ACTOR
Derek Jacobi
27 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (27)
- #001
Derek Jacobi is Kenneth Branagh's mentor and acting coach.
- #002
He and Laurence Olivier are the only actors to have received both a Danish knighthood and a British knighthood.
- #003
When Jacobi auditioned for Britain's newly founded National Theatre in 1963, Olivier hired him as an understudy and spear carrier. Luckily for Jacobi, the actor he was understudying, Jeremy Brett, received a call from Hollywood, and Jacobi took over all of his roles.
- #004
He was appointed CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the 1985 Queen's Birthday Honours and was knighted in the 1994 Queen's New Year Honours for services to drama. In 1989 he became a Knight 1st Class of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog.
- #005
He appeared in five films directed by Kenneth Branagh: Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991), Hamlet (1996), Cinderella (2015) and Murder on the Orient Express (2017).
- #006
He was once invited to play Hamlet at Kronborg Castle, the setting of the play and better known as Elsinore Castle.
- #007
He is the seventh actor to play the Master, the Doctor's greatest enemy, after Roger Delgado, Peter Pratt, Geoffrey Beevers, Anthony Ainley, Gordon Tipple and Eric Roberts. He appeared in Utopia (2007). The role was later taken on by John Simm and Michelle Gomez.
- #008
He is a patron of the British American Drama Academy in London.
- #009
After 27 years together, he registered his civil partnership with his long-term partner Richard Clifford in March 2006, four months after civil partnerships became legal in England and Wales.
- #010
He appeared in six films with his partner Richard Clifford: Little Dorrit (1987), Henry V (1989), The Fool (1990), A Bunch of Amateurs (2008), My Week with Marilyn (2011) and Jail Caesar (2012).
- #011
He owns a Victorian-era house in London, England.
- #012
Derek is a Doctor Who (1963) fan and had wanted to appear in the series from the beginning. He also wanted to appear in Coronation Street (1960).
- #013
He is an Associate Member of RADA.
- #014
He was awarded Best Actor at the 1983 London Critics Circle Theatre Awards (Drama Theatre Award) for his performances in Cyrano de Bergerac and Much Ado About Nothing.
- #015
He was on the shortlist of actors considered for the main guest lead role of Captain Rorvik (played by Clifford Rose) in the Doctor Who (1963) serial "Warriors' Gate".
- #016
He claims he came close to being cast as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The same is true for Daniel Day-Lewis.
- #017
In 1984 (the 1983 season) he was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actor in a Revival for "Cyrano de Bergerac".
- #018
He has played two Roman characters that share common elements with roles also played by Charles Laughton: (1) Laughton played the Roman Emperor Claudius in I, Claudius (1937), while Jacobi played him in I, Claudius (1976), and (2) Laughton played Gracchus in Spartacus (1960), while Jacobi played a character of the same name in Gladiator (2000).
- #019
Charlton Heston and Ronnie Barker were both considered for the role of Claudius in I, Claudius (1976) before Derek Jacobi took on the part.
- #020
Derek Jacobi shares two roles with his Breaking the Code (1996) co-star Richard Johnson: Johnson played King Claudius of Denmark in Hamlet (1970) while Jacobi played him in Hamlet (1996), and Johnson played the Roman Emperor Claudius in The Lost Island (1975) while Jacobi played him in I, Claudius (1976).
- #021
Derek Jacobi won the 1983 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance in Much Ado About Nothing.
- #022
In Prospect Theatre Company productions, Derek Jacobi played Hamlet alongside Timothy West and later played Claudius opposite John Turner. He would go on to direct Kenneth Branagh in the lead role before appearing as Claudius in Branagh's film version.
- #023
As of 2026, Derek Jacobi has appeared in three films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Gladiator (2000), Gosford Park (2001) and The King's Speech (2010). Of these, The King's Speech (2010) and Gladiator (2000) won in that category.
- #024
Derek Jacobi made his London debut in 1963 at The Old Vic, playing Laertes in the National Theatre production of Hamlet.
- #025
Derek Jacobi had his first acting experience at the National Youth Theatre.
- #026
Derek Jacobi has played a stammering character in several films: the title character in I, Claudius (1976), Frankie in Dead Again (1991) and Alan Turing in Breaking the Code (1996). He also appears in The King's Speech (2010), though not as a character who stammers.
- #027
Derek Jacobi was born on exactly the same date as Christopher Lloyd.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work