Matthew Jacobs
Born: 1st July 1956 (as Matthew JB Jacobs)
Episodes Broadcast: 1996
London-born Matthew Jacobs was the son of actor Anthony Jacobs. When the
elder Jacobs played Doc Holliday in The
Gunfighters, a 1966 adventure for William Hartnell as the First
Doctor, nine-year-old Matthew got to visit the Doctor Who set.
Soon thereafter, Jacobs made his own television debut in 1968's
Point Counter Point. He later appeared in an installment of
Play For Today, before deciding to focus on directing. Jacobs
initially trained at Hull University, and then the National Film and
Television School. It was as a writer, though, that he initially found
success. Jacobs authored several movie screenplays during the Eighties,
most notably 1989's cult classic fantasy film Paperhouse. He
moved into television with a 1989 entry in The Jim Henson Hour,
followed by episodes of Ruth Rendell Mysteries.
Jacobs then relocated to Hollywood, where he co-wrote the 1994 movie
version of Lassie, and contributed to The Young Indiana Jones
Chronicles for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. Jacobs soon
found himself recruited for Philip David Segal's Doctor Who
project which, at one point, had been housed at Amblin. The BBC
co-production had already struggled through several writers, and it was
Jacobs who developed the final script for Doctor Who (1996), with Paul
McGann as the Eighth Doctor; he also served as a co-producer. Later work
in America included involvement in the story for the 2000 animated
feature film The Emperor's New Groove as well as several video
games, such as Star Wars: Starfighter.
Returning to the United Kingdom, Jacobs concentrated on independent
film, working variously as a writer, director and actor. He was
occasionally seen in wider releases, such as 2018's critical darling
Vice, starring Christian Bale as US Vice President Dick Cheney.
Jacobs' latter work has included a documentary about Doctor Who
in America called Doctor Who Am I.
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