Derek Jacobi Biography (1938-)

Full name, Derek George Jacobi; born October 22, 1938, in Leystone, London, England; son of Alfred George (a store manager) and Daisy Gertrude (a secretary; maiden name, Masters) Jacobi. Addresses: Agent: c/o International Creative Management, Oxford House, 76 Oxford St., London W1N 0AX, England.

Nationality: British
Gender: Male
Occupation: Actor, director
Birth Details: October 22, 1938; Leystone, London, United Kingdom

Famous Works

CREDITS
Stage Appearances
Title role, Hamlet, English National Youth Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1955
Title role, Edward II, Marlowe Society, Cambridge, England, 1959
Henry VIII, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Birmingham, England, 1960
Stanley Honeybone, One Way Pendulum, Birmingham Repertory Theatre,1961
Brother Martin, Saint Joan, Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester, England, 1963
P.C. Liversedge, The Workinghouse Donkey, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1963
(London debut) Laertes, Hamlet, National Theatre Company, Old VicTheatre, 1963
Fellipillo, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1964
Cassio, Othello, National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1964
Simon Bliss, Hay Fever, National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre,1964
Don John, Much Ado about Nothing, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1965
Brindsley Miller, Black Comedy, Chichester Festival Theatre, thenOld Vic Theatre, later Queen's Theatre, London, 1966
Tusenbach, The Three Sisters, National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1967
Touchstone, As You Like It, National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1967
King of Navarre, Love's Labour's Lost, National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1968
Edward Hotel, Macrune's Guevara, National Theatre Company, Old VicTheatre, 1969
Adam, Back to Methuselah, National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1969
Myshkin, The Idiot, National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1970
Lodovico, The White Devil, National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1970
Sir Charles Mountford, A Woman Killed with Kindness, National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1971
Orestes, Electra, Greenwich Theatre, London, 1971
Title role, Oedipus Rex, Birmingham Repertory Company, 1972
Mr. Puff, The Critic, Birmingham Repertory Company, 1972
Buckingham, Richard III, 1972
Title Role, Ivanov, Prospect Theatre Company, London, 1972
The Grand Tour, Goldsmith's Hall, London, 1973
Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Twelfth Night, Prospect Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, London, then Prospect Theatre Company, European and MiddleEastern cities, all 1973
Title role, Pericles, Prospect Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, 1973, then Her Majesty's Theatre, London, 1974
Rakitin, A Month in the Country, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1974
Will Mossop, Hobson's Choice, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, England, 1975
Rakitin, A Month in the Country, Prospect Theatre Company, AlberyTheatre, London, 1975
Cecil Vyse, A Room with a View, Prospect Theatre Company, Albery Theatre, 1975
Pleasure and Repentance, 1975
The Hollow Crown, 1975
Title role, Hamlet, Prospect Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1977
Octavius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Prospect Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1977
The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet, Old Vic Theatre, 1978
The Grand Tour, Old Vic Theatre, 1978
Thomas Mendip, The Lady's Not for Burning, Prospect Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1978
Title role, Ivanov, Prospect Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1978
Title role, Hamlet, Prospect Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, then Elsinore, 1979
(Broadway debut) Semyon Semyonovich Podsekalnikov (Senya), The Suicide, American National Theatre and Academy, 1980
Title role, Peer Gynt, 1982
Benedick, Much Ado about Nothing, Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldwych Theatre, London, 1982, then Gershwin Theatre, New York City, 1984
Prospero, The Tempest, Royal Shakespeare Company, Aldwych Theatre,1983
Title role, Cyrano de Bergerac, Royal Shakespeare Company, AldwychTheatre, 1983, then Gershwin Theatre, 1984
Alan Turing, Breaking the Code, Haymarket Theatre, London, 1986, then Eisenhower Theatre, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, 1986, later Neil Simon Theatre, New York City, 1987
Title role, Richard II, Phoenix Theatre, London, 1988
Title role, Richard III, Phoenix Theatre, 1989
Lord Byron, Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know, Center Theatre Group,Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, 1989-1990
Title role, Kean; or, Disorder and Genius, Old Vic Theatre, 1990
Title role, Becket, Haymarket Theatre, 1991
Lord Byron, Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know, Ambassadors Theatre,London, 1992
Macbeth, Royal Shakespeare Company, Barbican Theatre, London, 1993
Title role, Hadrian VII, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1995
Playing the Wife, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1995
Title role, Uncle Vanya, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1996, then Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York City, 2000
God Only Knows, 2001
Prospero, The Tempest, Old Vic Theatre, 2003
Also appeared in Little Dorrit.
Major Tours
Title role, Pericles, Prospect Theatre Company, European and Middle Eastern cities, 1973
Also toured in The Grand Tour and Hamlet, Scandinavian, Australian, Japanese, and Chinese cities.
Stage Work
Director, Hamlet, Phoenix Theatre, London, 1988
Film Appearances
(Film debut) Cassio, Othello, Warner Bros., 1965
Paul, Interlude, Columbia, 1968
Andrei, The Three Sisters, American Film Theatre, 1970
Caron, Lebel's assistant, The Day of the Jackal, Universal, 1973
Gregory, Blue Blood, Mallard/Impact Quadrant, 1973
Klaus Wenzer, The Odessa File (also known as Die Akte Odessa and Der Fall Odessa), Columbia, 1974
Townley, the publisher, The Medusa Touch (also known as La grande menace), Warner Bros., 1978

Arthur Davis, The Human Factor, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1979
Martin Beck, Mannen som gick upp i roek (also known as The ManWho Went Up in Smoke, Der Mann, der sich in Luft aufloeste, and A sved, akinek nyoma veszett), Svenska Filminstiet/Europafilm, 1980
Daberlohn, Charlotte (also known as Charlotte S), 1981
Voice of Nicodemus, The Secret of NIMH (animated; also known as Mrs. Brisby and the Rats of NIMH), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1982
Kurt Limmer, East German, Enigma, Embassy, 1982
Arthur Clennam (The Clennam House), Little Dorrit (also known as Little Dorrit's Story and Nobody's Fault), Sands Films/Cannon, 1987
Chorus, Henry V, Samuel Goldwyn, 1989
Director, Discovering Hamlet, PBS Home Video, 1990
Sir John/Mr. Frederick, The Fool, Barcino Barcino Films, 1990
Franklyn Madson, Dead Again, Paramount, 1991
Leper of St. Giles, 1994
Himself, Looking for Richard, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1996
Narrator, Achilles, 1996
Claudius, William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Columbia, 1996
Francis Bacon, Love Is the Devil (also known as Ai no akumaand Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon), StrandReleasing, 1998
Father Frederick, Basil, Kushner-Locke, 1998
Father Leonor Fousnel, Molakai: The Story of Father Damien (also known as Father Damien and Damiaan), 1998
Lucky Leadbetter, Up at the Villa, October Films, 1999
Joan of Arc: The Virgin Warrior, 1999
Senator Gracchus, Gladiator, DreamWorks, 1999
Father Lavelle, The Body, TriStar, 2000
(As Sir Derek Jacobi) Voice of Nijinsky, The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky (also known as Nijinski and Die Tagebuecher von Waslaw Nijinski), Winstar, 2001
The librarian, Revelation, First Look Pictures Releasing, 2001
Mr. Probert, Gosford Park, United International, 2001
(Uncredited) Voice of puppet, The Children's Midsummer Nights Dream, 2001
(In archive footage) Senator Gracchus from Gladiator, UltimateFights from the Movies, Flixmix, 2002
The Duke, A Revenger's Tragedy, Northcroft, 2002
Richard Dadd, Night's Noontime, Bits and Pieces, 2002
Major Merton, Two Men Went to War, Guerilla, 2002
Television Appearances
Miniseries
Josef Lanner, The Strauss Family, ABC, 1973
Title role, I, Claudius, BBC, 1976, then PBS, 1977
Lord Fawn, The Pallisers, PBS, 1977
Adolf Hitler, Inside The Third Reich, ABC, 1982
The Civil War (also known as The American Civil War), PBS,1990
Daedalus, "Daedalus & Icarus," The Storyteller: Greek Myths (also known as Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Greek Myths), HBO, 1990
Voice, Baseball (also known as The History of Baseball), PBS, 1994
Phineas, Jason and the Argonauts, NBC, 2000
Voices, Jazz, PBS, 2001
George Cording QC, The Jury, PBS, 2002
Narrator, The Edwardian Country House, 2002
Movies
Guy Burgess, Philby, Burgess, and MacLean, Granada TV, 1977
Dom Claude Frollo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (also known as Hunchback), CBS, 1982
Title role, Cyrano de Bergerac, 1985
Randal, Circle of Deceit, 1993
Title role, Cyrano de Bergerac, Bravo, 1994
Voice of Archibald Craven, The Secret Garden (animated), ABC, 1994
General, Witness against Hitler, 1996
Narrator, Animated Epics: Beowulf (animated; also known as Beowulf), 1998
Stanley Baldwin, The Gathering Storm, HBO, 2002
Stanley Baldwin, The Lonely War, HBO, 2002
Specials
Don Pedro, Much Ado about Nothing, 1967
Narrator, Statue of Liberty (documentary), PBS, 1985
Narrator of animated sequences, Cathedral (documentary), PBS, 1986
Host, Jessye Norman's Christmas Symphony, PBS, 1987
Narrator, Pyramid (documentary), PBS, 1988
Voice, The Congress (documentary), PBS, 1989
Backstage at Masterpiece Theatre: A 20th Anniversary Special, PBS,1991
Narration, Carnivore!, Arts and Entertainment, 1992
Narration, Three Tenors: The Impossible Dream, PBS, 1993
Voice of Marcus Fabricius, City, PBS, 1994
Brother Cadfael, "Cadfael," Mystery!, PBS, 1995
Sister Wendy: Pains of Glass, PBS, 1995
Narrator, The Crown Jewels, The Disney Channel, 1995
Alan Turning, Breaking the Code, PBS, 1997
Master of ceremonies, "San Francisco Opera Gala Celebration," Great Performances, PBS, 1997
Brother Cadfael, Cadfael 2, PBS, 1997
Voice, Thomas Jefferson, PBS, 1997
Brother Cadfael, Cadfael 3, PBS, 1998
Voiceover, Margaret Sanger, PBS, 1998
(In archive footage) Bring Me Sunshine: The Heart and Soul of Eric Morecambe (also known as The Heart and Soul of Eric Morecambe and Omnibus: Bring Me Sunshine: The Heart and Soul of Eric Morecambe), 1998
Brother Cadfael, Cadfael 4, PBS, 1999
Scrooge/Bernard, Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings, BBC, 2000
Squire Fairfield, The Wyvern Mystery, PBS, 2000
Voice, Chasing the Sun (documentary), PBS, 2001
Larry and Vivien: The Oliviers in Love, 2001
(In archive footage) Claudius, The 100 Greatest TV Characters, Channel 4, 2001
Voice of Priam Huntington, Mill Times, PBS, 2002
Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (also known as Broadway: The Golden Age), 2003
Series
Title role, Mr. Pye, 1986
Voice of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends(animated), 1993
Narrator, Flora Britannica, 1999
Episodic
Herbert Fletcher, "Do Me a Favour," Budgie, LWT, 1972
William Drew, "The Secret of the Foxhunter," The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, 1973
Title role, "Richard II" (also known as "The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare: King Richard the Second"), The BBC Television Shakespeare, BBC, 1978, then PBS, 1979
"Angela's Skin," Tales of the Unexpected, syndicated, 1979
Title role, "Hamlet" (also known as "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" and "TheComplete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark"),The Shakespeare Plays (also known as BBC Television Shakespeare), PBS, 1980
Archibald Craven, "The Secret Garden," Hallmark Hall of Fame, CBS,1987
Imposter, "Graham Greene's The Tenth Man," Hallmark Hall of Fame,CBS, 1988
Jackson Hedley, "The Show Must Go Off," Frasier, NBC, 2001
Colonel Anger, "Pain Killers," Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), BBC1, 2001
Narrator, Manor House, PBS, 2003
Also appeared as voice, The West, PBS; in The Morecambe & Wise Show.
Other
Man of Straw, 1971-1972
Markheim, [Scotland], 1973
Affairs of the Heart, 1973
Paths of the Future, 1979
A Stranger in Town, 1982
Saint John the Divine, The Revelation, 1990
Also appeared in She Stoops to Conquer.
Radio Appearances
Appeared as King of France, King Lear, BBC.
RECORDINGS
Taped Readings
Appeared as King of France, King Lear, Random House Audiobooks; recorded taped readings of 1984 for Listen for Pleasure, and A Severed Head for G.K. Hall.

Further Reference

OTHER SOURCES

Periodicals

Advocate, October 13, 1998, p. 82
Artforum, September, 1998, p. 136
Interview, October, 1998, p. 80

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