Oludotun Baiyewu Jacobs died on 16 September 2026, aged 84. His son Olusoji Jacobs announced it that day, calling him the Lion of Lufodo. He was buried in Lagos on 2 October, after a funeral at This Present House in Lekki, and a night of tributes at Glover Memorial Hall on 30 September.
He was born in Abeokuta on 11 July 1942 and raised in Kano, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, worked in British theatre and television in the 1970s, and then came home. He returned to Nigeria around 1990, and went on to appear in more than 120 Nollywood films. With his wife Joke Silva, whom he married in 1989, he co-founded the Lufodo Group and the Lufodo Academy of Performing Arts, so that the training he had received in London could be passed on in Lagos.
He was called the patriarch of Nollywood, and the godfather of Nollywood, because he earned both titles on screen. These are the ten roles that made him.
1. President Mageeba in Night and Day (1978)
Before Nollywood, there was the West End. Jacobs played President Mageeba, a fictional African leader, in Tom Stoppard’s Night and Day at the Phoenix Theatre in London. It was a classical stage role, in a serious play, on one of London’s biggest stages — and it showed what his RADA training had given him: a voice that could fill a theatre, and a stillness that made a room listen.
2. Commissioner Batak in Ashanti (1979)
His first big international film. In Ashanti, an adventure drama starring Michael Caine and Peter Ustinov, Jacobs played Commissioner Batak. It was a small role in a large film, but it put a young Nigerian actor trained in London on a screen the whole world was watching, and it opened the door to the international films that followed.
3. Customs Officer in The Dogs of War (1980)
John Irvin’s adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s novel, starring Christopher Walken. Jacobs played a customs officer, sharp-eyed and unmoved, in a film about mercenaries and a fictional African coup. It was the kind of role that could easily disappear. It did not, because Jacobs never played a small part small.
4. Boomako in Pirates (1986)
Roman Polanski’s Pirates, starring Walter Matthau. Jacobs played Boomako, a pirate in a big, noisy, old-fashioned adventure film. It was as far from a Nollywood king as a role could get, and that was the point. He could be a pirate, a commissioner, a customs officer, a president. The range was there from the start.
5. Inspector Best Idafa in The Third Eye (1990–1993)
This is the role that made him a household name in Nigeria. When he returned home around 1990, he took the lead in the NTA detective series The Third Eye, as Inspector Best Idafa, a detective solving crimes and untangling the problems of the society around him. For three years, Nigerians watched him every week. It was his second act, and it was the one that made him theirs.
6. Dancing Heart (2006)
The role that brought him the biggest award of his career. His performance in Dancing Heart won him the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 2007. It was formal recognition of what Nigerian audiences already knew: that when Jacobs was on screen, the film had a centre, and the centre held.
7. Ezomo in Adesuwa (2012)
A historical drama set in the Benin Kingdom, directed by Lancelot Imasuen. Jacobs played Ezomo, a figure of tradition and authority, in a film about slavery, duty and the structures of an old kingdom. Adesuwa won Best Nigerian Film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards, and Jacobs’ presence in it was part of why the film carried the weight it did.
8. Bankole in Potomanto (2013)
Shirley Frimpong-Manso’s Ghanaian-Nigerian thriller. Jacobs played Bankole, a wealthy businessman who hires a private investigator to look into his wife. It was a modern role, a suit instead of a crown, a boardroom instead of a palace — and it showed that his authority did not need a throne. It worked just as well in a Lagos office.
9. Speaker in Dry (2015)
Stephanie Linus’ Dry took on child marriage and vesicovaginal fistula, and Jacobs played the Speaker, a man of power in a story about girls who had none. He lent his gravitas to a film that was trying to change something, not just entertain. It was the kind of role only an actor of his standing could carry, because the audience believed him when he spoke, and listened when he changed his mind.
10. Richard in The Royal Hibiscus Hotel (2017)
One of his last major screen appearances, and a fitting one. In Ishaya Bako’s romantic comedy, Jacobs played Richard, appearing alongside his wife Joke Silva, in a film about a Nigerian chef who returns home to save her family’s struggling hotel. It was warm, it was funny, and it was modern Nollywood — a younger generation in front, with the patriarch still there, still steady, still unmistakable.
He won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actor in 2007, the Industry Merit Award at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards in 2013, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2016, and the national honour of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic in 2011. But the honours were never the point. The point was the work, and the work is still there to watch.
On 31 October, after the 40 days of mourning had passed, Joke Silva thanked Nigerians on Instagram for standing by the family. “The 40 days have come and gone, and as we reflect on this period, my family and I would like to express our deepest and most heartfelt gratitude to you all for standing by us following the passing of my beloved husband, Pa Olu Jacobs,” she wrote. “We do not take your love and generosity for granted. We are truly humbled and deeply grateful.”
Rest well, Lion of Lufodo.
Featured image: Brand Icon Image.
