Olu Jacobs

Oludotun Baiyewu Jacobs was born on 11 July 1942 to parents from Egba Alake. He spent his early childhood in Kano and attended Holy Trinity School, where he joined the debating and drama societies. Watching Chief Hubert Ogunde's concert parties at the Colonial Hotel in Kano convinced him to try acting. He secured a visa and travelled to England to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

After RADA, Jacobs worked in British repertory theatre. An early stage role was The Boy in A Taste of Honey at Sheffield's new Crucible Theatre in 1972. Through the 1970s he appeared on British television in The Goodies, Till Death Us Do Part, Barlow at Large, The Venturers, Angels, 1990, The Tomorrow People and The Professionals. In 1978 he played President Mageeba in Tom Stoppard's Night and Day in London. Selected stage work also included productions at the Royal Court, Gate Theatre and National Theatre.

In the late 1970s and 1980s Jacobs took roles in international films. He appeared as Commissioner Batak in Ashanti (1979), in John Irvin's The Dogs of War (1980), as Col. Nsogbu in Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985), and as Boomako in Roman Polanski's Pirates (1986). On British television he was also a cast member in TVS's The Witches and the Grinnygog.

Around 1990 Jacobs returned to Nigeria and starred as Inspector Best Idafa in NTA's detective series The Third Eye. He went on to more than 120 Nollywood films and became one of the industry's most recognisable veteran leads. Vanguard later grouped him with Pete Edochie as living godfathers of Nollywood. He also appeared in commercials for brands including Ribena and Binatone. Notable later screen credits included Adesuwa, Dry, Oloibiri and The Royal Hibiscus Hotel.

Jacobs married Joke Silva in 1989. They have two children. He publicly defended her choice to keep the professional name Joke Silva while also being Mrs Joke Jacobs. Together they founded and ran the Lufodo Group, a media company with film production and distribution arms and the Lufodo Academy of Performing Arts, where they trained younger performers.

In 2007 Jacobs won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In 2011 President Goodluck Jonathan conferred the national honour of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic. In 2013 he received the Industry Merit Award at the Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards. In 2016 he received the MAA Lifetime Achievement Award. AFRIFF honoured him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021, and in 2022 the Audio-Visual Rights Society of Nigeria presented him and Joke Silva with icon awards and membership certificates.

Death rumours about Jacobs circulated repeatedly, including in 2021, until he appeared at AFRIFF that November. Joke Silva later disclosed that he was living with Lewy body dementia. The family periodically asked the public to disregard false reports that he had died.

On 16 September 2026 Olusoji Jacobs announced on Instagram that his father had died aged 84. The statement thanked God for a life well lived, named him the Lion of Lufodo, gave the dates 11 July 1942 to 16 September 2026, and asked bloggers and influencers to respect the family's privacy. Premium Times, Leadership, TVC News, Punch, Channels Television, Vanguard and other Nigerian outlets reported the announcement the same day. Early reports did not state a public medical cause of death.

Jacobs is remembered as a craft actor who carried RADA and British repertory discipline into Nigerian television and film, helped set a standard for patriarchal and royal roles in Nollywood, and, with Joke Silva, built Lufodo as both a production house and a training academy. Colleagues and audiences treated him as an elder of the industry whose voice and presence marked a generation of Nigerian screen storytelling.

• British TV: The Goodies; Till Death Us Do Part; The Professionals; The Tomorrow People; Angels
• International film: Ashanti; The Dogs of War; Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend; Pirates
• Nigerian TV: The Third Eye (Inspector Best Idafa)
• Nollywood and later film: Adesuwa; Dry; Oloibiri; The Royal Hibiscus Hotel; Victims