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Theatre, Film, and Television Biographies
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James Newton Howard to Kevin Jarre
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
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CREDITS
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Stage Appearances
- Title role, Hamlet, English National Youth Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1955
- Title role, Edward II, Marlowe Society, Cambridge, England, 1959
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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
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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
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Pleasure and Repentance, 1975
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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
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The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet, Old Vic Theatre, 1978
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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
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Macbeth, Royal Shakespeare Company, Barbican Theatre, London, 1993
- Title role, Hadrian VII, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1995
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Playing the Wife, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1995
- Title role, Uncle Vanya, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1996, then Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York City, 2000
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God Only Knows, 2001
- Prospero, The Tempest, Old Vic Theatre, 2003
- Also appeared in Little Dorrit.
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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.
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Stage Work
- Director, Hamlet, Phoenix Theatre, London, 1988
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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
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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
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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
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Television Appearances
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (also known as Broadway: The Golden Age), 2003
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Series
- Title role, Mr. Pye, 1986
- Voice of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends(animated), 1993
- Narrator, Flora Britannica, 1999
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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.
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Other
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Man of Straw, 1971-1972
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Markheim, [Scotland], 1973
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Affairs of the Heart, 1973
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Paths of the Future, 1979
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A Stranger in Town, 1982
- Saint John the Divine, The Revelation, 1990
- Also appeared in She Stoops to Conquer.
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Radio Appearances
- Appeared as King of France, King Lear, BBC.
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RECORDINGS
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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
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Advocate, October 13, 1998, p. 82
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Artforum, September, 1998, p. 136
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Interview, October, 1998, p. 80
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