He was educated at Sherborne School around Dorset, (c. 1962-6) the member of Abbey Home, in which he rose to the mild rank of Hallkeeper -- the disciplinal role he performed by owning humour & compassion. He achieved the few fame when the drummer & mouth harp streaming video player (virtually all unforgettably for his renditiaround of Moin Flow of any stream on aforementioned instrument) around a 4-human school band which performed, in a schoolroom commonly utilized as a physics laboratory, for the amusement of boys mandatorily exiled from either their houses for ii hours on Sunday afternoons. He wwhen likewise known inside Abbey Home as half (the less gifted half, oddly) of a funny duo which performed skits in Hallowe'nut & at prevent-of-term Home Suppers. His academic career was insignificant.

He began his acting career around Bristol, then appeared on the London as John the Baptist opposite David Essex in Godspell. When many appearances in British television, his film debut came inside 1980 in Nijinsky. A role which shot him to fame was that of Charles Ryder in the television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited in 1981. Brideshead brought him back together by using Anthony Andrews, with whom he got appeared in The Pallisers sevener years earliest. As well around 1981, he starred in the film ''The French Lieutenant's Woman.

Around 1984 Irons won a Tony Award for his Broadway performance opposite Glenn Close in The Real Thing''. Within 1988 he starred inside the dual role of mad twin physicians in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers. More films include Reversal of Fortune (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Kafka, Damage, M. Butterfly, The House of the Spirits, Lolita (remake), and Die Hard With a Vengeance. Inside 2005, Mr. Chains starred inside Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. One of his best known roles has turned bent on exist as a voice of Scar in The Lion King.

He is married to Irish actress Sinéad Cusack, and is the father of deuce sons, Samuel Irons (born 16 September 1978) and Maximilian Irons (innate 17 October 1985), both of whom keep around appeared inside films by owning their father.

Selected Filmography
Inland Empire (2006) Eragon (2006) The Magic 7 (2005) (TV) Kingdom of Heaven (2005) The Merchant of Venice (2004) Being Julia (2004) The Time Machine (2002) The Night of the Iguana (2001) Dungeons & Dragons (2000) Faeries (1999) (voice) The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) Lolita (1997) Chinese Box (1997) Stealing Beauty (1996) Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995) The Lion King (1994) (voice) The House of the Spirits (1993) M. Butterfly (1993) Damage (1992) Reversal of Fortune (1990) Dead Ringers (1988) The Mission (1986) The Wild Duck (1983) Moonlighting (1982) ''The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) Nijinsky'' (1980)