Paul George Jackson (born 6 July 1946), known professionally as Paul Jesson, is an English stage, television and film actor and an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He has played leading roles at the National Theatre and the RSC and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role 1986 for his role in The Normal Heart at the Royal Court. He was nominated for a Scottish Critics' Award 2004 for his portrayal of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh. He played the Earl of Gloucester in the Donmar Theatre production of King Lear with Derek Jacobi, Maurice Montgomery in Nicholas Wright's Travelling Light at the National Theatre and appeared in Caryl Churchill's Love and Information at the Royal Court (2012). Recent film: Brutus in Coriolanus directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes, Nae Caranfil's Closer to the Moon and David Hare's Wall. He plays William Turner, father of JMW Turner in Mike Leigh's 2014 film Mr. Turner. He returned to the RSC to play Cardinal Wolsey in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies at Stratford-upon-Avon, the Aldwych Theatre, London and the Winter Garden on Broadway. He appeared as Roy in The Trials of Jimmy Rose, which starred Ray Winstone, for Granada TV and played the conductor Fritz Busch in David Hare's play The Moderate Soprano at Hampstead Theatre. He is currently filming Marrowbone, written and directed by Sergio G. Sanchez. He is a board member of Out of Joint and a tutor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.