Derek Jacobi

Sir Derek Jacobi is one of the great British stage and screen actors, celebrated for his Hamlet across multiple productions, his BAFTA-winning I, Claudius (BBC, 1976), roles in Gladiator (2000) and The King's Speech (2010), and the long-running TV series Cadfael. He has been in a relationship with actor and producer Richard Clifford since 1977 — one of the longest and most stable openly gay relationships in British public life — and the two entered into a civil partnership in 2006. Jacobi came out naturally, simply living openly within the industry for decades without a press announcement. He is also known for co-starring with his longtime friend Ian McKellen in the sitcom Vicious (ITV, 2013–2016), which featured them as a long-partnered gay couple with a dynamic that lovingly mirrored their own decades-long real friendship.