Knut Jacobsen
Knut Jacobsen was born on March 19, 1910, on Jeløya near Moss. By 1920, the family had moved to Oslo, specifically to Dagaliveien 4 in Vestre Aker. At this time, he attended Frogner school. His father was "Managing Director of Norsk Bjergnings kompagni a/s" [Norwegian Sea Rescue Company Ltd.]..[1]
His full name was Knut Riise Jacobsen, but as an actor he only used Knut Jacobsen. Colleagues and friends called him "Jacob" (Pierstorff 1971).
Knut Jacobsen worked as a ship's radio operator for three years in his youth before making his debut as an actor at the National Theatre in 1932 (Øisang 1962, 185-186). In the 1930s, he also spent time at Det nye Teater and at Søilen, a theater led by Henry Gleditsch (Øisang and Biermann 1941). When Gleditsch started Trøndelag Theater in 1937, Jacobsen was there from the beginning, and it was at this institution that he would spend most of his career, both as a prominent actor, as a teacher at the theater's school, and as costume manager - "attentive and picky wardrobe chief" (Øisang and Biermann 1941).
During the war, Jacobsen was part of a resistance network involving employees and students at NTH (today's NTNU). The group needed a radio operator, and when Jacobsen, as a former ship's radio operator, was asked, he immediately agreed. "He found an ingenious hiding place for the transmitter, namely the fly loft of the theater where the transmitter and antenna could easily be camouflaged among other technical equipment for stage work" (Alming 1995, 67). The transmitter was called "Scorpion," and thanks to information about ship traffic and German installations in the Trondheim area that Jacobsen sent to London, the English received valuable information that allowed them to precision bomb various German targets (Hansen 2014, 385, 389).
The group was exposed in late January 1944 and those involved were arrested. Jacobsen was first taken to Vollan (Trondheim district prison) on January 29, 1944, and remained there until early September, when after a brief stay at Falstad, he was finally transferred to Grini. Here he remained a prisoner until peace came on May 8, 1945[2]
After the war, he continued as an actor at Trøndelag Theater, interrupted only by two years at Oslo Nye Teater from 1948-1950.
One of Jacobsen's colleagues in the 1950s was Kirsten Heiberg, and according to Bjørn-Erik Hansen's biography about her, the two were good friends:
"She was frequently seen with her colleague Knut Jacobsen, who like Kirsten was single. Jacobsen was gay, and he was identical with the Knut Jacobsen who during the war had sent radio messages to London from the theater's cord loft. Kirsten Heiberg and Knut Jacobsen made an odd pair as they elegantly walked in the evenings from the theater in Prinsens gate to Britannia Hotel a bit further east in the city." (Hansen 2014, 402)
Theater communities have a long tradition of tolerance for non-heteronormative love, and there were many queer people connected to the industry. We don't know more about how this manifested for Jacobsen. More biographical information about him could have been interesting to illuminate this theme more thoroughly.
Jacobsen died on September 18, 1971 (death notice in Adresseavisen 09/22/1971)
REFERANSAR:
[1] 006 Knut Riise Jacobsen - 0089 Dagaliveien 4: Solstua - 006 Slemdal - Vindern - Tellingskretsoversikt - Folketelling 1920 for 0218 Aker herred - Digitalarkivet
[2] Knut Riise Jacobsen på Fanger.no read 28. januar 2024.
Sources and litterature:
Alming, Knut. 1995. Holdningskamp og motstandsvilje. NTH under krigen 1940-45. Trondheim: Tapir.
Hansen, Bjørn-Erik. 2014. Glamour for Goebbels. Historien om Kirsten Heiberg. Oslo: Aschehoug.
Pierstorff, Erik. 1971. "Knut Jacobsen". Dagbladet 22.09.1971.
Øisang, Ole og Ernst Biermann. 1941. Profiler ved Trøndelag Teater. Trondheim: F. Bruns Bokhandels Forlag.
Øisang, Ole. 1962. Trøndelag teater gjennom 25 år. Trondheim: F. Bruns Bokhandels Forlag.