The news of Olu Jacobs’ passing on September 16, 2026, at the age of 84 has sent shockwaves through Nollywood and beyond. While the world knows him as the commanding patriarch of Nigerian cinema, there was far more to Oludotun Baiyewu Jacobs than his iconic on-screen presence. Here are ten things you may not have known about the man behind the legend.
- 1. He Was Born in Kano, Not Abeokuta
- 2. Hubert Ogunde Sparked His Acting Dream
- 3. He Disobeyed His Father To Pursue Drama
- 4. He Had A Flourishing Career In Britain Before Nollywood
- 5. He Appeared In Major International Films
- 6. His First Nollywood Role Was In A TV Series
- 7. He Was Married To Joke Silva For Nearly Four Decades
- 8. He Proposed To Joke Silva In A Restaurant
- 9. He And Joke Silva Lost A Daughter
- 10. He Faced His Final Years With Courage
1. He Was Born in Kano, Not Abeokuta
While his roots trace back to the Egba Alake community of Abeokuta, Ogun State, Olu Jacobs was actually born on July 11, 1942, in kano, in Nigeria’s northern region. He spent his early childhood there, attending Holy Trinity School where he was active member of both the debating and drama societies
2. Hubert Ogunde Sparked His Acting Dream
Olu Jacobs’ path to acting was ignited not by film, but by live theatre. As a young boy, he attended one of Chief Hubert Ogunde’s famous concert parties at the Colonial Hotel in Kano. He was so captivated that he told his parents he wanted to join the performers in the next stage play. They agreed, and that childhood participation became the first step toward his legendary career.
3. He Disobeyed His Father To Pursue Drama
Olu Jacobs’ father did not support his dream of becoming an actor. When he informed his father of his intentions to study drama abroad, he received pushback. Undeterred, he applied for a visa without his father’s knowledge, obtained it, and travelled to England to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
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4. He Had A Flourishing Career In Britain Before Nollywood
Long before Nollywood existed, Olu Jacobs was a working actor in Britain. He appeared in numerous British television programmes throughout the 1970s, including The Goodies, Till Death Us Do Part, Barlow at Large, The Professionals, and The Tomorrow People. He also performed on stage, including playing The Boy in A Taste of Honey at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 1972.
5. He Appeared In Major International Films
Olu Jacobs’ international film credits are impressive. He appeared in The Dogs of War (1980), Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (1985), and Roman Polanski’s Pirates (1986). He also acted in Ashanti. These roles demonstrated that Nigerian actors could compete on a global stage decades before Nollywood gained worldwide recognition.
6. His First Nollywood Role Was In A TV Series
After returning to Nigeria around 1990, Jacobs didn’t immediately jump into Nollywood films. His first major Nigerian role was as Inspector Best Idafa in the NTA detective series The Third Eye. This television role introduced him to Nigerian audiences and paved the way for his dominance in the film industry.
7. He Was Married To Joke Silva For Nearly Four Decades
Jacobs and Joke Silva married in 1985. He was 44; she was 24, A 19 to 20-year age gap. Silva has revealed that she didn’t realize how much older he was when they began dating, noting that he “looked absolutely gorgeous” and youthful. For him, it was love at first sight; for her, it wasn’t.
8. He Proposed To Joke Silva In A Restaurant
Jacobs’ proposal was as dramatic as any scene he ever performed. He took Silva to a restaurant for a special dish served in a sealed clay pot, cooked only by heat. After the meal, he went down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She said yes, and he later described that moment as one of the most memorable events of his life.
9. He And Joke Silva Lost A Daughter
Together, Jacobs and Silva had three children: Olusoji, Dayo, and Olugbenga. Tragically, they lost their daughter Dayo Jacobs in 1997. The couple’s resilience through that loss became part of the quiet strength that defined their union.
10. He Faced His Final Years With Courage
In his later years, Jacobs battled dementia with Lewy bodies, a degenerative condition that affected his health and kept him largely out of the public eye. Despite his declining health, false reports of his death circulated multiple times between 2020 and 2024, which his family repeatedly dismissed. When he finally passed, his family described his life as “a life well lived and fought”.
Olu Jacobs was more than a great actor. He was a son who defied expectations, a pioneer who crossed continents, a husband who proposed on bended knee, and a father who endured unimaginable loss. His legacy is not just in the hundreds of films he made, but in the quiet, human moments that shaped the man behind the legend.
