Acting
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…

The Garden
as Pontius (Orlando)

Moon Child
as Invalid

El vent de l’illa
as Gobernador

Caravaggio
as The Pope

The Bride
as Blind Man

A Midsummer Night's Dream
as Titania

Flowers
as Mimosa/Black Bird

Troilus & Cressida
as Thersites

The Tempest
as Caliban, a savage and deformed slave

Jubilee
as Borgia Ginz (as Orlando)