Derek Jacobi
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Sir Derek George Jacobi (born 22 October 1938) is an English actor and director. A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a successful and distinguished stage career, appearing in various stage productions of William Shakespeare such as Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet. He is also known for his performances in Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya and Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac. He was given a knighthood for his services to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 and is a member of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog.
In addition to being a founder member of the Royal National Theatre and winning several prestigious theatre awards, Jacobi has also enjoyed a successful television career, starring in the critically praised adaptation of Robert Graves's I, Claudius (1976), for which he won a BAFTA; in the titular role in the medieval drama series Cadfael (1994–1998), as Stanley Baldwin in The Gathering Storm (2002), as The Master in Doctor Who (2007), as Stuart Bixby in the ITV comedy Vicious (2013–2016) and as Alan Buttershaw in Last Tango in Halifax (2012–2020). In 2019, he played Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, in the third season of the critically acclaimed Netflix series The Crown.
Though principally a stage actor, Jacobi has appeared in a number of films, including Othello (1965), The Day of the Jackal (1973), Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991), Hamlet (1996), Gladiator (2000), Gosford Park (2001), Nanny McPhee (2005), The Riddle (2007), The King's Speech (2010), My Week with Marilyn (2011), Anonymous (2011), Cinderella (2015), and Murder on the Orient Express (2017).
Jacobi has twice been awarded a Laurence Olivier Award, first for his performance of the eponymous hero in Cyrano de Bergerac in 1983 and the second for his Malvolio in Twelfth Night in 2009. He also received a Tony Award for his performance in Much Ado About Nothing in 1984. Jacobi has also 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). 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).
