Jason Isaacs

At 60 years old, Jason Isaacs has this physical status:

Jason Isaacs (born 6 June 1963) is an English actor and producer.

He has played Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter film series, Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot, criminal Michael Caffee in the Showtime series Brotherhood, and Marshal Georgy Zhukov in The Death of Stalin. Isaacs' other roles have included Dr.

Hunter Aloysius "Hap" Percy in the Netflix supernatural series The OA, Captain Gabriel Lorca in the first season of Star Trek: Discovery, the voice of the Grand Inquisitor in Star Wars Rebels, the voice of Admiral Zhao in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Russian high-roller Vasili in Hotel Mumbai.Isaacs' stage roles include Louis Ironson in Declan Donnellan's 1992 and 1993 Royal National Theatre premieres of Parts One (Millennium Approaches) and Two (Perestroika) of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and as hitman Ben in a 50th-anniversary revival of Harold Pinter's 1957 play The Dumb Waiter at Trafalgar Studios in the West End.

Early life

Jason Isaacs was born on 6 June 1963 in Liverpool, England, the third of four sons born to Jewish parents. His father was a jeweller. He spent his earliest childhood years in the Liverpool suburb of Childwall, in an "insular and closely knit" Jewish community co-founded by his Eastern European Jewish great-grandparents. He has stated that Judaism played a big role in his childhood, as he attended youth club in the local synagogue of King David High School, as well as a cheder twice a week as a young adult.

When Isaacs was 11, he moved with his family to London and attended The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, Hertfordshire, where he was in the same year as the future film critic Mark Kermode. He describes the bullying and intolerance he observed during his childhood as "preparation" for portraying the "unattractive" villains/bad guys he has most often played.

As a Jewish teenager in London, Isaacs endured antisemitism by members and supporters of the British far-right extremist organisation, the National Front. His parents eventually immigrated to Israel. In an interview, he stated, "There were constantly people beating us up or smashing windows. If you were ever, say, on a Jewish holiday, identifiably Jewish, there was lots of violence around. But particularly when I was 16, in 1979, the National Front were really taking hold, there were leaflets at school, and Sieg Heiling and people goose-stepping down the road and coming after us."

Following in the footsteps of his brothers (one who became a doctor, one a lawyer, and one an accountant), Isaacs studied law at Bristol University (1982–1985), but became more actively involved in the drama society, eventually acting in over 30 plays and performing each summer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, first with Bristol University and then twice with the National Student Theatre Company. After graduating from Bristol, he went immediately to train at London's Central School of Speech and Drama (1985–1988).

Personal life

Isaacs started living with his girlfriend, BBC documentary filmmaker Emma Hewitt, in 1987. They started dating at the Central School and were married in 2001. They have two daughters: Lily (born 2002) and Ruby (born 2005).

Isaacs describes himself as "profoundly Jewish, but not in a religious way". He has spoken of travelling unrecognised to film premières on the London Underground, but said that "as soon as [he] get[s] on the red carpet they start screaming and screaming".

Isaacs has supported the Labour Party; in 2011, he remarked that he endorsed the party on their educational policies but opposed their involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. However, he expressed criticism of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, describing his leadership as "appalling" in response to the allegations of antisemitism in the British Labour party. He furthermore stated, "Anti-Semitism, like racism, sexism, homophobia and every other shade of hatred needs to be stamped out as early as possible before the weeds take over the garden." Ahead of the 2019 United Kingdom general election, he campaigned for former Labour representative Luciana Berger in her unsuccessful bid to become the Liberal Democrats MP for the Finchley & Golders Green constituency.

In August 2020, Isaacs revealed that he had battled a "decades-long love affair with drugs". He spoke of how a bartender had slipped a 12-year-old Isaacs and his friends a bottle of Southern Comfort, which they proceeded to get blackout drunk on. He said, "The next morning, I woke up with a splitting headache, stinking of puke with a huge scab and the memory of having utterly shamed myself. [...] I just know I chased the sheer ecstatic joy I felt that night for another 20 years with increasingly dire consequences." Eventually, he realised he needed help and achieved sobriety but asked fans not to congratulate him on his efforts, writing on Twitter, "Please don't anyone congratulate me or tell me they're proud of me. I am and was useless by myself. Pride's the worst part. If you feel the desperate need to click, retweet it to let other people know there's a solution out there."

Isaacs is involved with a number of charities and in July 2020, announced that he had become patron of the Veterans charity Bravehound.

Source

Career

Isaacs appeared on stage and on television immediately after successfully completing his training as an actor; his debut in Mel Smith's The Tall Guy (1989) was in a minor role as a doctor. He appeared on television drama Capital City (1989) and the BBC drama Civvies (1992) and guest appearances in films such as Taggart, Inspector Morse, and Highlander: The Series (1993). Michael Ryan appeared in ITV's version of Martina Cole's book Dangerous Lady, directed by Jack Woods and produced by Lavinia Warner in 1995.

Can't I for once play that on stage?"

Isaacs played D.J. in Dragonheart (1996), his first big Hollywood feature film role alongside Laurence Fishburne in the horror film Event Horizon (1997), where he appeared as D.J. Lewis and Clark's Medical Doctor is Lewis and Clark. Clark's and Clark's Lewis and Clark were both physicians. He appeared in the Bruce Willis blockbuster Armageddon (1998), which started his career. Isaacs was initially called on to play a large part in order to be able to fulfill his commitment to Divorcing Jack (1998), a comedy-thriller co-produced with David Thewlis, although he was later cast in a much smaller capacity as a planet-saving scientist. In the miniseries The Last Don (1997), Isaacs played the charismatic honorable priest opposite Kirstie Alley. In Neil Jordan's acclaimed adaptation of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair (1999), he played a priest opposite Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes.

In Roland Emmerich's American Revolutionary War fictional film epic The Patriot (2000), Isaacs shone portraying Colonel William Tavington, the "memorable" villain. Mel Gibson, Gibson's film star, and Heath Ledger as Gibson's screen son, Isaacs portrays a sadistic British Army officer who murders Ledger's character, among other soldiers. Though his participation in the film earned him comparisons to Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of Nazi Amon Göth in Schindler's List (1993) and mention of a Best Supporting Actor Award nomination, Isaacs decided not to play a drag queen in his upcoming film, Sweet November (2001), a romantic comedy-drama.

Isaacs has appeared in many other films, most notably as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series of films (2002-2011). Isaacs of Harry Potter wrote about them after the performance, and I read the first four books in a single sitting – you know – didn't wash, didn't eat, and rode around with them on the steering wheel like a lunatic." I immediately understood why my friends, who I had hoped were barely backward, were so addicted to these children's books. They're like crack (from an interview with Justin Lee Collins, an ITV show) in 2009.

Neva Chonin calls Lucius Malfoy one of the 12 "Sexiest Men Who Were Never Alive" and Isaacs one of the 13 "Sexiest Guys Both Real and Alive" in "The Naked and the Dead," an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 26, 2006.

When asked whether or not he would be in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Isaacs replied, "I hope so; you'll have to ask David (producer David Heyman). I can't believe that someone else will get to wear my Paris Hilton wig, but you never know." Isaacs also spoke to Rowling about Lucius Malfoy's inclusion in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, ensuring that he would appear in the seventh and final film: "I laughed to my knees and begged.' It wasn't all well. I'm positive she doesn't need plot suggestions from me. I made my argument, but I'm not sure. We'll see what happens. I'm waiting for July to see what's in there, like everyone else. That's all. I just want to get out of jail. I don't want to stay in Azkaban for the majority of my life.' "Ultimately, Isaacs did reprise the role of Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), where he is depicted in a moving portrait." Isaacs reprised his role in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010) and Part 2 (2011).

In P. J. Hogan's adaptation of Peter Pan (2001), Isaacs appeared in Black Hawk Down (2001), as George Darling and Captain Hook, and as Admiral Zhao in the first season of the animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005). In the BBC Four miniseries The State Within (2006), Sir Mark Brydon, the British Ambassador to the United States, was nominated for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for the 65th Golden Globe Awards.

"He also played actor Harry H. Corbett in The Curse of Steptoe," part of BBC Four's "new one-off dramas revealing the truth behind some of Britain's best loved television entertainers and their success," first broadcast in March 2008. Isaacs appeared in three episodes of The West Wing in 2004, prior to launching his most well-known television serial role as Michael Caffee in Brotherhood (2006-08).

In Harold Pinter's critically acclaimed 50th-anniversary production of The Dumb Waiter, opposite Lee Evans (Gus), Isaacs appeared in The Force of Change (2000), his first theatre performance since appearing in The Force of Change.

In Paul Greengrass' thriller Green Zone (2007), a fictionalized drama set in Iraq after Saddam Hussein's demise based on the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Isaacs played Major Briggs, an American military officer, opposite Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear.

In 2007, he was cast in Jan de Bont's then-impressive film Stop-Stuffing Power to play its actor John Cusack's "nemesis," but Variety announced that the film had been cancelled after a financial backer pulled out. In the fall of 2008, Isaacs appeared on the Fredrick Line in one episode of the TV show Entourage. In 2009, he was nominated for Best Actor for his role as Harry H. Corbett in The Curse of Steptoe.

In a "rehearsed reading" of The Dumb Waiter, Isaacs played Ben again, opposite his Brotherhood co-star (and Tony Award winner) Br. O'Byrne (as Gus). Harry Burton (who had curated Harold Pinter Memorial Exhibition for Trafalgar Studios) closed the event off with a reading. This tribute to Harold Pinter, co-sponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC), of The Graduate Center of The City University of New York (CUNY), was part of the Fifth Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, held in New York City from 27 April to July 2009.

He appeared in Ra's al Ghul's DC animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), as well as Sinestro's voice in the DC animated film Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011). In 2011, he appeared in a BBC adaptation of Kate Atkinson's Case Histories. Isaacs received a Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television for his portrayal of the detective.

In the NBC police procedural fantasy drama Awake, which premiered on March 1st 2012 and ended in May 2012, Isaacs starred as Detective Michael Britten. After Britten's family's car accident, his hopes began to take on two alternate realities, one in which his wife was killed and one in which his son died. Isaacs addresses the provocative argument: "There's no doubt it's difficult." We have a team of extremely experienced writers who have written from HBO shows to The X-Files, to 24 and everything in between. And they are being questioned. All of them have said that it's the most difficult job they've ever had. But there are times when it is a good thing. I would not want to act if it came naturally that they could write in their sleep, but I don't want to act – and I doubt the audience would be interested."

Isaacs appeared in the USA Network action adventure drama series Dig, in 2015. Isaacs is a retired FBI agent (which was also named Peter Connelly) based in Jerusalem who uncovers a 2,000-year plot while investigating an archaeologist's murder. The ten-episode series premiered on March 5, 2015. He appeared in Ankles, a film directed by Harry Potter co-star Bonnie Wright in February 2016. He appeared in Netflix's "Hap" Percy as Dr. Hunter Aloysius "Hap" Percy in December 2016.

In March 2017, Isaacs would play Captain Gabriel Lorca in the forthcoming CBS All Access (or Paramount+) series Star Trek: Discovery. On September 24, 2017, the series premiered. In the third episode, "Context Is for Kings," Isaacs made his first appearance as Lorca on October 1st. In episode 13, "What's Past Prologue," in which the protagonist was killed, Lorca was revealed as his "mirror universe" self. Showrunner Alex Kurtzman teased the possibility of Isaacs returning to Lorca at some point beyond season two. Isaacs also voices the role in Star Trek Online: Rise of Discovery, a 2019 role-playing game.

Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov was played by Isaacs in The Death of Stalin, a political satire and dark comedy film directed by Armando Iannucci. Following the deposition of Soviet President Joseph Stalin in 1953, the film portrays the internal social and political power struggle among the Council of Ministers. Isaacs appeared in Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor, Andrea Riseborough, and Michael Palin. Isaacs' role earned him critical praise, despite the film's controversial yet critical success. He received an Evening Standard British Film Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor, losing to co-star Simon Russell Beale for his role.

Dan in the 2018 psychological thriller Look Away, starring Mira Sorvino and India Eisley, Isaacs also appeared as Dan. He appeared in the action thriller Hotel Mumbai and Mark Asprey in the mystery thriller London Fields respectively. In the stop motion sketch comedy TV series Robot Chicken, Isaacs also performed various characters such as the Slenderman, Alliser Thorne, Slinky, and Jack the Donkey. In 2019, Isaacs portrayed Skekso, the Emperor of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and Dick Dastardly in the Scooby-Doo film Scoob!

Isaacs would appear alongside Jim Broadbent in the film The Dead Spit of Kelly, which was announced in November 2019.

Isaacs appeared in the lead role of Dr. David in March 2020. In the CBS drama pilot Good Sam, Rob "Griff" Griffith, was later picked up for a series in 2021 in 2021, which was later picked up in 2021 for a mid-season premiere on January 5th, 2022.

In 2021, Isaacs appeared Carl in Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets, Admiral John Henry Godfrey in Operation Mincemeat, Jay Perry in the upcoming biographical film Creation Stories and John, John John Carter in the short film Cera. In the Direct-to-DVD animated comedy film Scooby-Doo! He also voiced King Arthur Pendragon, Winston Pilkingstonshire, and Thundarr the Barbarian. The Sword and the Scoob were both included in the book The Sword and the Scoob. He appeared in an episode of anthology drama Inside No. 3 in addition to being a minor actor in Series 3 of the British comedy-drama Sex Education, as well as being in an episode of anthology film Inside No. 1. 9.

Source