Sir Derek George Jacobi CBE (/ˈdʒækəbi/; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. He has appeared in various stage productions of William Shakespeare such as Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet. He has also performed in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac. He was given a knighthood for his services to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 and is a member of the Danish Order of the Dannebrog.