Biography

Derek was born in London and from an early age was fascinated with film and TV. He would regularly entertain friends and family with his impersonations of famous actors of the day. He attended a local theatre school later in his teens.

Derek was fortunate enough to meet the stage and screen actor Sir Nigel Hawthorne, who was a close neighbour and friend, and encouraged him to think about working within the acting profession and generously agreed to sponsor his application to join British Actor's Equity.

Derek worked on the first Star Wars film, 'A New Hope' in 1976 - this was in fact his first job within the film business. He was chosen to appear as a Medal Bearer and Massassi Guard at the end of the film.

From this start, Derek has been able to cultivate his career in film, winning parts in many major films made in England, including, Flash Gordon, Krull, The Living Daylights, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade plus many others. He has also worked on TV productions and was PC Craig Lovell in The Bill from 1987 to 1991. He has rubbed shoulders with many great actors, including Robert Mitchum, Julie Andrews, Jack Nicholson, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Laurence Olivier, John Rhys-Davies and most recently Alec Baldwin. Derek was a close friend of the late Marvin Gaye, whilst the singer was recording his last album for Motown, `In Our Lifetime', in London.
- IMDb mini biography by: C Purcell

Founder of martial arts system, ZenSwim.

[on filming Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)]I got on very well with Mark Hamill; we found out we had the same date of birth - September 25. It was like a holiday camp, we had these tents outside H stage and we'd all eat together. I remember there was a big set to the left of H stage and Mark asked, 'What is it, Derek?' and I found out it was the Oliver stage, from Lionel Bart's Oliver, so I said, 'Look, Mark, if I bring my camera - the next day - we can get some photographs taken.' Now, I didn't want a photograph taken with Mark Hamill because he was Mark Hamill - I didn't know who the hell he was, I didn't know who anyone was. Anyway, the next day I brought my little camera and we went and looked at these amazing Dickensian sets and Peter Mayhew followed us and we took some photographs. So I took photographs of Mark, Mark took photographs of me, Peter Mayhew took photographs of me and Mark. We got on so well. Every day, we chatted and laughed and he was great.