Early life

Jacobi, an only child, was born in Leytonstone, London, England, the son of Daisy Gertrude (née Masters), a secretary who worked in a drapery store in Leyton High Road, and Alfred George Jacobi, who ran a sweet shop and was a tobacconist in Chingford. His great-grandfather on his father's side had emigrated from Germany to England during the 19th century. His family was working class. Jacobi describes his childhood as happy. In his teens he went to the Leyton Sixth Form College and became an integral part of the drama club, The Players of Leyton.

While in the sixth-form, he starred in a production of Hamlet, which was taken to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and very well regarded. At 18 he won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge, where he read history at St John's College and earned his degree. Younger members of the university at the time included Ian McKellen (who had a crush on him - "a passion that was undeclared and unrequited", as McKellen relates it) and Trevor Nunn. During his studies at Cambridge, Jacobi played many parts including Hamlet, which was taken on a tour to Switzerland, where he met Richard Burton. As a result of his performance of Edward II at Cambridge, Jacobi was invited to become a member of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre immediately upon his graduation in 1960.

Career

Early work

Jacobi's talent was recognised by Laurence Olivier, who invited the young actor back to London to become one of the founding members of the new National Theatre, even though at the time Jacobi was relatively unknown. He played Laertes in the National Theatre's inaugural production of Hamlet opposite Peter O'Toole in 1963. Olivier cast him as Cassio in the successful National Theatre stage production of Othello, a role that Jacobi repeated in the 1965 film version. He played Andrei in the NT production and film of Three Sisters (1970), both featuring Olivier. On 27 July 1965, Jacobi played Brindsley Miller in the first production of Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy. It was presented by the National Theatre at Chichester and subsequently in London.

After eight years at the National Theatre, Jacobi left in 1971 to pursue different roles. In 1972, he starred in the BBC serial Man of Straw an adaptation of Heinrich Mann's book Der Untertan, directed by Herbert Wise. Most of his theatrical work in the 1970s was with the touring classical Prospect Theatre Company, with which he undertook many roles, including Ivanov, Pericles, Prince of Tyre and A Month in the Country opposite Dorothy Tutin (1976).

Jacobi was increasingly busy with stage and screen acting, but his big breakthrough came in 1976 when he played the title role in the BBC's series I, Claudius. He cemented his reputation with his performance as the stammering, twitching Emperor Claudius, winning much praise. In 1979, thanks to his international popularity, he took Hamlet on a theatrical world tour through England, Egypt, Greece, Sweden, Australia, Japan and China, playing Prince Hamlet. He was invited to perform the role at Kronborg Castle, Denmark, known as Elsinore Castle, the setting of the play. In 1978 he appeared in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Richard II, with Sir John Gielgud and Dame Wendy Hiller.

Later career

In 1980, Jacobi took the leading role in the BBC's Hamlet, made his Broadway debut in The Suicide (a run shortened by Jacobi's return home to England due to the death of his mother), and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). From 1982 to 1985 he played four demanding roles simultaneously: Benedick in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, for which he won a Tony for its Broadway run (1984-1985); Prospero in The Tempest; Peer Gynt; and Cyrano de Bergerac which he brought to the US and played in repertory with Much Ado About Nothing on Broadway and in Washington DC (1984-1985). In 1986, he made his West End debut in Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore, starring in the role of Alan Turing, which was written with Jacobi specifically in mind. 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 appeared in the television dramas Inside the Third Reich (1982), where he played Hitler; Mr Pye (1985); and Little Dorrit (1987), based on Charles Dickens's novel; The Tenth Man (1988) with Anthony Hopkins and Kristin Scott Thomas. In 1982, he lent his voice to the character of Nicodemus in the animated film, The Secret of NIMH. In 1990, he starred as Daedalus in episode 4 of Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Greek Myths.

Jacobi continued to play Shakespeare roles, notably in Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film of Henry V (as the Chorus), and made his directing debut as Branagh's director for the 1988 Renaissance Theatre Company's touring production of Hamlet, which also played at Elsinore and as part of a Renaissance repertory season at the Phoenix Theatre in London. The 1990s saw Jacobi keeping on with repertoire stage work in Kean at the Old Vic, Becket in the West End (the Haymarket Theatre) and Macbeth at the RSC in both London and Stratford. In 1993 Jacobi voiced Mr Jeremy Fisher in The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends.

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 played it again in 2000, bringing the Chekhov play to Broadway for a limited run). Jacobi's work during the 1990s included the 13-episode 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 full-text rendition of Hamlet (1996) as King Claudius, John Maybury's Love is the Devil (1998), a portrait of painter Francis Bacon, as Senator Gracchus in Gladiator (2000) with Russell Crowe, 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, Jacobi won an Emmy Award 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.

2000-present

Jacobi has narrated audio book versions of the Iliad, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis and two abridged versions of I, Claudius by Robert Graves. In 2001 he provided the voice of "Duke Theseus" in The Children's Midsummer Night's Dream film. 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. He is also the narrator for the BBC children's series In the Night Garden.

In 2003, he was involved with Scream of the Shalka, a webcast based on the science fiction series Doctor Who. He played the voice of the Doctor's nemesis the Master alongside Richard E. Grant as the Doctor. In the same year, he also appeared in Deadline, an audio drama also based on Doctor Who. Therein he played Martin Bannister, an ageing writer who makes up stories about "the Doctor", a character who travels in time and space, the premise being that the series had never made it on to television. Jacobi later followed this up with an appearance in the Doctor Who episode "Utopia" (June 2007); he appears as the kindly Professor Yana, who by the end of the episode is revealed to actually be the Master. Jacobi admitted to Doctor Who Confidential he had always wanted to be on the show: "One of my ambitions since the '60s has been to take part in a Doctor Who. The other one is Coronation Street. So I've cracked Doctor Who now. I'm still waiting for Corrie."

In 2004 Jacobi starred in Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, in an acclaimed production, which transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London in January 2005. The London production of Don Carlos gathered rave reviews. Also in 2004, he starred as Lord Teddy Thursby in the first of the four-part BBC series The Long Firm, based on Jake Arnott's novel of the same name. In Nanny McPhee (2005), he played the role of the colourful Mr. Wheen, an undertaker. He played the role of Alexander Corvinus in the 2006 movie Underworld: Evolution.

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., retitled 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, The Riddle, directed by Brendan Foley and starring Jacobi, Vinnie Jones, and Vanessa Redgrave, was screened at Berlin EFM. Jacobi plays twin roles: first 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 one hundred episodes, with Jacobi as the narrator. He played Nell's grandfather in ITV's Christmas 2007 adaptation of The Old Curiosity Shop, and returned to the stage to play Malvolio in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (2009) for the Donmar Warehouse at Wyndham's Theatre in London. The role won him the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor. He appears in five 2009 films: Morris: A Life with Bells On, Hippie Hippie Shake, Endgame, Adam Resurrected and Charles Dickens's England. In 2010 he returned to I, Claudius, as Augustus in a radio adaptation. In 2011, he was part of a medieval epic, Ironclad, which also starred James Purefoy and Paul Giamatti, as the ineffectual Reginald de Cornhill, castellan of Rochester castle.

Jacobi starred in Michael Grandage's production of King Lear (London, 2010), giving what The New Yorker called "one of the finest performances of his distinguished career". In May 2011 he reprised this role at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

In April 2012 he appeared in Titanic: Blood and Steel and in November 2012 he starred in the BBC series Last Tango in Halifax. In 2013 he starred in the second series of Last Tango and in 2014 the third series.

In 2013, Jacobi starred alongside Ian McKellen in the ITV sitcom Vicious as Stuart Bixby, the partner to Freddie Thornhill, played by McKellen. On 23 August 2013 the show was renewed for a six-episode second series which began airing in June 2015.

Shakespeare authorship involvement

Jacobi has been publicly involved in the Shakespeare authorship question. He supports the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, according to which Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford wrote the works of Shakespeare. Jacobi has given an address to the Shakespeare Authorship Research Centre promoting de Vere as the Shakespeare author and wrote forewords to two books on the subject in 2004 and 2005.

In 2007, Jacobi and fellow Shakespearean actor and director Mark Rylance initiated a "Declaration of Reasonable Doubt" on the authorship of Shakespeare's work, to encourage new research into the question.

In 2011, Jacobi accepted a role in the film Anonymous, about the Oxfordian theory, starring Rhys Ifans and Vanessa Redgrave. In the film Jacobi narrates the Prologue and Epilogue, set in modern-day New York, while the film proper is set in Elizabethan England. Jacobi allows that making the film was "a very risky thing to do", and imagines that "the orthodox Stratfordians are going to be apoplectic with rage".

Personal life

Jacobi is openly gay. In March 2006, four months after civil partnerships were introduced in the United Kingdom, Jacobi registered his civil partnership with Richard Clifford. They live in Primrose Hill, north London. He was a Grand Marshal of the 46th New York City Gay Pride March in 2015.

Honours

• 1985: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (United Kingdom)
• 1989: Knight 1st class of the Order of the Dannebrog (Denmark)
• 1994: Knight Bachelor, for services to Drama (United Kingdom)

Awards

• 2008: Helen Hayes Tribute for Lifetime Achievement at the 24th Annual Helen Hayes Awards

Theatre

• 1983: Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a Revival, for Cyrano de Bergerac
• 1983: Critics Circle Theatre Award Best Actor for Cyrano de Bergerac and Much Ado About Nothing
• 1983: London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor, for Much Ado About Nothing
• 1984: Tony Award for Best Actor, for Much Ado About Nothing
• 2009: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, for Twelfth Night

Television

• 1976: 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")

Film

• 1987: Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor, for Little Dorrit
• 1998: Edinburgh International Film Festival for Best British Performance, for Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
• 1999: Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor, for Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon

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
• 2011: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, for The King's Speech

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1965	Othello	Cassio
1968	Interlude	Paul
1970	Three Sisters	Andrei
1973	Blue Blood	Gregory
1973	The Day of the Jackal	Caron
1974	The Odessa File	Klaus Wenzer
1978	The Medusa Touch	Townley
1979	The Human Factor	Arthur Davis
1981	Charlotte	Daberlohn
1982	The Secret of NIMH	Nicodemus	Voice
1982	Enigma	Kurt Limmer
1988	Little Dorrit	Arthur Clennam	Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor
1989	Henry V	Chorus
1990	The Fool	Mr. Frederick/Sir John
1991	Dead Again	Franklyn Madson	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1996	Looking for Richard	Himself
1996	Breaking the Code	Alan Turing	Television movie Nominated—BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor
1996	Hamlet	Claudius
1998	Basil	Father Frederick
1998	Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon	Francis Bacon	Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1999	Molokai: The Story of Father Damien	Father Leonor Fousnel
2000	Up at the Villa	Lucky Leadbetter
2000	Gladiator	Gracchus	Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2001	The Body	Father Lavelle
2001	Gosford Park	Probert	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Satellite Award for Best Cast - Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2001	The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky	Nijinsky
2001	Revelation	Librarian
2002	Revengers Tragedy	The Duke
2002	Two Men Went to War	Major Merton
2004	Strings	Nezo
2005	Bye Bye Blackbird	Lord Dempsey
2005	Nanny McPhee	Mr. Wheen
2006	Underworld: Evolution	Alexander Corvinus
2007	The Riddle	Charles Dickens
2007	Airlock Or How To Say Goodbye In Space	President
2007	The Golden Compass	Magisterial Emissary
2008	A Bunch of Amateurs	Nigel
2009	Morris: A Life with Bells On	Quentin Neely
2009	Endgame	Rudolf Agnew
2009	Adam Resurrected	Dr. Nathan Gross
2009	Charles Dickens's England	Himself
2010	Hippie Hippie Shake	Judge
2010	There Be Dragons	Honorio
2010	Ironclad	Cornhill
2010	The King's Speech	Cosmo Gordon Lang	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
2010	Hereafter	Himself
2011	Anonymous	Narrator
2011	My Week with Marilyn	Sir Owen Morshead
2012	Jail Caesar	Sulla
2013	Effie	Travers Twiss
2015	Cinderella	The King
2016	Stratton: First Into Action	Ross	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1972	Man of Straw	Diederich Hessling	2 episodes
	The Strauss Family	Joseph Lanner	2 episodes
1974	The Pallisers	Lord Fawn	8 episodes
1976	I, Claudius	Claudius	12 episodes BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor
1977	Philby, Burgess and MacLean	Guy Burgess	Television movie Nominated—BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor
1978	Richard II	Richard II
1979	Minder	Freddie Fenton	Episode: "The Bounty Hunter"
1980	Hamlet	Hamlet
1982	Inside the Third Reich	Adolf Hitler	Television film Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
1982	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	Frollo
1985	Cyrano de Bergerac	Cyrano de Bergerac	Television film
1987	The Secret Garden	Archibald Craven	Television film
1986	Mr Pye	Mr. Pye	4 episodes
1988	The Tenth Man	The Imposter	Television film Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film
1990	The Civil War	Various	9 episodes
1993	The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends	Mr Jeremy Fisher	1 episode
1994-1998	Cadfael	Brother Cadfael	13 episodes
2000	The Wyvern Mystery	Squire Fairfield	Television film
2000	Jason and the Argonauts	Phineas	Television film
2001	Frasier	Jackson Hedley	Episode: "The Show Must Go Off" Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
2002	The Jury	George Cording QC	6 episodes
	The Edwardian Country House	The Narrator	All episodes
	The Gathering Storm	Stanley Baldwin	Television film
2004	London	Tacitus	Television film
2004	The Long Firm	Lord Edward Thursby	2 episodes
2004	Marple - "The Murder at the Vicarage"	Colonel Protheroe
2007	The Old Curiosity Shop	Grandfather	Television film
2007-2009	Mist: The Tale of a Sheepdog Puppy	Narrator	38 episodes
2007	Doctor Who	The Master / Professor Yana	Episode: "Utopia"
2007-2010	In the Night Garden	Narrator	100 episodes
2011	The Borgias	Cardinal Orsini	2 episodes
2012	Titanic: Blood and Steel	William Pirrie	12 episodes
2012—	Last Tango in Halifax	Alan Buttershaw	2 series (6+ episodes) Nominated—BAFTA TV Award for Best Leading Actor
2013—	Vicious	Stuart Bixby	2 series (12 episodes + 1 Christmas special)

Theatrical performances

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	The Suicide	Semyon Semyonovich Podsekalnikov	Nominated—Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play
1982-1985	Much Ado About Nothing	Signior Benedick of Padua	Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play Nominated—Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play
1983-1985	Cyrano de Bergerac	Cyrano de Bergerac	Critics Circle Theatre Award Best Actor Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year in a Revival Nominated—Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play
1986-1988	Breaking the Code	Alan Turing	Nominated—Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play Nominated—Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor Nominated—Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play
2000	Uncle Vanya	Ivan Petrovich Voinitsky	Nominated—Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play
2009	Twelfth Night	Malvolio	Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor
2010	King Lear	King Lear

[ Source: Wikipedia ]