For more than five decades, veteran actor, father and husband, Olu Jacobs, moved comfortably between the stage, television and the big screen, first in Great Britain and, later, in Nigeria, where he became one of the most respected faces of the country’s film industry, Nollywood.
However, the curtain finally fell on that remarkable career on Wednesday as the veteran actor and film executive died at the age of 84.
His son, Olusoji Jacobs, while announcing the veteran actor’s death in a statement posted on Instagram, said: “It is with gratitude to God for a life well lived and fought, that we announce the passing of our dear husband, father, grandfather and uncle. The Lion of Lufodo.”
The family further appealed to “all bloggers and social media influencers to respect our family’s privacy at this time.”
Born July 11, 1942 as Oludotun Baiyewu Jacobs in Kano to Yoruba parents from Egba Alake, Abeokuta, the ancient town in Ogun State, Jacobs’ journey into acting began at Holy Trinity School, where he joined the debating and drama societies.
That early interest eventually took him to Britain, where he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked in repertory theatre.
Jacobs also appeared in British television productions, including The Professionals, Angels and The Tomorrow People, while his international film credits included The Dogs of War and Pirates.
But it was after returning to Nigeria that Jacobs built the legacy for which he would become widely known.
Across more than five decades, he appeared in over 120 Nigerian films, playing everything from authoritative and heroic figures to characters whose motives were far more complicated.
Vanguard Newspapers once described Jacobs, alongside fellow veteran Pete Edochie, as one of the “godfathers of Nollywood”.
One of his memorable later performances came in the 2016 film Oloibiri, a drama centred on the impact of oil exploration in the Niger Delta.
His character, who had returned from Britain, warned the elders about the consequences of drilling and eventually confronted the devastation that followed.
“We are one people,” he said in the film, a line that resonated with the themes of identity, home and responsibility that often followed Jacobs’ own journey between Britain and Nigeria.
His contribution to the arts has been recognised with several honours. In 2007, he won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He was conferred with the national honour of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) in 2011 and received the Industry Merit Award at the 2013 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA).
In 2016, he received the Africa Movie Academy Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award.
Away from the cameras, Jacobs and his wife, actress Joke Silva, built another part of their legacy through the Lufodo Group and the Lufodo Academy of Performing Arts, where they helped train a new generation of theatre and film practitioners.
It was from that work that Silva’s affectionate description of her husband as “the Lion of Lufodo” grew.
The couple, who married in 1989, were also one of Nigeria’s best-known acting partnerships.
Jacobs once explained why Silva continued to use her maiden name professionally after their marriage.
“She is her own individual. When I met her, she was an actress known as Joke Silva, so why should marrying me now deny her and her audience her name,” he said.
For Jacobs, acting was never simply about appearing before a camera. He regarded it as a craft that required understanding and interpretation.
In an old interview that resurfaced several times online, he said, “only intelligent people can act because they have to interpret roles from script and put life into it.”
As the years passed, Jacobs gradually withdrew from acting. He appeared only occasionally after 2016, with one of his notable later appearances coming in The Royal Hibiscus Hotel in 2017.
His absence from the screen also coincided with increasing concern about his health.
In 2023, Silva disclosed that Jacobs had been living with dementia since 2021, saying he was “no longer the man she walked down the aisle with 37 years ago.”
His years away from the spotlight were also marked by repeated false reports of his death.
Reports surfaced in 2021, 2024 and again on Tuesday, just a day before his family confirmed that he had actually died.
On previous occasions, his family had been forced to dismiss the reports, sometimes releasing videos of Jacobs to show that he was still alive.
This time, however, the announcement came directly from his son.
For a generation of Nigerians who watched him command the screen, Jacobs was more than an actor. He was one of the familiar faces who helped give Nigerian cinema its identity, while his work with Silva extended that legacy beyond acting.
The family has asked for privacy as it mourns the man it called “The Lion of Lufodo”.
Nigeria now awaits details of his funeral and the opportunity to give a final farewell to one of Nollywood’s enduring figures.
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