Mix Up Star: DEREK JACOBI

Mix Up Theatre (Stewart)
3 days ago
2 min read

Born: 22nd October 1938

Age: 86

Sir Derek Jacobi is an English actor. He is known for his work at the Royal National Theatre and for his film and television roles. He has received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, two Olivier Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Tony Award.

Jacobi started his professional acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the founding members of the National Theatre. He has appeared in numerous Shakespearean stage productions including Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet. Jacobi received the Laurence Olivier Award, for the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac in 1983 and Malvolio in Twelfth Night in 2009. He also won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing in 1985.

On television, he portrayed Claudius in the BBC series I, Claudius (1976), for which he won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor. He received two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for The Tenth Man (1988), and Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Frasier (2001). He also took roles in ITV drama series Cadfael (1994–1998), the HBO film The Gathering Storm (2002), the sitcom Vicious (2013-2016), and BBC's Last Tango in Halifax (2012–2020) and a key role in Doctor Who.

Jacobi has acted in numerous films including Othello (1965), Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991), Hamlet (1996), Nanny McPhee (2005), Anonymous (2011), Cinderella (2015), and Murder on the Orient Express (2017). Jacobi has also earned two Screen Actors Guild Awards along with the ensemble cast for Robert Altman's Gosford Park (2001), and Tom Hooper's The King's Speech (2010).

On 23rd May 2025 we had the opportunity to meet Sir Derek Jacobi at an event at the Perth Festival of Arts - Perth Theatre - Sir Derek Jacobi in Conversation with Richard Clifford