Derek Jacobi

Sir Derek George Jacobi was born on 22 October 1938 in Leytonstone, Essex, England, the only child of Alfred George Jacobi, who operated a sweet shop in Chingford, and Daisy Gertrude Jacobi, a secretary. His patrilineal great-grandfather had emigrated from Germany to England in the 19th century, and he also has a distant Huguenot ancestor. As a teenager, Jacobi attended Leyton County High School for Boys and participated in the school drama club, The Players of Leyton. During his sixth-form years he appeared in a production of Hamlet that traveled to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He subsequently won a scholarship to St John's College, University of Cambridge, where he read history and earned his degree. Among his contemporaries at Cambridge were Ian McKellen and Trevor Nunn. While studying there, Jacobi again performed Hamlet, taking that production on a tour to Switzerland, where he met Richard Burton. His performance of Edward II at Cambridge led directly to an invitation to join the Birmingham Repertory Theatre upon his graduation in 1960.

Laurence Olivier recognized Jacobi's abilities and invited him to London to become one of the founding members of the National Theatre. Jacobi played Laertes in the company's inaugural production of Hamlet opposite Peter O'Toole in 1963, and Olivier subsequently cast him as Cassio in the National Theatre's stage production of Othello, a role he repeated in the 1965 film version. He also played Andrei in both the NT stage production and the 1970 film of Three Sisters, each featuring Olivier. On 27 July 1965, Jacobi originated the role of Brindsley Miller in the first production of Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy, presented by the National Theatre at Chichester. After eight years with the company, he departed in 1971 to pursue other work. Much of his theatrical activity during the 1970s was with the Prospect Theatre Company, where his roles included Ivanov, Pericles in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, and a part in A Month in the Country opposite Dorothy Tutin in 1976.

Jacobi's career reached a turning point in 1976 when he portrayed the title role in the BBC television series I, Claudius, earning the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his performance as the Emperor Claudius. In 1978 he appeared in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Richard II alongside Sir John Gielgud and Dame Wendy Hiller. In 1979, building on his international profile, he undertook a theatrical world tour performing Hamlet through England, Egypt, Greece, Sweden, Australia, Japan, and China, and was invited to perform the role at Kronborg Castle in Denmark.

Jacobi made his Broadway debut in 1980 in The Suicide, a run cut short when he returned to England following the death of his mother. That same year he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. From 1982 to 1985 he took on four major stage roles concurrently: Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Prospero in The Tempest, Peer Gynt, and Cyrano de Bergerac. The production of Cyrano de Bergerac, for which he received the Laurence Olivier Award in 1983, was brought to the United States and performed in repertory with Much Ado About Nothing on Broadway and in Washington, D.C. during the 1984–1985 season. His portrayal of Benedick earned him the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1985. In 1986, Hugh Whitemore's Breaking the Code, written with Jacobi specifically in mind for the role of Alan Turing, premiered in the West End before transferring to Broadway. Jacobi starred in a Broadway production of Uncle Vanya in 2000, having first performed the play at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1996. His Broadway appearances span the years 1980 to 2000 and include The Suicide, Cyrano de Bergerac, Much Ado About Nothing, Breaking the Code, and Uncle Vanya.

In 1988, Jacobi also made his directing debut, helming the Renaissance Theatre Company's touring production of Hamlet for Kenneth Branagh, a production that played at Elsinore and at the Phoenix Theatre in London. He was appointed joint artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre alongside Duncan Weldon in 1995 for a three-year tenure, during which he also acted in four productions at the venue. His stage work in the 1990s included Kean at The Old Vic, Becket at the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, and Macbeth at the RSC in both London and Stratford. He received a second Laurence Olivier Award in 2009 for his portrayal of Malvolio in Twelfth Night.

Queen Elizabeth II appointed Jacobi a Knight Bachelor in 1994 for his services to theatre. His accolades across stage, film, and television include the Tony Award, two Laurence Olivier Awards, the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor, and two Primetime Emmy Awards — one for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for The Tenth Man in 1988, and one for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Frasier in 2001. He also received two Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of the ensemble casts of Gosford Park in 2001 and The King's Speech in 2010.

His film work spans more than five decades and includes Othello (1965), The Day of the Jackal (1973), Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991), Hamlet (1996), Gladiator (2000), in which he portrayed Senator Gracchus, Nanny McPhee (2005), My Week with Marilyn (2011), Anonymous (2011), Cinderella (2015), Murder on the Orient Express (2017), and Gladiator II (2024). On television, his credits include the ITV drama series Cadfael (1994–1998), the HBO film The Gathering Storm (2002), the sitcom Vicious (2013–2016), BBC's Last Tango in Halifax (2012–2020), and the Netflix series The Crown in 2019.