way up the ladder and then I'd retire, and after a little bit I'd die. And I thought there's nothing I want to do like that really.\" Just out of school, with no particular prospects, young Jeremy Irons answered a \"help wanted\" ad placed by a small theater in Canterbury, England. The ad called for an assistant stage manager, but once inside the theater, Irons knew he had found his calling. He had already made a small name for himself on the London stage when international audiences got their first look at him in the television mini-series Brideshead Revisited. Although Irons made his reputation as a romantic leading man in films such as The French Lieutenant's Woman, he has never shied from unusual or unsympathetic roles. He amazed audiences with his performance in the French language film Swann in Love, and as psychotic identical twins in Dead Ringers. He played a spine-tingling villain in Die Hard: With a Vengeance, a dying artist in Bernardo Bertolucci's\u00a0Stealing Beauty, and the tormented Humbert in the second screen version of Vladimir Nabokov's\u00a0Lolita. After seeing Irons's portrayal of Claus von B\u00fclow in Reversal of Fortune, von B\u00fclow's real-life attorney, Alan Dershowitz, declared that \"Jeremy Irons is a better Claus von B\u00fclow than Claus von B\u00fclow.\" The Motion Picture Academy agreed and gave Irons an Oscar for Best Actor. As familiar as Irons's face may be to adult moviegoers, even more children know his voice as the villainous Scar in The Lion King. 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role="document"> <div class="content"> <main class="main"> <div class="feature-area__container"> <header class="feature-area feature-area--has-image ratio-container ratio-container--feature"> <figure class="feature-box"> <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image feature-area__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/irons-Feature-Image-2800x1120-1.jpg [(max-width:544px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/irons-Feature-Image-2800x1120-1-1400x560.jpg [(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/irons-Feature-Image-2800x1120-1.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Jeremy Irons</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Stage and Screen Actor</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-2561 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-actor"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="banner clearfix"> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/WhatItTakes_irons-256-190x190.jpg" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> Listen to this achiever on <i>What It Takes</i> </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0"><i>What It Takes</i> is an audio podcast produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: public service, science and exploration, sports, technology, business, arts and humanities, and justice.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">A career seemed to me something rather like a prison sentence. That was how I viewed a career. I would start at the bottom and I'd work my way up the ladder and then I'd retire and, after a little bit, I'd die...And, to be an outsider seemed to me to be very, very attractive.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Oscar, Tony, and Emmy Award-Winning Actor</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> September 19, 1948 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><p class="inputtextfirst">Jeremy Irons was born in Cowes, England, on the Isle of Wight. An indifferent student, his teachers and family were unsure what he would do for a career. After failing to win admission to veterinary school, he determined to pursue a career in the theater, an interest that had been piqued by acting in plays at Sherborne, his boarding school. He worked as an assistant stage manager in a small rep theater, then entered the two-year program of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. After graduation, he stayed in Bristol for three seasons, playing the juvenile leads in plays by Shakespeare, Noel Coward and Joe Orton.</p> <figure id="attachment_22242" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22242" style="width: 1680px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22242 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/normal_godspell.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22242 size-full lazyload" alt="August 1973 programme (playbill) from the Original West End production of the Stephen Schwartz musical hit "Godspell" at Wyndham's Theatre in London. (The original Off-Broadway production opened May 17, 1971 at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City, moved to the Promenade Theatre August 10, 1971, and ran for a combined 2,124 performances. The London production opened November 17, 1971 at the Roundhouse Theatre, moved to Wyndham's Theatre on January 26, 1972, and ran for 1,128 performances.) The ensemble cast included Johanna Cassidy, David Essex, Jeremy Irons, Tony Jackson, Sally Mates, Verity-Anne Meldrum, Mandy More, Deryk Parkin, Tom Saffery and Gay Soper. (Credits: Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz ("The Magic Show," "Godspell," "Pippin," "The Baker's Wife," "Working," "Rags," "Children of Eden" and "Wicked"), based on "The Gospel According to St. Matthew." Sets designed by Ian Dow; costumes designed by Susan Tsu; playbill cover illustrated by David Byrd; conceived and directed by John-Michael Tebelak.)" width="1680" height="1101" data-sizes="(max-width: 1680px) 100vw, 1680px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/normal_godspell.jpg 1680w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/normal_godspell-380x249.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/normal_godspell-760x498.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/normal_godspell.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22242" class="wp-caption-text">August 1973 playbill from the Original West End production of the Stephen Schwartz musical hit <em>Godspell</em> at Wyndham’s Theatre in London. The original Off-Broadway production opened May 17, 1971 at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City, moved to the Promenade Theatre August 10, 1971, and ran for a combined 2,124 performances. The London production opened November 17, 1971 at the Roundhouse Theatre, moved to Wyndham’s Theatre on January 26, 1972, and ran for 1,128 performances. The original ensemble cast included Johanna Cassidy, David Essex, Jeremy Irons, Tony Jackson, Sally Mates, Verity-Anne Meldrum, and Mandy More.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">In 1971, he moved to London to pursue a career in film and on the West End Stage. He won the role of John the Baptist in the London production of the musical <i>Godspell</i> and soon came to the attention of casting directors for film and television. In Simon Gray’s play the <i>The Rear Column</i> he was directed by the famous playwright Harold Pinter, who recommended him to film director Karel Reisz. After viewing some of Irons’s film and commercial work, Reisz cast him opposite Meryl Streep in <i>The French Lieutenant’s Woman,</i> for which Pinter was writing the screenplay.</p> <figure id="attachment_22233" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22233" style="width: 1757px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22233 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/gty_meryl_streep_french_lieutenants_woman_jc_150109.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22233 size-full lazyload" alt="1981: Jeremy Irons's first major film role came in the romantic drama "The French Lieutenant's Woman," for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons play the tragic hero and heroine of Karel Reisz's drama based on the novel by John Fowles." width="1757" height="2592" data-sizes="(max-width: 1757px) 100vw, 1757px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/gty_meryl_streep_french_lieutenants_woman_jc_150109.jpg 1757w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/gty_meryl_streep_french_lieutenants_woman_jc_150109-258x380.jpg 258w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/gty_meryl_streep_french_lieutenants_woman_jc_150109-515x760.jpg 515w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/gty_meryl_streep_french_lieutenants_woman_jc_150109.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22233" class="wp-caption-text">1981: Jeremy Irons’s first major film role was in the British romantic drama <em>The French Lieutenant’s Woman</em>. Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons are the tragic hero and heroine of Karel Reisz’s film based on a 1969 John Fowles novel.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">Before production of <i>The French Lieutenant’s Woman</i> began, Irons was cast in another leading role, Charles Ryder in Grenada Television’s 11-part adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s <i>Brideshead Revisited.</i> When a technicians’ strike interrupted shooting of <i>Brideshead,</i> the schedule was extended. Irons had been assured he would be done in time to start work on <i>The French Lieutenant’s Woman,</i> but when the time came, shooting on <i>Brideshead</i> was still not finished, and Grenada offered the actor a difficult choice: give up his first leading role in a feature film, or walk out on the series. Walking out could mean being permanently barred from professional film and television work in England. He believed he was in the right, but knew that a long lawsuit would probably prevent him from doing the film as well.</p> <figure id="attachment_22226" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22226" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22226 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01BRIDESHEAD2_SPAN-jumbo.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22226 size-full lazyload" alt="1981: Jeremy Irons, left, and Anthony Andrews in “Brideshead Revisited,” the British mini-series based on Evelyn Waugh's novel." width="1024" height="678" data-sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01BRIDESHEAD2_SPAN-jumbo.jpg 1024w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01BRIDESHEAD2_SPAN-jumbo-380x252.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01BRIDESHEAD2_SPAN-jumbo-760x503.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01BRIDESHEAD2_SPAN-jumbo.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22226" class="wp-caption-text">1981: Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews in <i>Brideshead Revisited</i>, the highly-acclaimed British mini-series based on the novel by English writer, Evelyn Waugh, which looks back to the Golden Age before the Second World War.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">Irons refused to be intimidated; he walked out, and production on <i>Brideshead</i> was shut down. The television company relented and worked out an arrangement that enabled Irons to finish both jobs. As it happened, <i>Brideshead Revisited</i> was a phenomenal worldwide success. When <i>The French Lieutenant’s Woman</i> hit the theaters in 1981, Irons’s position as an international star was consolidated.</p> <figure id="attachment_22244" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22244" style="width: 1181px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22244 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reversal-of-Fortune-glenn-close-35254532-1181-1587.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22244 size-full lazyload" alt="1990: Jeremy Irons played accused murderer Claus von Bülow (with Glenn Close as Sunny) in the film "Reversal of Fortune" and received an Academy Award for Best Actor." width="1181" height="1587" data-sizes="(max-width: 1181px) 100vw, 1181px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reversal-of-Fortune-glenn-close-35254532-1181-1587.jpg 1181w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reversal-of-Fortune-glenn-close-35254532-1181-1587-283x380.jpg 283w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reversal-of-Fortune-glenn-close-35254532-1181-1587-566x760.jpg 566w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reversal-of-Fortune-glenn-close-35254532-1181-1587.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22244" class="wp-caption-text">1990: Jeremy Irons played accused murderer Claus von Bülow (with Glenn Close as Sunny) in the film <i>Reversal of Fortune</i> and received an Academy Award for Best Actor. Irons also earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">Throughout the 1980s, Irons continued to work onstage, undertaking classical roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He made his Broadway debut in 1984, playing opposite Glenn Close in <i>The Real Thing</i> by Tom Stoppard. His performance in that play won him a Tony Award for Best Actor. Irons and Close worked together again in <i>Reversal of Fortune </i>(1990), the film for which Irons won a Best Actor Oscar. His other notable film roles include <i>The Mission</i>, <i>Swann in Love</i>, <i>Die Hard: With a Vengeance</i>, <i>The Man in the Iron Mask, </i><i>Lolita</i>, and <em>The Man Who Knew Infinity</em>.</p> <figure id="attachment_22239" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22239" style="width: 1992px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22239 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons056.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22239 size-full lazyload" alt="Jeremy Irons won an Oscar in 1990 for his performance as Claus von Bulow in "Reversal of Fortune."" width="1992" height="2796" data-sizes="(max-width: 1992px) 100vw, 1992px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons056.jpg 1992w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons056-271x380.jpg 271w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons056-541x760.jpg 541w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons056.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22239" class="wp-caption-text">Jeremy Irons won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1990 for his performance as Claus von Bulow in <i>Reversal of Fortune</i>.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">Despite his enormous success in film, Irons has remained active in the theater, television and the recording studio. He portrayed Professor Henry Higgins in a 1997 recording of <i>My Fair Lady</i> with the opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. In 2003 he starred in a New York revival of Stephen Sondheim’s <i>A Little Night Music</i>. He returned to the London stage in 2006, after an absence of nearly 20 years, to star in <i>Embers</i>, adapted by playwright Christopher Hampton from the novel by Sándor Márai. He received a second Emmy Award and a second Golden Globe in 2007 for his performance as Sir Robert Dudley in the television mini-series <i>Elizabeth I</i>.</p> <figure id="attachment_23720" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23720" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-23720 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-171567042.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-23720 lazyload" alt="June 26, 2013: Jeremy Irons and his wife Sinéad Cusack attend The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party in London." width="2000" height="3000" data-sizes="(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-171567042.jpg 2000w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-171567042-253x380.jpg 253w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-171567042-507x760.jpg 507w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-171567042.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23720" class="wp-caption-text">June 26, 2013: Jeremy Irons and his wife Sinéad Cusack attend The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party in London.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">Irons played the British Prime Minister Sir Harold Macmillan in the play <i>Never So Good</i> by Howard Brenton for Britain’s National Theatre in 2008. The following year, he returned to Broadway to star with actress Joan Allen in the new play <i>Impressionism</i> by Michael Jacobs. From 2011-2013, Jeremy Irons starred as Pope Alexander VI in the Showtime historical series <em>The Borgias.</em></p> <figure id="attachment_40778" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-40778" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-40778 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0682.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-40778 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="2280" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0682.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0682-190x190.jpg 190w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0682-380x380.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0682-760x760.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0682.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-40778" class="wp-caption-text">2017: Awards Council member Jeremy Irons presenting the Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award to fashion designer Valentino Garavani during a ceremony at the 52nd annual International Achievement Summit.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">In 2011, he was selected as a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. He is one of the few actors who has received the “Triple Crown of Acting” <span class="_Tgc">—</span> winning an Academy Award for film, an Emmy Award for television, and a Tony Award for theater. Jeremy Irons is married to the actress Sinéad Cusack; they have appeared together in two films, <i>Stealing Beauty</i> and <i>Waterland.</i> They have two sons, Maximilian and Samuel, who appeared with his father in <i>Danny, Champion of the World.</i></p> </body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2000 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.actor">Actor</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> September 19, 1948 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">“A career seemed to me something rather like a prison sentence. That was how I viewed a career, that I would start at the bottom and I’d work my way up the ladder and then I’d retire, and after a little bit I’d die. And I thought there’s nothing I want to do like that really.”</p> <p class="inputText">Just out of school, with no particular prospects, young Jeremy Irons answered a “help wanted” ad placed by a small theater in Canterbury, England. The ad called for an assistant stage manager, but once inside the theater, Irons knew he had found his calling.</p> <p class="inputText">He had already made a small name for himself on the London stage when international audiences got their first look at him in the television mini-series <i>Brideshead Revisited.</i> Although Irons made his reputation as a romantic leading man in films such as <i>The French Lieutenant’s Woman,</i> he has never shied from unusual or unsympathetic roles. He amazed audiences with his performance in the French language film <i>Swann in Love,</i> and as psychotic identical twins in <i>Dead Ringers.</i> He played a spine-tingling villain in <i>Die Hard: With a Vengeance,</i> a dying artist in Bernardo Bertolucci’s <i>Stealing Beauty,</i> and the tormented Humbert in the second screen version of Vladimir Nabokov’s <i>Lolita.</i></p> <p class="inputText">After seeing Irons’s portrayal of Claus von Bülow in <i>Reversal of Fortune,</i> von Bülow’s real-life attorney, Alan Dershowitz, declared that “Jeremy Irons is a better Claus von Bülow than Claus von Bülow.” The Motion Picture Academy agreed and gave Irons an Oscar for Best Actor.</p> <p class="inputText">As familiar as Irons’s face may be to adult moviegoers, even more children know his voice as the villainous Scar in <i>The Lion King.</i> Audiences of all ages can be grateful that he has lent his face and voice to an extraordinary variety of roles in some of the most memorable films of the last 30 years.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/c1IC1E_J5WY?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=2535&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-MasterEdit.00_28_35_12.Still009-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-MasterEdit.00_28_35_12.Still009-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Oscar, Tony, and Emmy Award-Winning Actor</h2> <div class="sans-2">London, England</div> <div class="sans-2">October 27, 2000</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="inputtextfirst"><b>We understand you hadn’t really settled on a career path when you left school at 17. What were your plans?</b></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/-5dyG-qW_v0?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=44&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-MasterEdit.00_41_50_08.Still013-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-MasterEdit.00_41_50_08.Still013-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">Jeremy Irons: I had done a fair bit of traveling during the holidays, in my school days, with my guitar and discovered that I could live on it. Admittedly, I traveled with a sleeping bag, but I could always find somewhere to lay my head. I could always find the money for food. So I had a sort of — a passport — and I traveled in Europe and around England with that. I had a family home that I could always go back to if things went badly wrong. In fact, I had two family homes by then. I was — looking back at it — waiting and listening, which I think is one of the secrets.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="inputtext">I had a walk with my father on Hampstead Heath. He lived in London on Hampstead at that time, and I said, “I think I want to try to be an actor.”</p> <p class="inputtext">He said, “Oh, God. If you look at people who are actors, they tend to have an awful lot of marriages and they don’t seem to be very happy.”</p> <p class="inputtext">But he was a great father. By then he’d failed with my brother, who was off sailing around the world trying to find the secret of water, and still is, strangely enough.</p> <p class="inputtext">So my father was quite keen that I wanted to do anything, and he said, “Well, I don’t recommend it, but I would say to you that if you don’t try it, you’ll never know, and you’ll always resent me for not supporting you. So see if you can get a job.”</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/XwHEckZU3DY?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_23_34_19.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_23_34_19.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/passion/">Passion</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I got a job off the back of a newspaper as a — what they call an “acting ASM,” I think it was called then. An acting assistant stage manager in a theater in Canterbury, a rep theater. A small wage but just enough to get by on, and I made props, and I walked on, and I changed scenery, and I realized that I just loved it. Not the acting. I wasn’t acting. I liked the theater. I liked the people. I liked the time that we worked. Now looking back, I see what I was doing, but at the time I didn’t know. You never know at the time. What I was doing was finding a way not to have to be stuck with any of the sort of people I’d been educated with, but finding a way of creating the life of a gypsy really, of being able to move from camp to camp, singing around the fire, getting to know those people and then moving on maybe with some of them — or maybe not — to another place.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_35802" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35802" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-35802 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-JeremyIrons2000Summit.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-35802 lazyload" alt="Jeremy Irons addresses delegates during the 2000 International Achievement Summit in London." width="2280" height="1476" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-JeremyIrons2000Summit.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-JeremyIrons2000Summit-380x246.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-JeremyIrons2000Summit-760x492.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-JeremyIrons2000Summit.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-35802" class="wp-caption-text">Jeremy Irons addressing members and delegates during the 2000 International Achievement Summit in London.</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/F-QcTVNzX9k?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=0&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_02_00_19.Still001-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_02_00_19.Still001-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">A career seemed to me something rather like a prison sentence. That was how I viewed a career, that I would start at the bottom and I’d work my way up the ladder and then I’d retire, and after a little bit I’d die. And I thought there’s nothing I want to do like that really. Nothing I want to do enough but I’d like to — I had read a lot of autobiographies of actors, from Burbage (Shakespeare’s leading man), through to Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, and all the people in between. That was while I was at school, under the notion that I was collecting them but with no knowledge as to why. But in fact, a lot was — you know, you don’t collect things without reason, and a lot of their lives soaked into me and their attitudes. And to be an outsider seemed to me to be very, very attractive.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><p><strong>Did you see actors as outsiders?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: I think so. They are privileged in that they can, at their best, stand beside the king’s ear and tell him, “You ain’t got no clothes on, chummy,” and get away with it. I think that’s what we should do. I always worry in this country when actors get knighted and lorded and decorated. I think, “No. Stay away. Stay awake. Keep behaving badly. Keep stirring the mud.”</p> <figure id="attachment_22245" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22245" style="width: 1500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22245 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/therealthing.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22245 size-full lazyload" alt="In 1984, Jeremy Irons made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" and received a Tony Award for Best Actor." width="1500" height="1492" data-sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/therealthing.jpg 1500w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/therealthing-190x190.jpg 190w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/therealthing-380x378.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/therealthing-760x756.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/therealthing.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22245" class="wp-caption-text">1984: Irons made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard’s <em>The Real Thing</em> and received a Tony Award for Best Actor.</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>Perhaps you already saw yourself as an outsider and you found a profession that allowed you to be one.</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: That’s right. I loved working in the theater but I knew nothing. So what was the next step?</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/xT5lTpV53YA?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_04_24_08.Still002-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_04_24_08.Still002-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">My next step must be to go to drama school. Well, I get into drama school, so I did that. Fortunately, my father was able to pay the fees, and he said, “But I’m not paying for you on the holidays. You know, any extra money you want.” So I worked as a builder, building new bathrooms for people outside their houses where they didn’t have bathrooms ,and that enabled me to run a car and to go through my two years of theater training.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_22227" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22227" style="width: 1999px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22227 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/007-dead-ringers-theredlist.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22227 size-full lazyload" alt="1988: Jeremy Irons gained critical acclaim for portraying twin gynecologists in David Cronenberg's psychological thriller "Dead Ringers."" width="1999" height="1310" data-sizes="(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/007-dead-ringers-theredlist.jpg 1999w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/007-dead-ringers-theredlist-380x249.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/007-dead-ringers-theredlist-760x498.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/007-dead-ringers-theredlist.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22227" class="wp-caption-text">1988: Irons gained critical acclaim for portraying identical twin gynecologists in David Cronenberg’s thriller <i>Dead Ringers</i>. Geneviève Bujold co-starred in the film. It was later voted as “one of the 25 scariest movies of all-time.”</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/QWhWZWANCAM?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-MasterEdit.00_37_40_03.Still010-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-MasterEdit.00_37_40_03.Still010-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">Now, in my theater training, I showed no aptitude at all. Funny enough, four nights ago I had dinner with three other colleagues who were at theater school with me, and Tim Piggott-Smith — who was in <i>The Jewel and the Crown,</i> I don’t know whether you saw that — he had always thought I would give up very quickly, like in a year or two years after leaving drama school. He said, “You had no talent.” And I didn’t. I wore clothes well, I decorated the stage well, but I wasn’t an actor in the way that Tim was, or many of the other students.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p class="inputtext">I remember we would stay for the weekend — a group of about ten of us — and the staff would interview us as a group, asking us questions so we’d hear everybody else’s answers.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/iLYFSn9EMH8?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=71&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_22_16_02.Still005-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_22_16_02.Still005-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I remember particularly when the principal — a great man called Nat Brenner who is sadly now dead, a great man of the theater — he was talking to us, and he was asking people why they wanted to become an actor and what they had been doing. And there were people, they had done — they’d sold ice cream in Mongolia, they’d made ballet shoes in Brisbane, they had done extraordinary things. He said, “What have you done?” I said, “Well, I haven’t done anything really. I sing a bit.” He said, “Why do you want to be an actor?” I said, “I don’t know. I just think it’s quite nice.” Anyway, he talked to me. I think he saw the window that I was and took me on. But as I say, in the two years I learned various skills. I learned a little bit about the theater, about styles, about how to speak, how to stand, how to sing — not using my nose like Bob Dylan, but actually sing — using my diaphragm. And at the end of the two years, five of us were chosen to go down into the theater, into the Bristol Old Vic company itself.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_22240" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22240" style="width: 1408px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-22240 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-22240 lazyload" alt="In 2005, Jeremy Irons starred opposite Helen Mirren in the historical mini-series "Elizabeth I," for which he received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor." width="1408" height="2048" data-sizes="(max-width: 1408px) 100vw, 1408px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons.jpg 1408w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons-261x380.jpg 261w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons-523x760.jpg 523w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22240" class="wp-caption-text">2005: Irons starred in the mini-series <em>Elizabeth I</em>, for which he received an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor.</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/ijRkskrA6sQ?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_20_51_17.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_20_51_17.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I thought, “Well, they want someone to stand up at the edge of the stage looking nice.” You know? Went down there for three years. I outlived them all. I stayed on and I finished off playing the juvenile leads — very badly. And eventually somebody in a coffee morning said — one of the theater club people said, “I expect you’ll be moving on soon,” and I thought, “Oops, when the audience starts saying that, it’s time to go.” So I moved on. And by then I decided — and I suppose this is one talent I do have, is that I know my direction usually — and I knew that I didn’t want to keep being a repertory actor. Repertory actors move around from town to town, repertory theater to repertory theater, and do maybe six-month contracts, but they don’t earn very much. And I knew that I was too middle class, that I wanted a family, I wanted a house, I wanted a mortgage. And I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford one doing that, so I thought, “I have to go to London. I have to go to London and do a West End show or a film.” So I came to London, and to live — I thought I needed something to live because I don’t want to have to take a job because I need the money — so I worked for a domestics agency which cleaned houses and sometimes did up people’s gardens.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_51586" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-51586" style="width: 1452px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-51586 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-2002-enya-and-jeremy-irons-dublin.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-51586 lazyload" alt="" width="1452" height="1452" data-sizes="(max-width: 1452px) 100vw, 1452px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-2002-enya-and-jeremy-irons-dublin.jpg 1452w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-2002-enya-and-jeremy-irons-dublin-190x190.jpg 190w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-2002-enya-and-jeremy-irons-dublin-380x380.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-2002-enya-and-jeremy-irons-dublin-760x760.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-2002-enya-and-jeremy-irons-dublin.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-51586" class="wp-caption-text">Awards Council member Jeremy Irons presenting the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award to Enya, Ireland’s best-selling solo artist of all time, at the 2002 International Achievement Summit in Dublin, Ireland.</figcaption></figure> <p>Because I had a car, I was quite reliable, so they used to use me quite a lot. And I auditioned for everything, because I hated auditioning. I found it very difficult and thought I’d better get good at this. So I kept doing auditions, and if I was offered the job, I’d say, “I’m sorry, I can’t do it. I thought I could do it, which is why I came to the audition, but I can’t.”</p> <p>Eventually I did an audition for an American show called <em>Godspell, </em>by John Michael Tebelak, which was coming to be launched in London. Americans enjoy uniformity in a way that the British don’t; they wanted everybody of a sort of nice chorus line height and here I was, this person who was a good three inches taller than anyone else on the end of the line. Every time I sort of slouched, a little voice would say, “Stand up, Jeremy, could you please?” Anyway, they gave me the job. I did that for two years in the West End. And I remember one night sitting on the stage during a song someone else was singing. I played John the Baptist, and David Essex who played Jesus, was sitting on the other side. And I thought, you know, I slipped these theatrical shoes on without a lot of thought, but they fit me like kid gloves.</p> <figure id="attachment_10186" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10186" style="width: 2244px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-10186 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/goo1-016-goodall-IMG_5447.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-10186 lazyload" alt="Actor Jeremy Irons meets Dame Jane Goodall at the 2009 International Achievement Summit. (© Academy of Achievement)" width="2244" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2244px) 100vw, 2244px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/goo1-016-goodall-IMG_5447.jpg 2244w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/goo1-016-goodall-IMG_5447-380x257.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/goo1-016-goodall-IMG_5447-760x515.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/goo1-016-goodall-IMG_5447.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-10186" class="wp-caption-text">Golden Plate Awards Council member Jeremy Irons meets eminent primate researcher Dame Jane Goodall at the Academy’s 2009 International Achievement Summit in Singita Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve in South Africa.</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>At that moment, you knew, “This is it.”</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: Yeah. I had given myself to the age of 30. I said, “At 30 I think I could change careers. Much after that will be difficult. So let’s see how I’m doing then.”</p> <p><strong>What would it have taken to satisfy you that this was the right choice in life?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: That I was happy, and that I was succeeding, that I was having a relationship, which is what I wanted, and that I was earning money, and having a life that I was proud of.</p> <p><strong>How old were you during <em>Godspell?</em></strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: Maybe 25. So I had about five or six years left, but I knew that I was on the way.</p> <figure id="attachment_22243" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22243" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-22243 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NTTL_06892-small.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-22243 lazyload" alt="2013: Jeremy Irons and Charlotte Rampling in the drama film "Night Train to Lisbon" directed by Bille August." width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NTTL_06892-small.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NTTL_06892-small-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NTTL_06892-small-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NTTL_06892-small.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22243" class="wp-caption-text">2013: Jeremy Irons and Charlotte Rampling in the dramatic film <em>Night Train to Lisbon,</em> directed by Bille August.</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>We were speaking earlier of taking risks in your career. I suppose at 30 you decided to continue being an actor. Where were you in your career when you made that decision?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: When I was 30, I was shooting <em>Brideshead Revisited. </em>None of us knew it would be as successful as it turned out to be. Through complicated reasons there had been a strike of the technicians, and our schedule had been shifted. I had also been asked by a director called Karel Reisz to make a film called <em>The French Lieutenant’s Woman </em>in the March of that year when <em>Brideshead</em> should have been finished.</p> <p>When we came back together to make <em>Brideshead </em>after the strike, we had been delayed by two or three months, and we could see that the schedule was going to have to be even longer anyway, because of getting to Oxford for the locations and various other things. My producer rang me up and said, “Would you restart on <em>Brideshead?</em>” And I said, “Well certainly. Of course I would, but I’ve told Karel that I’ll do this movie in March.” He said, “Well, that’s fine. We’ll work that out.”</p> <p>Well, when the time came to work it out, I got a rather heavy message from the television company saying, “I’m sorry. We can’t release you. We need to work through that period.” And a lot of people were involved in that.</p> <p>And I thought, “Wait a minute. I have a contract.” I actually hadn’t signed the contract but I had a verbal contract with my producer; he understood what I had said. We were filming up north, so I came down to London and went to see a lawyer. He was good as silk, and he said, “You’d win if what you tell me is true, but it would take a year and a half to come to court.” I said, “Well, that’s hopeless, isn’t it? We’ll be finished by then, the film will have gone.” So I went back north to work, leaving an agent in tears in London. And after one day’s work, went back to my hotel room, and thought,</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/w4BLPW6zJYc?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0&end=76&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_38_57_16.Still007-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-Upscale-1of2.00_38_57_16.Still007-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">“You’re being very British about this, Jeremy. You’re 30. If you’re going to make it in this life you’re going to make it in your 30s. And you think you’re right, and you’re stepping down because you’ve been told you can’t win in court — If that’s the way you’re going to manage your life then fine, but don’t expect too much.” So I sat down. I had a couple of martinis and dinner and then returned to my home and wrote a long letter to the chairman of the television company telling him that I was off unless by six o’clock the following day he would agree to release me to make this film. And I laid out — I knew everything he would do to me. I said, “I know you can bar me from the union. I know you can sue me.” They by then had spent eight million, I think. I said, “My house is worth 85,000. That’s about all I have but you can sue me for that. I’m not a hysterical actor. I’m just an actor against the wall.” You know. I called my lawyer the first thing in the morning and read it over the phone to him and said, “That’s what I want to send.” He said, “If you’re absolutely sure. You seem to know the downside.” I said, “Yes.” He says, “All right. Fax it to me and I’ll have it delivered around,” which he did. </p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_22232" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22232" style="width: 660px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22232 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/featured-image-shakespeareuncoveredpublicityimagerjpglnk.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22232 size-full lazyload" alt="2013: Jeremy Irons in "Shakespeare Uncovered: Henry IV and Henry V." (Alex Brenner/PBS)" width="660" height="428" data-sizes="(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/featured-image-shakespeareuncoveredpublicityimagerjpglnk.jpg 660w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/featured-image-shakespeareuncoveredpublicityimagerjpglnk-380x246.jpg 380w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/featured-image-shakespeareuncoveredpublicityimagerjpglnk.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22232" class="wp-caption-text">2013: Irons in <em>Shakespeare Uncovered: Henry IV and Henry V.</em> The PBS series combined history, biography, iconic performances, new analysis, and the personal passions of its celebrated hosts to tell the stories behind the stories of Shakespeare’s plays. It was created in collaboration with a board of educators and Shakespearean scholars.</figcaption></figure> <p class="inputtext">By six o’clock that day there had been no response. I checked with my producer whether there had been any response, and he said no, there hadn’t. I got in my car and drove down to London to a film premiere. The following day I was fairly shaky. I was walking off a set. In this country it’s a big thing — I think in America, too. A lot of people were depending on me. It was a big cast, a big crew and all this. I was in every scene for two weeks, and I was gone.</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZvyePtWS_vE?feature=oembed&hd=1&modestbranding=1&rel=0&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-MasterEdit.00_22_47_24.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Irons-Jeremy-2000-MasterEdit.00_22_47_24.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="inputtext">I went to lunch with my agent in a restaurant. There was a phone call during lunch from the chairman of the television company, who said, “Will you come for tea?” I said, “Yes.” I asked my agent for a valium, went to walk the dog on Hampstead Heath, and then went down to have tea with the chairman of Grenada, who was very cross, said he felt let down. I said, “I feel let down. We’re both in the same boat.” He said, “If I can work something out, will you go back to work?” I said, “Certainly. I’ll be back there tomorrow morning.” He left the room for about 15 minutes, came back in and said, “I’ll work this out in three weeks. Give me three weeks.” So I went back to work. Three weeks later they tied the two things together, the film and the television, so that the film paid for the downtime in the television, and the television invested in the film, and I was able to do both. But on the journey down, the night before when I had driven down in my Volkswagen Beetle, a long drive on the M6, about a four-hour drive, I remember thinking “That’s it. That is it. Now if I’m not going to act, what am I going to do? I could be an agent. Should I write? Well, can I write? I don’t know.” But I knew that was it. And I knew that I had taken my destiny in my hand in a way that I had never felt before and I think that’s when I grew up. I knew I was my own man. I could do anything.</p> <p></p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body data-rsssl="1"><figure id="attachment_22237" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22237" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22237 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228im_/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/irons-180952810.jpg"></noscript><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22237 size-full lazyload" alt="British actor Jeremy Irons poses during a press conference to present the environmental documentary in which he stars, "Trashed," at the National Assembly in Paris, on September 18, 2013. Jeremy Irons stars in the documentary directed by Candida Brady, which investigates waste pollution and management problems across many countries. (AFP PHOTO / PATRICK KOVARIK)" width="2280" height="1536" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/irons-180952810.jpg 2280w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/irons-180952810-380x256.jpg 380w, /web/20200917235228im_/https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/irons-180952810-760x512.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917235228/https://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/irons-180952810.jpg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-22237" class="wp-caption-text">British actor Jeremy Irons during a press conference to present the environmental documentary in which he stars, <em>Trashed</em>, at the National Assembly in Paris, on September 18, 2013. Jeremy Irons was featured in the documentary directed by Candida Brady, which investigates waste pollution and management problems across many countries.</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>    <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Let’s talk about childhood. I’d like you to introduce me to Jeremy Irons at age 10 or 12. Where is he living and what are his interests?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: At age 10 or 12 he’s going to boarding school in the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight is, of course, down at the bottom of England just off South Hampton. Named by the Romans Vectus and, in fact, the buses are called now Southern Vectus so that — nice to keep a bit of Latin going. The boarding school was around 10 or 11 miles from where our home was, on an island off an island. But in those days —</p> <p>A trip to the mainland was a big event and happened maybe once a year, although now you can get across in a speed boat in seven minutes but then it was a long way away. And I was brought up in a house that was a converted stable block with a garden leading into a field leading into a woods that led to the harbor where we would keep three boats. So on the holidays when I was back from my boarding school, I would ride ponies.</p> <p><strong>You turned out rather well, but at the time it must not have seemed inevitable.</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: Not at all. At the age of 12 I was going on to another boarding school in another part of the country. We change schools at 13 in this country. The mistake of my date of birth, which was September the 19th, meant that I was always quite young in my year. I went to school still young. I moved schools young. With my son, who was born September the 16th, we said, “No, hold it a year,” and he stayed. So he was one of the oldest in his year when he moved schools.</p> <p>I was one of the youngest, not naturally intellectual or a natural swat. But somebody whose interest had to be whetted, still the same, still the case. Sadly, because I was in the youngest stream and not that bright, I was actually in the lowest, or almost the lowest stream which attracted the least interesting teachers. I’m never one for blaming others but, I wish I had found someone who had introduced me to the joy of learning for learning’s sake, and I never did.</p> <p>So I continued through my next school, which takes me up to the age of 17, moving from the bottom stream of one year into the bottom stream of the next year, all the way through. I showed other talents which gave me self-respect, which is fine. I captained the rugger 15, and I did very well in the CCF, which we call the corps. It’s military training, officer training. I think they do it on a voluntary basis now, but everybody used to have to do it.</p> <p>That allowed me to have enormous fun, and like anything that you do with great enthusiasm, you do well in it, and I became the top rank you can become, which is a regimental sergeant major. We had a lot of fun.</p> <p>I played the violin in the orchestra and enjoyed that. I had also done one play. I always wanted to do more plays but I never quite understood how you got asked to do a play. I had done house plays, but they were sort of skits. But the main school play — and I’d assumed that someone would see you walking about and thinking, “He speaks like an angel and looks like a God, let’s have him in our play!” But nobody ever did. So I waited and waited until my final year when I was taking my A levels which, if I did well in them, would allow me to go for university entrance. And somebody thought, “Well, he doesn’t speak like an angel or look like a God, but actually we need him,” and asked me to do a play, <em>The Critic </em>by Sheridan. And I was overjoyed and I said, “Yes.” I said, “I wished you’d asked me before.” He said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Well, I’d love to have done a play several years ago.” And he said, “Well, did you put your name on the list?” And I said, “Which list?” He said, “Well, in the Cloisters at the beginning of each autumn term there’s a list of boys who want to be in the play.” I said, “Is there?” I’d been at school four years. This tells you something about my inquiring mind. However, I did the play. I succeeded on sort of chutzpah and charm. No technique at all, didn’t know what I was doing, but it worked and the character suited me.</p> <p><strong>What was the role?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: Mr. Puff in <em>The Critic</em>, a character which Olivier made famous. He did <em>The Critic</em> and <em>Black Comedy </em>by Peter Schaffer as a two-hander, a bravura performance because they are both very different. Mr. Puff is a theatrical manager. <em>The Critic</em> is a play by the Irishman, Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It’s mayhem and comedy.</p> <p><strong>It must have fitted you.</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: It fitted at the time. I wore a powdered wig, it was fine. It came at the right time. Looking back at my school days, I think I was always finding ways to be different. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but I’ve always had a very strong sense of self. And whenever I’m in a situation where I’m wearing the same as 600 other people and doing the same thing as 600 other people, looking back, I always found ways to make myself different, whether it be having a red lining inside of my jacket, having red shoes, it hasn’t changed. Having the only bicycle which could fold in half and be dropped from a parachute, having the only Macintosh, which was — it was a raincoat in this country — which was shiny and black and three-quarter length. Just various things, looking through my school days. Having the only farm nearby where I could go and smoke and drink beer on a weekend without anybody knowing. Nobody else had that organized. I found a way of keeping my own sense of self, and I think when I came to do the play it was sort of another way of saying “I am I.”</p> <p><strong>Now I understand the world lost a potential veterinarian when you decided to become an actor. How did that come about?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: When we lived on the Isle of Wight, we had a great friend named Dennis Danby who was a vet. And he had a practice in London on the week days, and he would come down at the weekend and practice on people’s dogs and horses, and hunt, and lived in the country. And I looked at this and I liked him and he brought me a couple of books, a veterinary dictionary and also a little case book, both of which I still have. And I thought, “That’s a great life,” you know? “He has London, he has the excitement of that, he has the money earner of being a vet in London, and yet he has his life in the country. He’s with animals. He has his weekends here, and he’s a nice man, and I’d like a life like that.” However, I wasn’t very good at the sciences or didn’t have a lot of help in the sciences or something but, certainly didn’t set science for my A level. And when I came to take my A levels I didn’t get a good enough result to go to University. This didn’t worry me at all, but it meant that I suppose at age 15 I transferred into the English and the Arts, that side of education, and knew that veterinarianism — the veterinary life — was not for me.</p> <p>Strangely enough, I now have the life that I wanted by being a veterinarian. But we’ll get to that later. My sister was a great horse woman. Well, a little girl who liked horses. She’s four years older than me, so when I was around 10 or 11 she was hitting puberty and losing interest in the horses and I began to have to exercise them more and more, which suited me because my taste was and still is to go off in a solitary manner with something I can communicate with, whether it be a boat, a dog or a horse so I would either sail or ride the horses.</p> <p><strong>Were you the youngest?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: I was the youngest. The yule lamb. The one who always got away without doing the washing up. My sister was four years older, and my brother six years. We went to separate schools because we were different ages, and we would meet in the holidays. We had our dogs. We had the ponies. We had the boats. It was an idyllic childhood. My father was a CPA. He worked hard in the aircraft industry, and would come home more and more infrequently. He was about to leave my mother, which he did when I was 15.</p> <p><strong>Was this apparent to you?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: No, it wasn’t apparent to me. I later learned that he probably wanted to leave when I was around one but had reckoned to stay around so that I would have a father around, which was nice of him. And so he was away a lot traveling and working. My mother, who had worked during the war as an ambulance driver but had not worked after that, looked after us, and by that time we had no au pair because I was old enough to go away to boarding school.</p> <p><strong>What were your parents’ ambitions for you? What did they expect of you? Was it even in the air? </strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: No, it wasn’t in the air. It was very much in the air with my brother, who was a “kicker against the pricks.” He was not happy at his next school, was not doing well. I think probably, looking back, he was mildly dyslexic but nobody in those days knew about that. He had difficulty learning but had a very strong will so he was not doing particularly well at school, and indeed left at about the age of 16 to go to a crammer’s to try and get some qualifications. For what, who knew? My father was very keen he go into the Navy but his eyesight wasn’t good enough. So how about the Merchant Navy? My brother wasn’t too keen about that. So they were worrying about him. In the middle classes one didn’t really worry about the girl. My sister — being a girl — you know, she’d probably be a secretary.</p> <p><strong>They’d invested so much in your brother; do you think they were prepared to allow you to find the shape of your own life?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: Yes. I think they felt at 11 or 12 it was too early to think about. I have a 15 year-old, and I think it’s too early. I look at his talents and I wonder, but I have always tried to teach my children that the only thing they want in life if they have any sense is to learn how to be happy, and to also give them the awareness that anything is possible for them. That’s putting a big responsibility on them because then they have to decide.</p> <p>I envy children who know that they’re going to become doctors, know they’re going to go into the forces or whatever. I think choice is one of the hardest things, but that’s what I try to give my children, to say you can do anything.</p> <p>I think that because my father failed with my brother, when I came to that point in my life, I felt I could do anything. I knew I couldn’t do everything, because I was a very bad student, so I knew that some areas were closed off to me, but I wasn’t really interested in those areas, which is why I had been a bad student.</p> <p><strong>How did you make your move to acting?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: It suited me no more than anything else. I had my final report, and the head master, who by then had got to know me, said, “God knows what he’ll do. Maybe the paratroopers.” That was his comment. That’s because I had done well in the corps. So he had no clue.</p> <p>We had an organization in London and still do; the school is still connected with it, helping in South London in poorer areas. Now it’s probably very fashionable, in those days it was poor. And I left because I wasn’t going to university and they didn’t quite know what to do with me and so they said, “Do you want to go out and work there for a bit?” And I said, “Fine, yes.” So I came to London and lived in a bed-sit with a Scots landlady called Nanny Butcher, who was built like an ox, and had hair curling out like she actually looked like a good Scottish piece of cattle, and she would cook me meat and 18 veg every night.</p> <p>I worked for two worker priests, worker priests being people who are ordained but who have day jobs. One was a lawyer and one was a social worker. So although they could do the services — they were Church of England — on a Sunday, they couldn’t do the running of the parish, and they handed over that to me. Such things as visiting the old, the sick, people with problems over their gas bills, running the youth club, topping up the communion wine, interviewing people who wanted to get married. Can you believe it? On a Monday night in the cold vestry they would come and sit in front of me and say, “We want to get married.” I said, “Well, is this a good idea? Is this a good idea do you think? How long have you been together? Are you pregnant?” All of those sort of things, you know.</p> <p>I played the organ a little bit during the services, but most importantly I ran the youth club. I remember a moment where I had thrown out a rival gang who had tried to take over the evening. We had Sunday night dances and I threw them out. And they set upon me, quite rightly. And as I was lying on the front grass in front of this sort of little hall, with boots kicking into me and fists flying, I thought to myself, “Now when I was at school this sort of thing didn’t used to happen. I used to be able to control people with sort of day room points and black marks,” and it didn’t seem to work in life. And so it was a big lesson for me about how to deal with people.</p> <p>And it also meant that I was able to live on my own, earn a very small wage, but that really wasn’t important. I would get on my bicycle with my guitar strapped to the back and cycle up to the West End and busk the cinema queues.</p> <p><strong>Now this is the 1960s, not a bad time in London.</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: Sort of mid ’60s. A good time. I have to say, I look back at the ’60s when I see it reported, and I think I missed all of that; I think I wasn’t really in the swing of it. I wasn’t in Chelsea, I wasn’t in the King’s Road, I was down in Peckham earning two pounds ten a week. But of course, I was 17, when everything seems a bit like the ’60s. You’re sort of finding out about things and daring yourself to be as naughty as you can. That was the ’60s. We were looking forward to every Beatles album that came out and the Stones albums. But when you live in eras you don’t appreciate them for what they are, do you?</p> <p><strong>You spoke of being cast in the musical <em>Godspell</em> as a breakthrough for you. What did you gain from that experience?</strong></p> <p><em>Godspell </em>was a good leap for me; it was a good shop window. And although it pulled things out of my nature that weren’t particularly good, in that I have a sort of insecurity and a desire for perfection, which when mixed is somewhat volatile, so what I was able to do with that show — there were ten of us — is we all developed into a very frank group and we could speak eye to eye with people and say, “What you’re doing there is rubbish. We’ve got to do better than that. That’s terrible. It’s lazy.” You know? And we finally were able to talk to each other like this. I’ve always tried since then whenever I work with people to speak like that.</p> <p>It’s very difficult, especially now when I’m working with film stars who are sensitive about their talent. I think in the American tradition it’s probably different, because American actors don’t come out of company theater in quite the same way that English actors do. There is more defensiveness — a pugnaciousness towards each other. A good performance to an American actor would be a threat. For me, it’s a joy.</p> <p>I know that if I’m to play tennis, if I play with Ivan Lendl my game is going to look better than if I play with my mother. So the better my partner or my opposition, however you like to think about it, the better my game. I love and I feed off that. And sometimes I have relationships with actors where that happens. Glenn Close and I have worked a lot together, and we are always keeping each other on our toes saying, “It has got to be better than that. You know that’s not the answer.” And I think many good actors are like that. Meryl Streep, she’s very frank with me and I’m able to be frank with her.</p> <p><strong>Is that because you have respect for each other?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: And trust, yes, which is important, but that is what I aim towards. Now that is difficult for some people, and with that desire to get things as good as possible, I would say that I’m probably regarded as quite prickly to work with.</p> <p><strong>What do you find rewarding about acting?</strong></p> <p>It’s allowed me to go on great journeys into other people, which I enjoy. I have a very blinkered mentality. I tend to — there’s good things and bad things about that. I tend to see what I’m after and go for it and everything else doesn’t exist, which is very useful when you’re creating a character, or when you’re acting in front of a camera with 100 people, you know. It’s quite difficult for those who live with you, who suddenly don’t exist, like your wife or your children or your secretary. You know? But they’re used to it now.</p> <p>They know that when I’m working, that’s pure. It’s also very good when you’re deciding what to go for. I’ve always said to people, “You’ve got to know what number you’re trying to get on the dart board. Get that number and throw the dart at that.” It’s no good saying, “There’s a dart board over there. Wallop!”</p> <p><strong>As a perfectionist, do you ever find there are roles you can’t make work? Do you ever have that experience where you just can’t get it, or is it just a matter of hard work until you get there?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: No, I don’t believe in hard work. If something is hard, leave it. Let it come to you. Let it happen. Now the decision to play a role is halfway towards understanding the character, because you empathize with it and that’s why you want to play it.</p> <p>I think I would not be described as a character actor in that I don’t take on characteristics which are very alien to me. I sometimes put on things, like when I played Claus von Bülow, I changed the way I look and the way I sound because that man was living and I had to make some attempt to look and sound like him. But let us take him. I was not keen to play him, because he was still alive and I felt that was somehow rather tasteless. Of course I realized that if I didn’t, someone else would, so I thought, “Well, he’s going to have to suffer this.”</p> <p>But I couldn’t get my head around him at all. I had two interviews he gave — one with Barbara Walters, and one with somebody else — on video, which I watched and watched and watched, not to be like him but to try to understand him. I read his court journals. I looked at the photographs of him, as many as I could find, and couldn’t get inside him at all, until I suddenly thought, “Now wait a minute. My father was an honorable man. If he had either done or been accused of doing what Klaus was accused of doing — which perhaps could have happened — how would he deal with it if he was interviewed on Barbara Walters? He’d probably deal with it rather like Klaus. He’d use charm, and he’d use a sort of English reserve, and I’m very like my father so maybe…” And that was my way inside him.</p> <p>As far as what one can’t get around, a lot of those roles aren’t offered to you. The sad thing about any business I suppose, but in mine you see it particularly, is that you’re always asked to do what you’ve already done.</p> <p>If you’re successful in a sort of role, when people read another role that’s rather similar they think, “Ask him, he’s the man.” You read it and you say, “I’ve done this. I did this for this guy. I don’t want to do this.” So nevertheless, what I’m saying is that what one is — one’s parameters are constantly narrowed by one’s success, and my desire is to widen my field even if I risk failure. The risk of failure and daring failure, I think, is another great way towards success, which George Orwell says in <em>1984 </em>doesn’t he? I don’t remember the quote but, “If you take away the freedom to risk then you take away the freedom to succeed.” I’m misquoting. What I try to do as an actor is constantly find that, find ways to risk, find opportunities to fall on my face if it’s going to be worth it and then maybe I’ll surprise myself.</p> <p>Because I’m now successful, what I’m being offered as an actor is more and more of the same. People say, “Why don’t you do more comedies?” and I say, “I’m never asked to because on film I look quite serious and I have a reputation for being able to provide an interior life and all that sort of thing.”</p> <p>I’m sure that Steve Martin would love to be where I am, and I would like to be more where he is as far as the comedy stakes are concerned. So certain roles are not offered me. There are scripts I read and I think, “No, I’m just not interested in that. I don’t believe it, or it’s not an area I’m interested in. But never if it’s a good story and a well thought out character would I say that, unless it was something that I’ve done before. That’s the other thing. Both for my own interest and also for the audience, I try to put my footprint where it has not been before.</p> <p><strong>I understand very much your notion of risking failure, not being allowed to do that but wanting to do that. Have you experienced failure?</strong></p> <p>Jeremy Irons: I constantly experience failure in that my work is never as good as I want it to be. So I live with failure. What buoys you up? The people who you have deceived who think you are great and congratulate you on things. Of course, you know there is no good or bad basically. And that gives you comfort when you read terrible reviews. I did a season in Stratford and I opened with Leontes in <em>The Winter’s Tale, </em>who has to be one of Shakespeare’s hardest, I think. I always feel that he said to Burbage after he played Othello, “Right, you’ve done jealousy. Now I’m going to give you jealousy with no reason. Just play it. Come on, play it.” And I’d been off filming maybe for too long and I came back and I didn’t have the wherewithal to embrace him in time for the critics. So I got pretty mauled doing that. And I thought, “Well, great, I’ve got time to learn.”</p> <p>For ten people who dislike something that you’ve done, whether it be a film or a play, there will always be ten who like it. And the great — I was going to say — antidote for my business is that most people, being fine natured, will tell you that they’ve enjoyed something. If they haven’t enjoyed it, they don’t tell you. So you tend to be sort of cotton-wooled as an actor from the actual truth. But I know, looking at my work, I think I know the true value of it, which is usually about 40 percent of what I’d hoped I would achieve, which is fine. It gives me something to go — you know, to try to learn to improve, but I do think it’s terribly important.</p> <p>I live in a world where one is constantly being misled, either by the length of one’s limo, or the size of one’s face on the screen, or the kind remarks of people that surround you, and I know that they are constantly telling you lies about the true nature of what you do. I think that’s very important because when I work on the screen, or work on the stage, if I’m not in touch with truth, my true self, my true feelings, the true importance or nonimportance of what this skinny, six-foot one frame is about, then I’m lost. I’m an instrument. I’m hopefully a Stradivarius but maybe a lesser make. But if the sound I make is not pure, if it has been misled by a misunderstanding of one’s importance in life, then you’re in trouble, I think. I would be in trouble.</p> <p><strong>Mr. Irons, that’s a good point to end on. Thank you very much.</strong></p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Jeremy Irons Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>32 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66184210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01BRIDESHEAD2_SPAN-jumbo.jpg" data-image-caption="1981: Jeremy Irons, left, and Anthony Andrews in “Brideshead Revisited,” the British mini-series based on Evelyn Waugh's novel." data-image-copyright="01brideshead2_span-jumbo" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01BRIDESHEAD2_SPAN-jumbo-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01BRIDESHEAD2_SPAN-jumbo-760x503.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65526315789474" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/007-dead-ringers-theredlist.jpg" data-image-caption="1988: Jeremy Irons gained critical acclaim for portraying twin gynecologists in David Cronenberg's psychological thriller "Dead Ringers."" data-image-copyright="007-dead-ringers-theredlist" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/007-dead-ringers-theredlist-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/007-dead-ringers-theredlist-760x498.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.501976284585" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1420636777-ae205fa47a3b04418f5d8f7e537be58c-1366x2053.jpg" data-image-caption="In 2005, Irons starred opposite Helen Mirren in the historical mini-series "Elizabeth I," for which he received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor." data-image-copyright="1420636777-ae205fa47a3b04418f5d8f7e537be58c-1366x2053" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1420636777-ae205fa47a3b04418f5d8f7e537be58c-1366x2053-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1420636777-ae205fa47a3b04418f5d8f7e537be58c-1366x2053-506x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.6" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/bridesheadrevisited.jpeg" data-image-caption="Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews on the set of "Brideshead Revisited," a 1981 British television serial. The serial is an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel "Brideshead Revisited."" data-image-copyright="ITV ARCHIVE" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/bridesheadrevisited-380x228.jpeg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/bridesheadrevisited-760x456.jpeg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.50263157894737" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Brideshead-Revisted-30th-Anniv.-DVD_JeremyIrons_24tn.jpg" data-image-caption="Jeremy Irons in "Brideshead Revisted." (© ITV/Rex Features)" data-image-copyright="ITV Archive" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Brideshead-Revisted-30th-Anniv.-DVD_JeremyIrons_24tn-380x191.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Brideshead-Revisted-30th-Anniv.-DVD_JeremyIrons_24tn-760x382.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66315789473684" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/elizabeth-i-helen-mirren-jeremy-irons-1-rcm0x1920u.jpg" data-image-caption="In 2005, Jeremy Irons starred opposite Helen Mirren in the historical miniseries "Elizabeth I," for which he received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor." data-image-copyright="elizabeth-i-helen-mirren-jeremy-irons-1-rcm0x1920u" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/elizabeth-i-helen-mirren-jeremy-irons-1-rcm0x1920u-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/elizabeth-i-helen-mirren-jeremy-irons-1-rcm0x1920u-760x504.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.64848484848485" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/featured-image-shakespeareuncoveredpublicityimagerjpglnk.jpg" data-image-caption="2013: Jeremy Irons in "Shakespeare Uncovered: Henry IV and Henry V." (Alex Brenner/PBS)" data-image-copyright="featured-image-shakespeareuncoveredpublicityimagerjpglnk" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/featured-image-shakespeareuncoveredpublicityimagerjpglnk-380x246.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/featured-image-shakespeareuncoveredpublicityimagerjpglnk.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4757281553398" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/gty_meryl_streep_french_lieutenants_woman_jc_150109.jpg" data-image-caption="1981: Jeremy Irons's first major film role came in the romantic drama "The French Lieutenant's Woman," for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons play the tragic hero and heroine of Karel Reisz's drama based on the novel by John Fowles." data-image-copyright="gty_meryl_streep_french_lieutenants_woman_jc_150109" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/gty_meryl_streep_french_lieutenants_woman_jc_150109-258x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/gty_meryl_streep_french_lieutenants_woman_jc_150109-515x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.74342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_4444.jpg" data-image-caption="Jeremy Irons moderates the Golden Plate Award ceremonies at the 2009 International Achievement Summit in Cape Town, South Africa. (© Academy of Achievement) " data-image-copyright="img_4444" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_4444-380x283.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_4444-760x565.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4503816793893" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Irons-Jeremy453.jpg" data-image-caption="1997: Jeremy Irons at the Venice Film Festival for the screening of his film <i>Chinese Box</i>." (Reuters/Michele Gregolin/Archive)" data-image-copyright="irons-jeremy453" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Irons-Jeremy453-262x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Irons-Jeremy453-524x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Irons-Jeremy454.jpg" data-image-caption="Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close in a scene from the Broadway production of "The Real Thing." (Martha Swope/Time Pix)" data-image-copyright="irons-jeremy454" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Irons-Jeremy454-380x251.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Irons-Jeremy454-760x501.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67368421052632" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/irons-180952810.jpg" data-image-caption="British actor Jeremy Irons poses during a press conference to present the environmental documentary in which he stars, "Trashed," at the National Assembly in Paris, on September 18, 2013. Jeremy Irons stars in the documentary directed by Candida Brady, which investigates waste pollution and management problems across many countries. (AFP PHOTO / PATRICK KOVARIK)" data-image-copyright="FRANCE-UK-CINEMA-ENVIRONMENT-DOCUMENTARY-FILM" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/irons-180952810-380x256.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/irons-180952810-760x512.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4814814814815" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons055.jpg" data-image-caption="Jeremy Irons in the Broadway production of "The Real Thing." (Martha Swope/Time Pix)" data-image-copyright="jeremy-irons055" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons055-257x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons055-513x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4048059149723" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons056.jpg" data-image-caption="Jeremy Irons won an Oscar in 1990 for his performance as Claus von Bulow in "Reversal of Fortune."" data-image-copyright="jeremy-irons056" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons056-271x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons056-541x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.453154875717" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons.jpg" data-image-caption="In 2005, Jeremy Irons starred opposite Helen Mirren in the historical mini-series "Elizabeth I," for which he received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor." data-image-copyright="jeremy-irons" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons-261x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Jeremy-Irons-523x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.63026315789474" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/la-et-hc-jeremy-irons-batman-20160328_Jeremy-Irons_Francine-Orr-Los-Angeles-Times.jpg" data-image-caption="Jeremy Irons" data-image-copyright="la-et-hc-jeremy-irons-batman-20160328_jeremy-irons_francine-orr-los-angeles-times" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/la-et-hc-jeremy-irons-batman-20160328_Jeremy-Irons_Francine-Orr-Los-Angeles-Times-380x240.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/la-et-hc-jeremy-irons-batman-20160328_Jeremy-Irons_Francine-Orr-Los-Angeles-Times-760x479.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65526315789474" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/normal_godspell.jpg" data-image-caption="August 1973 programme (playbill) from the Original West End production of the Stephen Schwartz musical hit "Godspell" at Wyndham's Theatre in London. (The original Off-Broadway production opened May 17, 1971 at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City, moved to the Promenade Theatre August 10, 1971, and ran for a combined 2,124 performances. The London production opened November 17, 1971 at the Roundhouse Theatre, moved to Wyndham's Theatre on January 26, 1972, and ran for 1,128 performances.) The ensemble cast included Johanna Cassidy, David Essex, Jeremy Irons, Tony Jackson, Sally Mates, Verity-Anne Meldrum, Mandy More, Deryk Parkin, Tom Saffery and Gay Soper. (Credits: Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz ("The Magic Show," "Godspell," "Pippin," "The Baker's Wife," "Working," "Rags," "Children of Eden" and "Wicked"), based on "The Gospel According to St. Matthew." Sets designed by Ian Dow; costumes designed by Susan Tsu; playbill cover illustrated by David Byrd; conceived and directed by John-Michael Tebelak.)" data-image-copyright="normal_godspell" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/normal_godspell-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/normal_godspell-760x498.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NTTL_06892-small.jpg" data-image-caption="2013: Jeremy Irons and Charlotte Rampling in the drama film "Night Train to Lisbon" directed by Bille August." data-image-copyright="nttl_06892-small" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NTTL_06892-small-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NTTL_06892-small-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3427561837456" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reversal-of-Fortune-glenn-close-35254532-1181-1587.jpg" data-image-caption="1990: Jeremy Irons played accused murderer Claus von Bülow (with Glenn Close as Sunny) in the film "Reversal of Fortune" and received an Academy Award for Best Actor." data-image-copyright="reversal-of-fortune-glenn-close-35254532-1181-1587" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reversal-of-Fortune-glenn-close-35254532-1181-1587-283x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reversal-of-Fortune-glenn-close-35254532-1181-1587-566x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.99473684210526" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/therealthing.jpg" data-image-caption="In 1984, Jeremy Irons made his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" and received a Tony Award for Best Actor." data-image-copyright="therealthing" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/therealthing-380x378.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/therealthing-760x756.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.94342105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/winterstale.jpg" data-image-caption="1986: "The Winter's Tale," starring Jeremy Irons as Leontes. (Joe Cocks)" data-image-copyright="1986, <i>The Winter's Tale</i>, starring Jeremy Irons as Leontes. (Joe Cocks)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/winterstale-380x358.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/winterstale-760x717.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-171567042.jpg" data-image-caption="June 26, 2013: Jeremy Irons and his wife Sinéad Cusack attend The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party in London." data-image-copyright="The Serpentine Gallery - Summer Party" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-171567042-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-171567042-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.64736842105263" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-JeremyIrons2000Summit.jpg" data-image-caption="Jeremy Irons addresses delegates during the 2000 International Achievement Summit in London." data-image-copyright="wp-jeremyirons2000summit" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-JeremyIrons2000Summit-380x246.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-JeremyIrons2000Summit-760x492.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67763157894737" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/goo1-016-goodall-IMG_5447.jpg" data-image-caption="Actor Jeremy Irons meets Dame Jane Goodall at the 2009 International Achievement Summit. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="goo1-016-goodall-IMG_5447" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/goo1-016-goodall-IMG_5447-380x257.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/goo1-016-goodall-IMG_5447-760x515.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/gil0-023-IMG_3730.jpg" data-image-caption="Vince Gill and his wife, Amy Grant, with Chris Matthews, Maggie Daley, Jeremy Irons and Kathleen Matthews at the 2009 International Achievement Summit in South Africa. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="gil0-023-IMG_3730" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/gil0-023-IMG_3730-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/gil0-023-IMG_3730-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_IMG_3566.jpg" data-image-caption="Jeremy Irons helps feed toddlers on the visit to Baphumelele Children's Home. " data-image-copyright="wordpress_IMG_3566" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_IMG_3566-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wordpress_IMG_3566-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68421052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-JeremyIrons2000Summit2.jpg" data-image-caption="Jeremy Irons addresses members and delegates during the 2000 International Achievement Summit in London." data-image-copyright="wp-jeremyirons2000summit2" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-JeremyIrons2000Summit2-380x260.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-JeremyIrons2000Summit2-760x520.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3996316758748" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp2-2009-irons-IMG_6665.jpg" data-image-caption="Jeremy Irons at Singita Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve during the American Academy of Achievement's 2009 International Achievement Summit in South Africa." data-image-copyright="wp2-2009-irons-img_6665" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp2-2009-irons-IMG_6665-271x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp2-2009-irons-IMG_6665-543x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wp-gorsuch-Blenheim-Jeremy-Irons-LondonSummit_1181-2280.jpg" data-image-caption="2017: Jeremy Irons, Neil Gorsuch (Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States) and his wife, Louise Gorsuch, at Blenheim Palace during the Academy’s 52nd annual International Achievement Summit." data-image-copyright="wp-gorsuch-Blenheim-Jeremy-Irons-LondonSummit_1181-2280" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wp-gorsuch-Blenheim-Jeremy-Irons-LondonSummit_1181-2280-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wp-gorsuch-Blenheim-Jeremy-Irons-LondonSummit_1181-2280-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-bannister-irons-LondonSummit_1157.jpg" data-image-caption="2017: Academy member and track and field legend Sir Roger Bannister seated with Jeremy Irons during dinner in the Long Library at Blenheim Palace. Earlier during the program, Wayne Reynolds gave a touching tribute highlighting Sir Roger’s achievements through the years. Sir Roger, immortalized for running the first sub-four-minute mile, completed medical school, had a distinguished career as a neurologist, and was later knighted by the Queen." data-image-copyright="wp-bannister-irons-LondonSummit_1157" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-bannister-irons-LondonSummit_1157-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-bannister-irons-LondonSummit_1157-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0682.jpg" data-image-caption="2017: Awards Council member Jeremy Irons presents the Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award to fashion designer Valentino Garavani at the 52nd annual International Achievement Summit in London." data-image-copyright="wp-LondonSummit_0682" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0682-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/11/wp-LondonSummit_0682-760x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-2002-enya-and-jeremy-irons-dublin.jpg" data-image-caption="Awards Council member Jeremy Irons presents the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award to Enya, Ireland’s best-selling solo artist of all time, at the Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies during the 2002 International Achievement Summit held in Dublin, Ireland." data-image-copyright="wp-2002-enya-and-jeremy-irons-dublin" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-2002-enya-and-jeremy-irons-dublin-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-2002-enya-and-jeremy-irons-dublin-760x760.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i 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href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/gol0-001a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/gol0-001a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Whoopi Goldberg</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Actress and Activist</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1994</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts curious ambitious be-a-performer make-films " data-year-inducted="1997" data-achiever-name="Howard"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/howard-001a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/howard-001a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Ron Howard</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Oscar for Best Director</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1997</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts difficulty-with-school poverty racism-discrimination small-town-rural-upbringing ambitious curious extroverted resourceful be-a-performer " data-year-inducted="2014" data-achiever-name="Poitier"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/poitier_760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/poitier_760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Sidney Poitier</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Oscar for Lifetime Achievement</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2014</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts ambitious extroverted build-or-create-things make-films " data-year-inducted="2007" data-achiever-name="Prince"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/prince-Achiever-Profile-Square-760-1-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/prince-Achiever-Profile-Square-760-1-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Harold Prince</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Broadway Producer and Director</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2007</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts the-arts shy-introverted write-music ambitious " data-year-inducted="2005" data-achiever-name="Sondheim"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sondheim-001a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sondheim-001a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Stephen Sondheim</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Composer and Lyricist</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2005</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts poverty ambitious athletic curious be-a-performer make-films " data-year-inducted="2007" data-achiever-name="Swank"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/hilary-swank/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/swank-760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/swank-760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Hilary Swank</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Two Oscars for Best Actress</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2007</span></div> 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Carter Brown</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/linda-buck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linda B. Buck, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/carol-burnett/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Burnett</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George H. W. Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-michael-caine/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Michael Caine</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William J. Clinton</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/david-doubilet/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Doubilet</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jennifer-a-doudna-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jennifer A. Doudna, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-s-fauci-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/peter-gabriel/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peter Gabriel</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol W. Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/paul-b-maccready-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul B. MacCready, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reinhold Messner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony D. Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/george-b-schaller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George B. Schaller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen A. Schwarzman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/glenn-t-seaborg-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Glenn T. Seaborg, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/neil-sheehan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Neil Sheehan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/admiral-alan-shepard-jr/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/carlos-slim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Slim Helú</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/frederick-w-smith/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick W. Smith</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Sondheim</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/sonia-sotomayor/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonia Sotomayor</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/wole-soyinka/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wole Soyinka</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/esperanza-spalding/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Esperanza Spalding</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/martha-stewart/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Martha Stewart</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/admiral-james-b-stockdale/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/hilary-swank/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hilary Swank</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/amy-tan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Amy Tan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/dame-kiri-te-kanawa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Kiri Te Kanawa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/edward-teller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Teller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/twyla-tharp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Twyla Tharp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/wayne-thiebaud/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wayne Thiebaud</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/lt-michael-e-thornton-usn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Michael E. Thornton, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/clyde-tombaugh/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Clyde Tombaugh</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/charles-h-townes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Charles H. Townes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/david-trimble/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord David Trimble</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/ted-turner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert Edward (Ted) Turner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/desmond-tutu/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Archbishop Desmond Tutu</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/john-updike/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Updike</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/gore-vidal/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gore Vidal</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/antonio-villaraigosa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Antonio Villaraigosa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/lech-walesa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lech Walesa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/herschel-walker/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Herschel Walker</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/alice-waters/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Alice Waters</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20200917235228/https://achievement.org/achiever/james-d-watson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James D. 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