A working class bloke who won a scholarship to Cambridge, Derek Jacobi became one of the University’s best actors and soon after graduation Laurence Olivier asked him to be one of eight founding members of the National Theatre, where his debut role was Laertes to Peter O’Toole’s Hamlet. Thirteen years later, in 1976, he reached his greatest fame with the title role in the BBC’s I, Claudius. As a result, he was able to tour his Hamlet in Sweden, Egypt, Japan, China, and Australia. Renowned for his impeccable performances in productions of the Bard by the RSC, the BBC, and Kenneth Branagh, Jacobi lampooned himself on an episode of Frasier in which he played the world’s worst Shakespearean actor, for which he won an Emmy. Among his numerous other roles are Alan Turing in Breaking the Code, Gracchus in Gladiator, and several characters from Dickens. Knighted by the monarchs of Britain and Denmark, Jacobi is married to Richard Clifford, his partner of twenty-nine years.
Quick, what did Bill Condon direct immediately prior to winning an Oscar for his adaptation of Christopher Bram’s novel Gods & Monsters? That’s right, the horror sequel Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh. Since then he’s also directed the overlooked Kinsey and the overhyped Dreamgirls. Next up, he's producing the Oscar telecast in February.
It would be easy to hate the prolific, charmed, music genius Marc Shaiman if it weren’t impossible to dislike him. He wrote Uncle F***a! He played Skip St. Thomas, the Sweeney Sisters’ pianist on SNL. He’s produced hit songs (Wind Beneath My Wings, From a Distance) written the music and lyrics for fifty-one movies (Broadcast News, When Harry Met Sally, The Addams Family, South Park, Bowling for Columbine, Team America) and fifteen theater shows (Bette: Divine Madness, The Odd Couple, Hairspray). He’s won a Tony, a Grammy, and an Emmy, and has been nominated for an Oscar five times. All that, and he has been with his partner Scott Wittman, who is also his music collaborator, since 1979 when Shaiman was twenty. They have never, ever lost their sense of fun, as their music and their wardrobes attest. He's now working on Hairspray 2 and the Broadway musical version of Catch Me If You Can.
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