Derek aspired to be an actor from the age of six. At eighteen he played Hamlet at the Edinburgh Festival, then again at Cambridge before several more times including performances at Elsinore Castle. His performance of Edward 11 at Cambridge led to an invitation to join Birmingham Rep where he played Ferdinand in The Tempest, then Henry VIII and A Man For All Seasons. In 1963 he played in Shaw’s St Joan for Olivier at Chichester before becoming Artistic Director in 1994 and playing Uncle Vanya, Love For Love and Hadrian VIII. He joined Olivier again at the National Theatre playing leading roles including Cassius in Othello, also filmed.
His many roles have included Oedipus Rex & The Critic (Birmingham), Kean, Macbeth, Uncle Vanya, Ivanov and Peer Gynt, The Tempest. In the U.S. he played Cyrano De Bergerac and Much Ado About Nothing receiving a Tony Award. At the Haymarket he played Alan Turing in Breaking The Code and King Lear at the Donmar.
His appearances in films and TV have been equally significant. The Day Of The Jackal, Odessa File, Little Dorritt, Gladiator I and II. He directed Kenneth Branagh in Hamlet on stage and appeared in his films as Chorus in Henry V, and Claudius in Hamlet. Other films include the painter, Francis Bacon in Love is the Devil and Lucien Freud in the film Moss and Freud, Vicious and Last Tango in Halifax, on television Perhaps Derek is most remembered in TV as the stuttering Emperor in I Claudius then the sleuth monk in Cadfael.
His many awards include two Oliviers, one BAFTA, a Tony and an Emmy for an episode of Frasier. He received the C.B.E. and has the rare distinction of holding two knighthoods ; Danish in 1980 and English in 1994.
