Happy 69th birthday, Derek Jacobi!
Today in 1938, the classically trained turned fantasy actor Derek Jacobi was born. Sir Derek (knighted twice over, no less) is probably best known to older audiences for his critically acclaimed portrayal of Claudius in the series, I, Claudius and Brother Cadfael in the Cadfeal mysteries. Younger audiences may recognize him for his work in The Secret of NIMH, Dead Again, Jason and the Argonauts, Underworld: Evolution, the remake of Doctor Who and the much anticipated The Golden Compass. He also won an Emmy in 2001 for parodying his Shakespearean backround on an episode of Frasier:
While Jacobi trained at the University of Cambridge alongside the great Sir Ian McKellen, he never knew until much later in life that Sir Ian had a crush on him that McKellen now admits was "a passion that was undeclared and unrequited." Alas, poor Ian… although it looks like things pretty much worked out for the both of them.
I was one of the refugees on 'Utopia', the Dr Who episode he did this year.What a lovely man! And what enthusiasm – and vigor – he brought to the role. He had more energy running up and down those damn corridors than any of us thirty-and-more years his junior!Not a man to blow his own trumpet, he still regaled us with a few tales of his years in the biz.He's also a huge Dr Who fan: he talked about having done an audio adventure a few years ago….I've just realized why the system keeps rejecting this … just change my UK spellings to US… done! There….