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Jeremy Irvine

British actor

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ542571
Source-derived summary

Jeremy William Fredric Smith (born 18 June 1990), known professionally as Jeremy Irvine, is an English actor. He made his film debut when Steven Spielberg chose him to star in the epic war film War Horse (2011) and has since starred in films such as Great Expectations (2012), The Railway Man (2013), and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), and Return to Silent Hill (2026), as well as the television series Treadstone (2019).

Irvine has earned a reputation as a method actor. For War Horse, he began lifting weights and gained 6.4 kilograms (14 lb) of muscle, underwent two months of intensive horseback training, and spent so much time recreating the Battle of Somme scene in the film that he got trench foot; for The Railway Man, he lost around 6.4 kilograms (14 lb) by starving himself for two months and performed his own torture scenes.

Early life

Irvine was born Jeremy William Fredric Smith on 18 June 1990 in Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, England, the son of Liberal Democrat councillor Bridget Smith and engineer Chris Smith. He has two younger brothers, one of whom portrayed a younger version of his character in Great Expectations (2012). His great-grandfather was Ralph Lilley Turner.

Irvine took his stage surname from his grandfather's first name. He started acting at age 16 after his drama teacher inspired him: "I never fitted in, which led me to acting.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Jeremy Irvine” is british actor. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Jeremy, Irvine and British, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1990, 2011, 2012, 2013—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1990-06-18. For this dossier, Jeremy, Irvine and British is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british actor” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q542571. VIAF identifies the subject as 241918937. The Library of Congress control number is no2012051485. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1990, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jeremy Irvine”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jeremy Irvine primary sources, Jeremy Irvine archive and Jeremy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jeremy Irvine”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Jeremy Irvine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.