Everything about Derek Jacobi totally explained
Sir Derek George Jacobi CBE (; born
22 October,
1938) is an
English actor and
director,
knighted in 1994 for his services to theatre. Like
Laurence Olivier, he bears the distinction of holding two knighthoods,
Danish and British. He is regarded to have one of the most outstanding speaking voices ever with studied tonality and an exceptional elocution in drama.
Biography
Early life
Jacobi, an only child, was born in
Leytonstone,
London, England, the son of Daisy Gertrude (
née Masters), a secretary who worked in a
drapery store in Leyton High Street, and Alfred George Jacobi, who ran a sweet shop and was a
tobacconist in
Chingford. His great-grandfather emigrated to England from
Germany during the 19th century. His family was
working class. Although a war baby, he claims a happy childhood. In his teens he went to the Leyton County High School and became an integral part of the drama club, The Players of
Leyton.
At 18, he won a scholarship to the
University of Cambridge, where he studied history and earned his degree. Other younger members of the university at the time included
Ian McKellen (who had an "undeclared and unrequited" crush on him) and
Trevor Nunn. During his stay at Cambridge, he played many parts including
Hamlet, which was taken on a tour to
Switzerland where he met
Richard Burton. As a result of his performance of
Edward II at Cambridge, he was invited to become a member of the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre immediately upon his graduation in 1960.
Career
Early work
Jacobi quickly came to the fore, and his talent was recognised by
Laurence Olivier, who invited him back home to
London to become one of the eight founding members of the new
National Theatre, even though at the time he was relatively unknown. He played Laertes in the
National Theatre's inaugural production of
Hamlet opposite
Peter O'Toole in 1963, and Olivier gave him the role of Cassio in his 1965 film of
Othello and of Andrei in
Three Sisters in 1970.
After eight years at the National Theatre, Jacobi left in 1971 to pursue different roles and mediums of expression. In 1972, he starred in the
BBC serial
Man of Straw, directed by
Herbert Wise. Most of his theatrical work in the 70's was with the touring classical
Prospect Theatre Company, with which he undertook many roles, including
Ivanov,
Pericles, Prince of Tyre and
A Month in the Country.
Although Jacobi's name was becoming known and he was increasingly busy with stage and screen acting, his big breakthrough didn't come until 1976. It was the title role of the BBC's blockbuster series
I, Claudius that finally cemented his increasing reputation with his performance as the stammering, twitching
Emperor Claudius winning him many plaudits. In 1979, thanks to his international popularity he took
Hamlet on an epic theatrical world tour through
England,
Egypt,
Greece,
Sweden,
Australia,
Japan and
China with himself in the protagonist's role. He was then invited to essay the role once more at
Kronborg Castle, better known as Elsinore Castle, the setting of the play itself. In 1978 he played in the BBC's production of
Shakespeare's
Richard II, with Sir
John Gielgud and Dame
Wendy Hiller.
Later career
In 1980, Jacobi took the leading role in the BBC's
Hamlet, made his
Broadway debut in
The Suicide (a run shortened by Jacobi's return home to England due to the death of his mother), and then joined the
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) from 1982 to 1985 where he played four demanding roles simultaneously: Benedick in Shakespeare's
Much Ado About Nothing, for which he won a Tony for its Broadway run (1984-1985); Prospero in
The Tempest;
Peer Gynt; and
Cyrano de Bergerac which he brought to the US and played in repertory with
Much Ado About Nothing on Broadway and in Washington DC (1984-1985). In 1986, he made his
West End debut in
Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore, with the role of
Alan Turing which was written with Jacobi specifically in mind. The play was taken to Broadway. In 1988 Jacobi alternated in
West End the title roles of Shakespeare's
Richard II and
Richard III in repertoire.
His TV career saw him measure with
Inside the Third Reich (1982), where he played
Hitler;
Mr Pye (1985);
Little Dorrit (1987), from
Charles Dickens's book;
The Tenth Man (1988) with
Anthony Hopkins and
Kristin Scott Thomas.
Jacobi continued to play Shakespeare, notably in
Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film of
Henry V (as
the Chorus) and made his directing debut as Branagh's director for the 1988
Renaissance Theatre Company's touring production of
Hamlet, which also played at
Elsinore and as part of a Renaissance repertory season at the
Phoenix Theatre in London. The 1990s saw Jacobi keeping on with repertoire stage work in
Kean at the
Old Vic,
Becket in the West End (the
Haymarket Theatre) and
Macbeth at the RSC in both
London and
Stratford.
He was appointed the joint
artistic director of the
Chichester Festival Theatre, with the West End impresario
Duncan Weldon in 1995 for a three year tenure. As an actor at Chichester, he also starred in four plays, including his first
Uncle Vanya in 1996 (he took a second run in 2000, which he brought to Broadway for a limited run). Jacobi's work during the 90's included the 13 episodes series TV adaptation of the novels by
Ellis Peters Cadfael (1994-1998) and a televised version of
Breaking the Code (1996). Film appearances included performances in
Kenneth Branagh's
Dead Again (1991), Branagh's full-text rendition of
Hamlet (1996) as King Claudius, in (1998), a portrait of painter Francis Bacon, as Senator Gracchus in
Gladiator (2000) with
Russell Crowe and as "The Duke" opposite
Christopher Eccleston and
Eddie Izzard in a post-apocalyptic version of
Thomas Middleton's
The Revenger's Tragedy (2002).
In 2001, he won an
Emmy Award by mocking his Shakespearean background in the television
sitcom Frasier episode "The Show Must Go Off", in which he played the world's
worst Shakespearean actor: the hammy, loud, untalented Jackson Hedley. This was his first guest appearance on an American television programme.
Recent work
Jacobi has done the narration for an audio book version of the
Iliad and for
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by
C. S. Lewis. In 2002, Jacobi toured Australia in
The Hollow Crown with Sir
Donald Sinden,
Ian Richardson and Dame
Diana Rigg. Jacobi also played the role of Senator Gracchus in
Gladiator and starred in the 2002 miniseries
The Jury.
In 2003, he was involved with
Scream of the Shalka, a
webcast based on the
science fiction series
Doctor Who. He played the voice of
the Master alongside
Richard E. Grant as
the Doctor. In the same year, he also appeared in
Deadline, an audio drama also based on
Doctor Who. In that, he played Martin Bannister, an ageing writer who makes up stories about "the Doctor", a character who travels in time and space, the premise being that the series had never made it on to television. Jacobi later followed this up with an appearance on the Doctor Who BBC TV series itself, in the June 2007 episode "
Utopia". Jacobi appears as the kindly Professor Yana, who by the end of the episode is revealed to actually be the Doctor's arch-nemesis,
the Master.
In 2004, Jacobi starred in
Friedrich Schiller's
Don Carlos at the
Crucible Theatre in
Sheffield, in an acclaimed production, which transferred to the
Gielgud Theatre in London in January 2005. The London production of
Don Carlos gathered rave reviews. Also in 2004, he starred as Lord Teddy Thursby in the first of the four-part BBC series
The Long Firm, based on
Jake Arnott's novel of the same name. In
Nanny McPhee (2005), he played the role of the colourful Mr. Wheen, an undertaker. He played the role of
Alexander Corvinus in the 2006 movie .
In March 2006,
BBC Two broadcast
Pinochet in Suburbia, a
docudrama about former
Chilean dictator
Augusto Pinochet and the attempts to
extradite him from Great Britain; Jacobi played the leading role. In September 2007, it was released in the U.S., entitled
Pinochet's Last Stand. In 2006, he appeared in the children's movie
Mist, the tale of a sheepdog puppy, he also narrated this movie. In July-August 2006 he played the eponymous role in
A Voyage Round My Father at the
Donmar Warehouse, a production which then transferred to the West End.
In February 2007, his feature film
The Riddle, directed by
Brendan Foley, in which he stars alongside
Vinnie Jones and
Vanessa Redgrave, was screened at Berlin EFM. Jacobi plays twin roles, first a present day London tramp and then the ghost of
Charles Dickens. In March 2007, the BBC's children's programme
In the Night Garden started its run of 200 episodes, with Jacobi as the narrator. He played Nell's grandfather in ITV's Christmas 2007 adaptation of
The Old Curiosity Shop, and appears in three forthcoming films:,
Hippie Hippie Shake and
Endgame.
In 2008 he'll play Malvolio in Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night for the Donmar Warehouse.
Personal life
In March 2006, after 27 years together, he registered his
civil union with
partner Richard Clifford, four months after such unions became legal in the
United Kingdom.
Honours and awards
Theatre
1983: London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor, for Much Ado About Nothing
1984: Tony Award for Best Actor, for Much Ado About Nothing
Television
1977: BAFTA Award for Best Actor, for I, Claudius
1989: Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special, for The Tenth Man
2001: Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, for Frasier (episode "The Show Must Go Off")
Film
1988: Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor, for Little Dorrit
1998: Edinburgh International Film Festival for Best British Performance, for
1999: Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor, for Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
Ensemble:
2002: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Acting Ensemble, for Gosford Park
2002: Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Ensemble Cast, for Gosford Park
2002: Online Film Critics Society Awards for Best Ensemble, for Gosford Park
2002: Satellite Award for Outstanding Motion Picture Ensemble, for Gosford Park
2002: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture, for Gosford Park
Filmography
Othello (1965) Cassio
Interlude (1968)
Blue Blood (1973) Gregory
The Day of the Jackal (1973)
The Odessa File (1974)
I, Claudius TV (1976) Claudius
Philby, Burgess and MacLean - Spy Scandal of the Century TV (1977)
The Medusa Touch (1978) Townley
Richard II TV (1978) Richard II
The Human Factor (1979) Arthur Davis
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark TV (1980) Hamlet
Charlotte (1981) Daberlohn
The Secret of NIMH (1982) Nicodemus' voice
Inside the Third Reich TV (1982) Adolf Hitler
The Hunchback of Notre Dame TV (1982) Frollo
Enigma (1983) Kurt Limmer
Cyrano de Bergerac TV (1985) Cyrano de Bergerac
Mr Pye TV (1986) Mr. Pye
The Secret Garden TV (1987) Archibald Craven
The Tenth Man TV (1988) The impostor
Little Dorrit TV (1988) Arthur Clennam
Henry V (1989) Chorus
The Fool (1990) Mr. Frederick/Sir John
Dead Again (1991) Franklyn Madson
Cadfael TV (1994-1998) Brother Cadfael
Looking for Richard (1996) Himself
Hamlet (1996) Claudius
(1998) Francis Bacon
Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (1999) Father Leonor Fousnel
Edvard Grieg - What Price Immortality? (1999)
The Wyvern Mystery TV (2000) Squire Fairfield
Up at the Villa (2000) Lucky Leadbetter
Jason and the Argonauts TV (2000) Phineas
Gladiator (2000) Gracchus
The Body (2001) Father Lavelle
Gosford Park (2001) Probert
The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky (2001) voice of Nijinsky
Revelation (2001) Librarian
Frasier US TV (2001) "The Show Must Go Off"
The Gathering Storm BBC (2002) Stanley Baldwin
Revengers Tragedy (2002) The Duke
Two Men Went to War (2002) Major Merton
Strings (2004) Nezo
The Long Firm TV (2004) Lord Edward 'Teddy' Thursby
Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage TV (2004) Colonel Protheroe
Bye Bye Blackbird (2005) Lord Dempsey
Nanny McPhee (2005) Mr. Wheen
(2006) Alexander Corvinus
Doctor Who TV (2007) Professor Yana / The Master
The Golden Compass (2007) Magisterial Emissary
The Riddle (2007) The Tramp / Charles Dickens
In The Night Garden (2007) Narrator
Hippie Hippie Shake (2008) Judge
Adam Resurrected (2008) Dr. Nathan Gross
Endgame TV (2008)
A Bunch of Amateurs (2009) Nigel
Further Information
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