After growing up in Liverpool Isaacs moved to London to attend the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys School before going on to Bristol University, where he was actively involved in drama, and finally studying at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama.
He kicked off his career on the stage and on the television before making his movie debut in 1989 in The Tall Guy by Mel Smith. But during in the early years he worked predominately on television appearing in the likes of Capital City and Civvies.
1992 brought him a big theatre role with Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on national Themes at the royal Theatre, where he took on the part of gay Jewish lawyer Louis Kushner.
While he appeared in the likes of Event Horizon and The End of the Affair in the late nineties his big break through role came in 2000 with the part of Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot, alongside Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger.
The film is set during the American Revolution and it follows a war hero, in the form of Gibson, who gets swept up in the fight against the British when his family are threatened.
The Patriot was a box office hit, as well as doing fairly well with the critics; however it did suffer some criticism from historians who questioned the historical accuracy of the movie.
So as not to be typecast Isaacs took on the role of a drag queen next in Sweet November in 2001 alongside Charlize Theron, before going on to appear in Black Hawk Down and Windtalkers.
But the character of Lucius Malfoy perhaps remains the most well known role for Isaacs, appearing in the film series from Chamber of Secrets, the second movie.
He has since reprised the role in Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince, which is released this summer. He will also return for the final movie Deathly Hallows, which will be split into two parts.
His new movie Good sees him star alongside Viggo Mortensen and Mark Strong. Mortensen stars as John Halder is a good, decent individual with family problems. A German literature professor in the 1930s, Halder explores his personal circumstances in a novel advocating compassionate euthanasia.
When the book is unexpectedly enlisted by powerful political figures in support of government propaganda, Halder finds his career rising in an optimistic current of nationalism and prosperity.
Yet with Halder's change in fortune, his seemingly inconsequential decisions potentially jeopardize the people in his life with devastating effects.
Up next for the actor is Green Zone alongside Matt Damon and directed by Paul Greengrass. The film follows two a pair of CIA agents on the trail of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Green Zone in Iraq during the America occupation of the country.
Good is released 17th April
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Jason Isaacs