Jeremy Irvine
Jeremy William Fredric Smith (born 18 June 1990), known professionally as Jeremy Irvine, is an English actor who made his film debut in the epic war film War Horse (2011). In 2012, he portrayed Philip "Pip" Pirrip in the film adaptation of Great Expectations.
Jeremy Irvine
Actor
2009–present
Irvine earned a reputation as a Method actor after he went for two months without food, losing around two stone (13 kg), and performed his torture scene stunts in The Railway Man (2013).[1] He has since starred in The Woman in Black: Angel of Death (2015), and portrayed Daniel Grigori in the direct-to-video film adaptation of the young adult novel Fallen (2016), as well as young Sam in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018). In 2019, he starred as John Randolph Bentley in the USA Network television series Treadstone.[2]
Early life[edit]
Irvine was born Jeremy William Fredric Smith[3][4] on 18 June 1990 in Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, where he was raised.[5][6] His mother, Bridget Smith, is a Liberal Democrat councillor on (and latterly leader of) the South Cambridgeshire District Council, and his father, Chris Smith, is an engineer.[7]
He has two younger brothers, one of whom portrayed a younger version of Irvine's Pip in Great Expectations. All three boys have diabetes.[8] Irvine's stage surname was his grandfather's first name.[9] His great-grandfather, Sir Ralph Lilley Turner, wrote the quotation used as the inscription on London's Gurkha Memorial.
Irvine started acting at age 16. He says his drama teacher inspired him to pursue acting: "I never fitted in, which led me to acting. I was looking for something different."[10] He played Romeo along with other main roles in plays whilst attending Bedford Modern School,[4][11][12][13] followed by a run with the National Youth Theatre.[14]
After completing a one-year foundation course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), which he attended with Sam Claflin,[15][16] Irvine spent two years posting his CV through letterboxes to get acting work.[17] He almost gave up acting for good just before he got his big break in War Horse. In an interview with CBS News while promoting Great Expectations, he described this as the lowest point of his life and revealed that he considered taking a different career path: "I'd kind of hit rock bottom and really did think this was stupid and I just wasted three or four years of my life. My dad wanted me to get a job being a welder. At the company he was at, he was an engineer. I was very very close to doing that."[18]
Personal life[edit]
Irvine has had diabetes mellitus type 1 since childhood: "When I was six, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I was on four injections a day, which I administered myself." His two brothers also suffer from diabetes.[42] Irvine has been involved in trials with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) to test an artificial pancreas,[20][43] a form of automatic glucose meter attached to a portable insulin pump.[42] The tests took place at Addenbrooke's Hospital with the University of Cambridge during 2005 and 2007.[44][45] Irvine introduced his experiences with diabetes to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall during a visit to the Cambridge Welcome Trust Clinical Research Facility on 7 February 2012.[46] He was again present with the Duchess on 31 January 2013 at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's inpatient adolescent ward, after she had become president of the JDRF in 2012.[47]
Irvine avoids the spotlight and tries to maintain privacy, once saying that "I realised very quickly that I didn't want to be famous, so I don't go to Mahiki, I just go down the pub with all my mates".[48] When asked about his rising fame, he said, "When War Horse came out, I had maybe a month of people stopping me in the street, then it died down. I try to ignore all that and pretend none of it exists. We're only acting. The work my mum does, a lot of it is re-housing homeless people, that's a real job. I play make-believe and dressing up for a living!"[49] He currently lives in West Hampstead, London.[50]