Biography
Born into a working-class household in Leytonstone, London, Derek Jacobi rose to prominence as one of Britain’s most distinguished stage performers while also delivering memorable work in cinema and on television. After secondary education at Leyton Sixth Form College, where he enrolled in the Players of Leyton drama society, he appeared in the institution’s Edinburgh Fringe mounting of Hamlet; the production helped secure him a scholarship to Cambridge University to study history. During those undergraduate years he performed frequently, sharing the campus with fellow students Ian McKellen and Trevor Nunn.
In the early 1960s Laurence Olivier invited the young performer to join the newly established National Theatre as one of its founding actors. Jacobi remained with the company for eight seasons, among them a turn as Cassio to Peter O’Toole’s Othello, before departing. While sustaining an active theatrical career he began working in television, earning widespread attention and a BAFTA Award for the title role in the BBC’s 1976 serial I, Claudius. By 1980 he had taken Hamlet on a world tour and made his Broadway bow in Suicide; that same year he affiliated with the Royal Shakespeare Company, receiving a Tony Award for his Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.
He continued to balance stage and screen commitments, appearing on film in Dead Again (1991), Gladiator (2000), Gosford Park (2001) and The King’s Speech (2010). Between 1994 and 1998 he enjoyed further popularity as the lead in the long-running television series Cadfael. Stage work never receded: he collected a Laurence Olivier Award for Malvolio in Twelfth Night in 2009 and earned critical acclaim for Michael Grandage’s 2010 production of King Lear. In 2012 he starred in Sally Wainwright’s Last Tango in Halifax, and the following year he and Ian McKellen were paired again in the ITV comedy Vicious.
With his Last Tango in Halifax co-star Anne Reid, Jacobi recorded the 2016 album of duets and solos You Are the Best Thing…That Ever Has Happened to Me, featuring selections from the classic theater repertoire and the Great American Songbook. The project was not his first venture into music; earlier he had contributed spoken-word vocals to Keaton Henson’s track “You.”
In the early 1960s Laurence Olivier invited the young performer to join the newly established National Theatre as one of its founding actors. Jacobi remained with the company for eight seasons, among them a turn as Cassio to Peter O’Toole’s Othello, before departing. While sustaining an active theatrical career he began working in television, earning widespread attention and a BAFTA Award for the title role in the BBC’s 1976 serial I, Claudius. By 1980 he had taken Hamlet on a world tour and made his Broadway bow in Suicide; that same year he affiliated with the Royal Shakespeare Company, receiving a Tony Award for his Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing.
He continued to balance stage and screen commitments, appearing on film in Dead Again (1991), Gladiator (2000), Gosford Park (2001) and The King’s Speech (2010). Between 1994 and 1998 he enjoyed further popularity as the lead in the long-running television series Cadfael. Stage work never receded: he collected a Laurence Olivier Award for Malvolio in Twelfth Night in 2009 and earned critical acclaim for Michael Grandage’s 2010 production of King Lear. In 2012 he starred in Sally Wainwright’s Last Tango in Halifax, and the following year he and Ian McKellen were paired again in the ITV comedy Vicious.
With his Last Tango in Halifax co-star Anne Reid, Jacobi recorded the 2016 album of duets and solos You Are the Best Thing…That Ever Has Happened to Me, featuring selections from the classic theater repertoire and the Great American Songbook. The project was not his first venture into music; earlier he had contributed spoken-word vocals to Keaton Henson’s track “You.”
Albums
