English actor Jeremy Irons has been made an honorary Irishman. The Brideshead Revisited star has lived in Co Cork with his Irish wife Sinead Cusack for more than 15 years.
Now the county has rewarded Irons, for his contributions to art and culture. It made him an honorary resident of Cork in January 2014, at the annual Corkman of the Year awards bash.
Irons was born on the Isle of Wight and has been a familiar face on British and Irish television for the past thirty years. He won a Golden Globe for his role in the 1980s period drama, Brideshead Revisited and another for his part opposite Dame Helen Mirren in the 2006 production of Elizabeth I.
Hollywood bad guys
He has also featured in Hollywood blockbusters such as The Lion King, in which he voiced Simba’s evil uncle Scar.
Irons was the Hollywood bad guy again in 1995, when he starred opposite Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson in Die Hard with a Vengeance, playing Simon Gruber, a military man turned professional thief, intent on revenge on Willis’ character John McClane after the death of his brother in the first Die Hard film.