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| Birth Name(s) : Derek Jacobi |
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Full Derek Jacobi Biography
Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE (IPA: /ˈdÊ'ækÉ™bi/) (born 22 October 1938) is an English actor and director, knighted in 1994 for his services to the theatre. Like Laurence Olivier, he bears the distinction of holding two knighthoods, Danish and British.
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.
Although Jacobi's name was becoming known and he was increasingly busy with stage and screen acting, his big breakthrough did not come until 1976. It was the title role of the BBC's blockbuster series I, Claudius that finally cemented his popular reputation with his performance as the stammering, twitching Emperor Claudius winning him many plaudits. In 1977, thanks to his international popularity he brought Hamlet on a tour through England, Egypt, Sweden, Australia, Japan and China. He was then invited to play it 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.
In 1980 Jacobi took the leading role in the BBC's Hamlet, made his Broadway debut in The Suicide, 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; Prospero in The Tempest; Peer Gynt; and Cyrano de Bergerac. In 1986, he made his West End debut in Breaking the Code with the role of Alan Turing. 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.
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). 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 Hamlet (1996) as King Claudius, in John Maybury's Love is the Devil (1998), a portrait of painter Francis Bacon, 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 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.
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 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, as 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.
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")
As part of an 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 |
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