- Malcolm McDowell, Time After Time, 1979. Writer-director Nicholas Meyer was extremely interested but Warners “had never heard of Derek Jacobi then and wouldn’t have heard of him now. So I didn’t get him.“ Jacobi is knighted in two countries – Great Britain and Denmark – a feat accomplished by only one other actor. Olivier!
- Clifford Rose, Doctor Who #113: Warriors’ Gate, TV, 1981. Jacobi, Robert Hardy, John Normington, Jon Stafford and Frank Windsor were offered Captain Rorvik opposite Doc4 Tom Baker in the finale of the serial known the E-Space trilogy. Jacobi was the seventh actor to play the Master, the Doctor’s greatest enemy. #187: Utopia, 2007, with Doc10 David Tennant. Both actors, and the next, eighth Master, John Simm, had all played Hamlet on-stage. Jacobi was among 63 possible Docs for the 1996 Hollywood-backed movie.
- Patrick Stewart, Lifeforce, 1984.
- Michael Gothard, Lifeforce, 1984.
- Christopher Gable, Doctor Who #135: The Caves of Androzani, TV, 1984. Mixed signals about Sharez Jek… Rock idols like Dabid Bowie, Roger Daltrey, Mick Jagger and the rockereish Tim Curry – or actors Patrick Allen, Nicholas Ball, Steven Berkoff, Brian Cox, Christopher Gable, Michael Gambon, Julian Glover, John Hurt, Derek Jacobi, Martin Jarvis, Michael Jayston, Oliver Tobias.
- Martin Jarvis, Doctor Who # 138: Vengeance on Varos, TV, 1984. Jacobi, Jarvis, George Baker, Keith Barron, Brian Blessed, John Carson, Frank Finlay, Julian Glover, John Hallam, Terrence Hardiman, John Hurt, Michael Jayston, Dinsdale Landen, Ian McKellen, Anthony Valentine, and David Warner were the 16 choices for the beleaguered Governor of Varos, a kind of Pontius Pilate.
- Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs, 1989.
- Tony Jay, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1995. Fellow Brits Jacobi, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart (future X-Men co-stars) were listed for Frollo. Until directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale went back to their deep-voiced Monsieur D’Arque from Beauty and the Beast, 1990.
- Paul McGann, Doctor Who (The Movie), TV, 1996.
Footnote >>> Saw Jacobi playing Cassio opposite Laurence Olivier’s Othello at the UK’s National Theatre in London with Frank Finlay and Maggie Smith as Iago and Desdemona. They all appeared in the 1965 film version, winning the most Oscar acting nominations of any other Shakespeare film.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 9