Sir Derek has enjoyed a successful screen and stage career appearing in productions as ‘I, Claudius’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘Uncle Vanya’ and ‘Oedipus the King’. He has twice been awarded a Laurence Olivier Award, first for his performance of Cyrano de Bergerac in 1983 and the second for his Malvolio in ‘Twelfth Night’ in 2009. He also received a Tony Award for his performance in ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ in 1984 and a Primetime Emmy Award in 1988 for ‘The Tenth Man’. He is a founder member of the UK’s Royal National Theatre and has won several prestigious theatre awards. His television career includes starring in the critically acclaimed ‘I, Claudius’ based on the bestselling book by Robert Graves for which he won a BAFTA. He is also known for starring roles in the medieval drama series ‘Cadfael’, ‘The Gathering Storm’ as British politician Stanley Baldwin and as Alan Buttershaw in romantic comedy drama, ‘Last Tango in Halifax’.
His extensive film roles include those in ‘The Day of the Jackal’ (1973), ‘Henry V’ (1989), ‘Dead Again’ (1991), ‘Gladiator’ (2000), ‘Gosford Park’ (2001), ‘The Riddle’ (2007), ‘The King’s Speech’ (2010), ‘My Week with Marilyn’ (2011), and ‘Cinderella’ (2015). He holds a British knighthood and has been appointed a Knight First Class of the Order of the Dannebrog.
Since becoming Heartstone’s Patron, Sir Derek has participated as the reader for the Liverpool Cathedral Heartstone Odyssey event in March 2016, as special guest to open the Whitechapel Station ‘Chandra’s London’ installation in July 2016 and as reader at the Docklands Museum Heartstone Odyssey event in March 2017.