Jack Birkett
Jack Birkett was born on June 11, 1934 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. He was an actor, mime artist, dancer and singer, a contemporary of Lindsey Kemp and a key member of his troupe. Often billed as Orlando, or The Incredible Orlando, Birkett was born to a Romani family and worked as an arrist's model for David Hockney before finding work as a stage hand at Leeds' Grand Theatre in 1950. He began to lose his sight in 1966, he then gradually became completely blind and was so for more than the last three decades his life. A regular cohort of the arthouse filmmaker Derek Jarman, Birkett appeared in Jubilee, The Tempest, Caravaggio and The Garden for the director. He retired from performing in the 1990s, living with his partner the Spanish artist and writer Nyako Nakar in Barcelona and London. He died on May 10, 2010 in London, aged 75.
Caravaggio
as The PopeA retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da...
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The Bride
as Blind ManDoctor Frankenstein creates a mate for his monster, a woman called Eva, who promptly rejects the...
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Jubilee
as Borgia Ginz (as Orlando)Queen Elizabeth I visits late 1970s England to find a depressing landscape where life has...
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The Tempest
as Caliban, a savage and deformed slaveProspero, a potent magician, lives on a desolate isle with his virginal daughter, Miranda. He's...
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The Garden
as Pontius (Orlando)A nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. A...
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Moon Child
as InvalidAdopted by a treacherous semi-scientific cult where extraordinary mental powers are common,...
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Troilus & Cressida
as ThersitesThe bitter Trojan War drags on - the Greeks blame Achilles' apathy for low morale, while Troy's...
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Good Bye G.O.D.
as G.O.D."Good-bye G.O.D." was a play written specially for Jack Birkett, 'The INCREDIBLE ORLANDO', to be...
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