Actor: Jeremy Irons

Jeremy Irons won Best Actor for Reversal of Fortune, playing Claus von Bulow as a man whose guilt the film deliberately refuses to settle.

Dead Ringers is the more extraordinary performance, playing identical twin gynaecologists who deteriorate together, distinguished entirely by posture and rhythm.

The voice made him a natural villain, and Scar in The Lion King is probably his most heard performance, recorded when he was already an established dramatic lead.

Brideshead Revisited made him famous, and he has worked continuously in theatre, film and television for five decades.