Jason Isaacs
Born	June 6, 1963 (1963-06-06) (age 44) Liverpool, Merseyside, England
Years active	1988 â€" present
Partner(s)	Emma Hewitt (1988-present)

Jason Isaacs (born 6 June 1963) is a British actor. Raised in Liverpool and later in London, he fell accidentally into acting during his first year at university, and went on to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Initially known as a TV actor in the UK, his biggest international film break was being selected to portray the villain, Colonel William Tavington, opposite Mel Gibson in the Revolutionary War epic The Patriot (2000). Other notable roles include Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter (2002 â€" present) series of films, Captain Hook/Mr. Darling in P. J. Hogan's adaptation of Peter Pan (2003), and Michael Caffee in the TV series Brotherhood (2006 â€" present).

Isaacs has performed on the stage in the UK on numerous occasions. He appeared in the Royal National Theatre's 1993 staging of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America as Louis Ironson, and more recently in Harold Pinter's play The Dumb Waiter in 2007 as Ben.

Biography

Early life and education

Isaacs was born on 6 June 1963 in Liverpool, Merseyside, in England[1] and grew up in Liverpool in an "insular" and "closely-knit" Jewish community, of which his Eastern European great-grandparents were founder-members.[2] The third of four brothers,[3] Isaacs attended a Jewish school and a cheder twice a week.[4] He showed no early interest in performance at all. At the age of 11 his family moved to London. Isaacs has a theory that his entire childhood was a preparation for the relatively unpleasant characters who have come his way. "There is a streak of cruelty in me that comes from having a quite competitive background. There were four boys in the house and we were often pretty unkind to each other. Also, it wasn't a great thing to be a Jewish teenager when the National Front were passing leaflets around the school and attacking us where we gathered at the weekends."[5] He attended the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School[6] and continually failed to get into the school play. He did, however, eventually manage to appear in a performance of God : A Comedy in One Act, a play by Woody Allen.[citation needed]

Isaacs had initially planned on a career in law, following his more traditionally-inclined brothers who became a doctor, lawyer, and accountant. He therefore started reading law at Bristol University in 1982.[3] Feeling uneasy among peers "who all sounded like Hugh Grant", he fell rather accidentally into acting in the first year of his law studies, stumbling drunkenly into an audition for a part with "Northern accent required".[5] Cast in a play entitled Idle Hands, he ended up dancing naked, covered in chicken's blood â€" the first of many uncomfortable evenings in the theatre for his parents (in his second, The Glory of Love, he was castrated with a cheese-wire). Although he first became interested in acting in part because "it was a great way to meet girls", Jason soon found an addiction to and a deeper meaning in the theatre (in one interview he was quoted as saying "I could release myself into acting in a way that I was not released socially").[3] He finished his degree[7] while running Bristol's extra-curricular drama society, acting in or directing 30 or so plays, spending three summers at the Edinburgh Festival, two Easters at the National Student Drama Festival and a Christmas run at The King's Head Theatre in Islington. From 1985 he studied for a further three years at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 1988 with an agent, a day's work on The Tall Guy (1989) and a girlfriend, Emma Hewitt, who was to become his partner.

Career

After completing his training, Isaacs almost immediately began appearing on the stage and on television.

Isaacs was initially known as a TV actor in the UK, having starring roles in the ITV drama Capital City (1989) and the BBC drama Civvies (1992), and guest roles in series such as Taggart and Inspector Morse in 1992. He made his big-screen debut in 1989 with a minor turn as a doctor in Mel Smith's The Tall Guy. Jason exhibited his versatility in several more TV series and on-stage in such productions as the Royal National Theatre's 1993 staging of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America.[8] He also began to find more work onscreen, receiving his first nod of Hollywood recognition in his casting in the Bruce Willis blockbuster Armageddon (1998). Initially called upon to take a fairly substantial role, Jason was eventually cast in a much smaller capacity as a planet-saving scientist so that he could accommodate his commitment to Divorcing Jack (1998), a comedy thriller he was making with fellow Harry Potter alumnus David Thewlis. After portraying a priest opposite Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes in Neil Jordan's acclaimed adaptation of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair (1999), Jason got his biggest international break to date when he was picked to portray the villain, Colonel William Tavington, in Roland Emmerich's Revolutionary War epic The Patriot (2000). Starring opposite Mel Gibson, who played the film's hero, Jason made a memorable impression as a fictional sadistic British army officer. Although his work in the film earned him comparisons to Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of evil Nazi Amon Göth in Schindler's List (1993) and talks of a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, Isaacs was not content to be typecast playing historical villains. Thus, he signed on to play none other than a drag queen for his next project, Sweet November (2001), a romantic comedy-drama starring Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves.[3]

Isaacs has appeared in many other films, including Dragonheart (1996), Event Horizon (1997) and Black Hawk Down (2001). Notable roles include Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter (2002 â€" present) series of films, as well as Captain Hook/Mr. Darling in P. J. Hogan's adaptation of Peter Pan (2003). Isaacs has also appeared in three episodes of The West Wing in 2004, and stars in the Showtime series Brotherhood (2006 â€" present). Jason was also recently seen in the UK mini-series The State Within (2006) on BBC One and BBC America.

Between 2 February and 24 March 2007, Isaacs appeared on stage at Trafalgar Studios in London as Ben in Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter, his first theatre job in six years.

In a 26 November 2006 article published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Isaacs was voted by the author as one of the 13 "Sexiest Men Who Are Real and Alive", while Lucius Malfoy, the character he portrayed in the Harry Potter films, was named as one of the 12 "Sexiest Men Who Were Never Alive".[9]

Despite his frequent appearances on the big screen, TV and stage, Isaac calls himself an "invisible star" who can still travel by the London Underground to film premières unrecognized: "They just think, who's that t*** in black tie? As soon as I get on the red carpet they start screaming and screaming. It's laughable because when it's all over I go home on the Tube as well."[5] He has also said, "I imagine like most of us that I'd like obscene amounts of money but the people I met and worked with who have those obscene amounts of money and have obscene amounts of fame have awful lives. Really. I mean hideously compromised lives. And I can go anywhere. No one knows who I am. I can go on the tube and bus and wander through the streets. So I'm quite happy not to get the girl."[1]

Selected work

Film

Television

Theatre

Animated television series and video games

Awards and nominations

• In 2001, Jason was nominated for the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Villain (Internet Only) for The Patriot (2000).
• In 2001, Jason was nominated for the Awards for the London Film Critics Circle (ALFS) British Supporting Actor of the Year for The Patriot (2000).
• In 2002, Jason was nominated for the Phoenix Film Critics Society (PFCS) Award for Best Acting Ensemble for Black Hawk Down (2001). It was shared with Eric Bana, Ewen Bremner, William Fichtner, Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Sam Shepard, Tom Sizemore and Orlando Bloom.
• In 2003, Jason was nominated for the PFCS Award for Best Acting Ensemble for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). It was shared with Kenneth Branagh, John Cleese, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Richard Griffiths, Rupert Grint, Richard Harris, Daniel Radcliffe, Alan Rickman, Fiona Shaw, Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, and Emma Watson.
• In 2005 Nine Lives (2005) won the best ensemble acting award at the Gotham Film Festival.

Personal life

Isaacs and his partner, BBC documentary filmmaker Emma Hewitt, have two daughters: Lily (born 23 March 2002) and Ruby (26 August 2005).[1] Isaacs and Hewitt are not married, but call each other husband and wife as "otherwise people get rather peculiar. It seems a bit weird to call someone your girlfriend when you have a child." Isaacs has proposed to Hewitt and she has accepted, but each time they think about arranging a wedding he gets involved in another project. Isaacs has quipped that he and Hewitt will probably get married when Lily comes back from school and says: "You two have to get married, you're really embarrassing me."[13] The family currently resides in London.[citation needed]

Isaacs is a supporter of Liverpool Football Club.[14]

Notes

References

• Biography for Jason Isaacs. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-06-25.
• Flint, Rebecca. Jason Isaacs : Biography. Moviefone. Retrieved on 2007-06-25.
• Rees, Jasper. "'There is a Streak of Cruelty in Me': Actor Jason Isaacs Says Life Prepared Him to Become a Specialist in Unattractive Characters", The Daily Telegraph (Review), 2007-01-27, p. 5. 

Further reading

• Jason Isaacs Video Interview. The London Paper. Retrieved on 2007-06-25.

External links

• Jason Isaacs at the Internet Movie Database