Was Jeremy Irons the Luftwaffe legend,
Hans-Joachim Marseille?
  
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Introduction
One crazy thought that came to me one day while looking at a picture of the WW2 Luftwaffe legend Hans-Joachim Marseille is that he seemed similar in a way to the English movie star, Jeremy Irons. Then I started wondering if one was perhaps the reincarnation of the other. And the funny thing is the more I researched, the more they seemed to have in common.
Here's the result of my digging so far, though naturally it's all idle speculation which should not be taken too seriously!
Resemblance
First there's the resemblance. While perhaps not exactly "dead ringers" (what a dreadful pun!!!), there are unmistakable facial similarities and that same look in their eyes. (Based on a possibly insane idea that people should look at least a little like their past-life self.)
Fame & success
They both became stars in their chosen fields. Jeremy Irons is a film star and extremely famous - especially in England. Marseille similarly became a huge star in Germany during the war - his photogenic face appeared on postcards, in magazines and in movie reels in the cinemas. In fact he was called "The Star of Africa" ("der Stern von Afrika") and was awarded the coveted Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds - only one of nine fighter pilots to receive this honour. Marseille eventually shot down 158 RAF fighters during a period of 2 years, a greater tally than the top 4 Allied pilots put together.
Both Irons and Marseille had to work very hard to get to the top of their professions and both made it right to the very top. Irons initially struggled as an actor for 10 years, while Marseille overcame a poor start to his fighter pilot career to become in the words of USAF Major Robert Tate "arguably the greatest of all World War II fighter pilots" and according to Adolf Galland, the Luftwaffe Fighter General, an "unequalled virtuoso among the fighter pilots".
Irons and German character roles
Then there are the German character roles Irons has played. While over his career he has played a Pole, two Spaniards, a Frenchman and a Russian, he has played far more German characters than any other foreign nationality - and his portrayals of Peter Krieg and Claus von Bülow have been his most well-known foreign characters. His German roles are as follows:
(He even turned up on a German game show called "Wetten Das" - click here for more details and pictures.
Marseille and movie stars
Marseille also had a link to movie acting, having had many movie-star friends and acquaintances. Eduard Neumann, Kommodore of JG-27 said, "He tried to show off, and considered his acquaintance with a lot of movie stars to be of great importance. In Africa, he became ambitious in a good way, and completely changed his character. After some time there, it became a matter of some importance to movie stars to know him."
Attitudes
Then there are their attitudes - especially to authority. Marseille had little regard for authority - he often wore his hair long (for the time) and listened to jazz music, officially banned by the Nazis. Major Robert Tate of the USAF reports that "..upon his arrival in North Africa, his commanders were in possession of a thick file containing his breeches of military discipline and unorthodox behaviour". Irons appears to have same attitude, as he freely admitted in an interview "And anyway, part of me loves to stick two fingers up at everyone." (Two fingers being the UK equivalent of the US one-fingered salute.) Irons refuses to adhere to convention and political correctness and that is especially obvious in his recent and controversial choice to star in the film "Lolita" (a box-office flop).
In spite of their non-conformity and bad-boy behaviour, both have been described as exceedingly handsome and charming. Marseille's exasperated commander in France, Johannes Steinhoff, reported "Marseille was remarkably handsome. He was a gifted pilot and fighter, but he was unreliable. He had girlfriends everywhere, who took up so much of his time that he was often too tired to be allowed to fly. His often irresponsible understanding of duty was the primary reason I sent him packing. But he had an irresistible charm..." Of irons, Michael Shelden of The Daily Telegraph says his "bad-boy image has its appeal, but he also cultivates an air of sophisticated charm that has served him well on screen, especially in his Academy Award-winning performance as aristocratic Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune."
Both could also be less than charming too when their patience was stretched. Of Irons: Some say he is arrogant, some say he is rude. He said in one interview: ''I'm impossible. Intolerant, impatient and impossible. I'm appalled by sloppy work and if I see something done badly I say so.'' (Click for full article.) Of Marseille, Major Robert Tate of the USAF described him as "impatient and impetuous" while Eduard Neumann, Kommodore of JG-27 said, "When Marseille came to JG-27 he brought a very bad military reputation with him, and he was not at all a sympathetic fellow." (Click for full article.)
Tastes and habits
Both were big-city boys, attracted to their respective capital cities - Irons living in London from 1975 until just recently, and Marseille a native of Berlin.
Marseille became a chain smoker, as is Irons still today - which is something especially notable in this day and age.
Strangely, Irons has been seen on occasion in riding boots when no horseriding was happening. An integral part of Marseille's uniform for years was his standard issue German officer riding boots.
There's even a similarity of taste - in cars. Irons owns three vehicles (at the time of writing in 2004) and all three are German: an Audi A6 Quattro estate, a BMW cruising bike and a Volkswagen rag-top Beetle he has owned since 1979 - he says "my son will inherit it if he wants it". Note that Marseille's car while on duty was a VW Kübelwagen, the military rag-top conversion of the original VW Beetle... In an interview, he mused about owning a Bentley but then concluded "So I think even if I could have any car I wanted, I'd stick with the Audi". (Click for full article.)
Jeremy Irons with his BMW motorbike
Even more - Patricia Kaas
Since I started this page, Jeremy Irons has been involved in a very minor scandal with Patricia Kaas whom he was caught kissing by a photographer after their film "And Now Ladies and Gentlemen" came out in 2003. Interestingly Kaas is like a bridge back to Marseille - she has mixed French/German names the other way round from Marseille, she is a jazz singer and Marseille enjoyed listening to jazz as previously mentioned. Kaas also frequently crossed the border when she was younger to sing for German audiences. Who knows, perhaps this mix of reminders from the past was simply too much for him to resist.
The rank of Captain/Hauptmann
One of the strangest parallels is that both of them became Captain (Hauptmann in German). Marseille was promoted to Hauptmann shortly before his death on 3 September, 1942. Similarly, Irons is most famous for his role in "Brideshead Revisited" where he played Charles Ryder, who becomes an army Captain near the end of the series. Then again in 1983, he played Captain Alex Hepworth in "The Captain's Doll".
To my knowledge, he has not played in any other role where he had a military rank. (Note that in "The French Lieutenant's Woman", he does not play the French Lieutenant!)
Some news though: while digging around for more information in early 2007, I spotted that he'd played Lieutenant-Commander Rupert T Gould of the Royal Navy in the BBC drama "Longitude" which screened in 2000. It looked like I had been caught out on the Captain idea. But what actually is this Lieutenant-Commander rank? As Wikipedia states, in the Royal Navy "a Lieutenant with fewer than eight years' seniority wore two stripes, and ranked with an army Captain". So quite possibly Gould was the equivalent of a Captain in non-navel services - as the naval rank of Captain is a significantly higher ranking in the navy than it is in either the air force or the army.
Dates
Also, but not necessarily too meaningful is that Irons was born in September, which was the same month in 1942 during which Marseille received his highest awards and died. (On 3.Sep.1942 Marseille received his final promotion to Hauptmann - Captain - and received the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds - then was killed when his parachute failed to open on 30.Sep.1942.)
Names and Awards
There is a theory that a person's name can often have clues to their past life identity. Jeremy Irons wears a signet ring with the initials "JJI", which stand for Jeremy John Irons. Jeremy and John are both Biblical names and so are Hans and Joachim. In fact Hans is the popular Germanic short form of "Johannes" so here we have a link between both of their names to the initials "JJ". Also Johannes and Hans are the German equivalents of "John", Irons's middle name. While the surname Irons may appear to have nothing to do with Marseille, it is interesting that Marseille was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. At the time, this was Germany's highest form of the Iron Cross - so perhaps this is a way for him to bring some echo of this supreme honour through to his current life. And on the subject of awards, Jeremy Irons has also won the very highest awards available in his chosen career - an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role (paying German Claus Bülow) plus Emmys, Baftas and a European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.Hans-Joachim Marseille's awards were the following:
- Iron Cross 2nd Class - September 1940
- Iron Cross 1st Class - Fall 1940
- German Cross in Gold - 24 November, 1941
- Knight's Cross - 22 February, 1942
- Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves - 6 June, 1942
- Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords - 18 June, 1942
- Italian Medaglia d' Oro for bravery - 6 August, 1942
- Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds 3 September, 1942
The Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds
Karma?
Karmically I see no problem. My interpretation is that Marseille's untimely death was the price he had to pay for the killing of many of his 158 downed opponents ("he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword"), while his amazing achievements should have served as an excellent foundation for similar stellar achievement in his next life. Also after the war, Berlin was in rubble and half was occupied by the Russians - so it is not inconceivable that the Berliner would have decided that Berlin no longer had the same attraction for him in his next earthly incarnation.
The elusive link between Irons and the Luftwaffe...
Now, the absolute clincher would be if I could find that Jeremy Irons had some sort of a terror of falling out of the sky (Marseille fell to his death from a burning Messerschmitt) and an interest in fighter planes, especially Messerschmitts - but I just haven't been able to find out anything about his childhood interests or phobias.
However - there is a intriguing family link with fighter aircraft. His father, Paul Irons, became a director for Hawker Siddeley - the aircraft manufacturer which originally created the famous Hawker Hurricane, the most common type of British aircraft Marseille shot down...
Marseille posing next to one of the 30 Hawker Hurricanes which fell victim to his guns.
Links
This page was last updated in January 2007