As the curtain falls on the life of veteran actor Olu Jacobs, family, friends and colleagues gathered in Lagos to bid the celebrated thespian a final farewell. But beyond the tributes and tears was the story of a man whose journey from the stage to television and film spanned more than five decades and helped shape Nigeria’s entertainment industry. ADERONKE ADESANYA takes a look at the life, career and enduring legacy of the man fondly remembered as the Lion of Lufodo.
Nollywood veteran Olu Jacobs was laid to rest in Lagos on Friday, bringing to an end a week of tributes to an actor whose career spanned more than five decades and whose influence reached generations of Nigerian performers.
Two days before his burial, colleagues gathered at Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos Island, for a Night of Tributes and Service of Songs, where they remembered not only the commanding actor audiences knew on screen but also the mentor and teacher behind the legend.
For veteran actress Sola Sobowale, that influence was deeply personal.
‘When people see Sola Sobowale, they say she is a fantastic actor, but somebody trained me and Baba Olu Jacobs was that person who trained me,’ she said.
The funeral service in Lagos on Friday brought together family members, friends, colleagues and dignitaries who gathered to pay their final respects.
The service was held at This Present House Church, Freedom Way, Lekki Phase 1, before Jacobs was laid to rest.
Among those present were Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat, former Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun and several members of the Nigerian entertainment industry.
His son, Olugbenga Jacobs, also presented his father’s biography during the funeral proceedings.
The boy from Kano
Oludotun Baiyewun Jacobs was born on July 11, 1942, in Kano, although his family roots were in the Egba Alake community of Abeokuta, Ogun State.
He grew up in Kano, where his early interest in performance developed through school drama, debating and church activities.
But the moment that would change the direction of his life came when he watched one of Chief Hubert Ogunde’s concert parties at the Colonial Hotel in Kano.
For the young Jacobs, watching him perform was more than entertainment. It was an introduction to a possible future.
London and the making of an actor
Jacobs trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, one of Britain’s leading drama institutions.
Rather than wait for Nollywood, which did not yet exist in the form Nigerians know today, Jacobs built his craft in theatre and television.
His professional stage career included a 1972 production of A Taste of Honey at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
He later appeared in British television productions including The Goodies, Till Death Us Do Part, Barlow at Large, The Venturers, Angels, The Tomorrow People and The Professionals.
His career also took him to the West End, where he appeared as President Mageeba in Tom Stoppard’s Night and Day in 1978.
Beyond Nigeria
Jacobs’ work was not limited to the British stage and television.
He appeared in international films including The Dogs of War, Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend and Roman Polanski’s Pirates.
His international experience placed a Nigerian actor in spaces still largely inaccessible to many African performers.
He had already entered the international space before Nollywood became a global brand.
By the time he returned home, Jacobs was bringing years of international experience with him.
Coming home
In 1990, Jacobs returned to Nigeria and took on the lead role of Inspector Best Idafa in the NTA detective series, The Third Eye.
Nigeria’s home-video industry was beginning to grow, and the foundations of what would become Nollywood were being laid. Jacobs became part of that transformation.
For audiences who encountered him during the rise of home videos, his arrival felt like the meeting of two worlds.
He brought the discipline of the stage and work abroad into stories that Nigerians could recognise as their own.
That combination helped give his performances a quality that was polished and familiar, making him accessible to audiences while retaining the authority of a trained theatre actor.
He appeared in more than 100 Nigerian films, while his wider body of work covered theatre and television.
His name soon became almost inseparable from the image of the authoritative Nigerian elder, traditional ruler, patriarch or powerful businessman.
The man behind the voice
There was something almost reassuring about seeing Olu Jacobs on screen.
To generations of Nigerians, he was familiar.
He was the father who had seen everything. The king who had the final word. The businessman who controlled the room. The elder whose silence could be as powerful as a speech.
His voice became one of his trademarks. Deep, calm and commanding, it could turn an ordinary line into a statement of authority.
But it was not merely the voice.
There was the posture, the eyes, the pauses and the ability to say very little while making an audience feel that something important had been said.
That quality helped make Jacobs one of the actors who could walk into a scene and immediately change its mood.
The teacher behind the legend
At the September 30 Night of Tributes, several actors returned to Jacobs’ influence as a teacher and mentor.
Norbert Young recalled working with him on The Third Eye between 1990 and 1993, describing the period as one in which he listened and learned from the more experienced actor.
Young said he was privileged to have spent significant time with Jacobs and that the late actor’s approach to the profession helped shape him.
Richard Mofe-Damijo, popularly known as RMD, also remembered Jacobs as a father figure whose influence extended beyond his own performances.
He recalled one of Jacobs’ lessons about acting: that there were no small actors and no small lines, but that neglecting even a small line could make an actor small.
For RMD, the lesson became a reminder of the discipline and preparation required of every performer.
Adebayo Salami, popularly known as Oga Bello, also recalled Jacobs’ professionalism.
He remembered their first meeting in 1997 when he sent Jacobs a script for Okunfa. Rather than wait for Salami to come to him, Jacobs offered to visit him himself, later making contributions to the script.
‘He showed he was a father. He was a professional to the core,’ Salami recalled.
The tributes revealed a side of Jacobs that audiences could not always see on screen: an actor who was willing to share knowledge, correct younger colleagues and invest in the growth of others.
Recognition and honours
In 2007, Jacobs won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
In 2011, the Federal Government conferred on him the national honour of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic, MFR, in recognition of his contribution to the Nigerian film industry.
In 2013, he received the Industry Merit Award at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.
In 2016, he received the AMAA Lifetime Achievement Award.
He also received other industry honours, including recognition alongside his wife, Joke Silva, for their contribution to Nigerian entertainment.
Beyond the camera
Olu Jacobs was more than the man audiences saw on screen.
Alongside his wife, fellow veteran actress Joke Silva, he helped build a creative business that extended beyond acting.
The couple, who married in 1989, established the Lufodo Group, which has interests in film production and distribution, as well as the Lufodo Academy of Performing Arts.
The academy became part of their contribution to developing the next generation of performers.
Their partnership was one of the enduring relationships in Nigerian entertainment. They were colleagues, business partners, husband and wife, and collaborators in an industry they both helped shape.
The quieter years
Jacobs’ later years were quieter.
His wife, Joke Silva, publicly spoke about his diagnosis with Lewy body dementia, and the illness contributed to his withdrawal from the spotlight.
For a man who had spent decades in the public eye, the later period was marked by privacy.
There were also several false reports of his death over the years, claims his family repeatedly had to dismiss.
His actual death came on September 16, 2026, at the age of 84.
The curtain falls
Olu Jacobs’ death closes one of the longest chapters in Nigerian acting.
But it does not erase the characters. It does not erase the voice. It does not erase the stage performances, television appearances, international films, Nollywood classics or generations of actors who watched and learned from him.
But it is also saying goodbye to a bridge between different eras of African storytelling, from the theatre traditions that inspired him as a boy in Kano, through British television and international cinema, to the Nigerian film industry he helped shape.
For Jacobs, the bigger achievement was perhaps the fact that audiences who had watched him in their childhood were still watching him decades later.
And perhaps that is why, at the tribute night, the most moving stories were not only about the films he made but about the people he helped make.
Some actors leave behind award, some leave behind films, some leave behind characters audiences never forget.
Olu Jacobs left behind all three.
He also left behind actors who can point to his influence and say, as Sola Sobowale did, ‘He trained me.’
And now, as the curtain falls on the life of the man his family called the Lion of Lufodo, the Nigerian entertainment industry is left to reckon with the size of the space he occupied.