Hugh Laurie

Biography

Early life and education

Laurie was born in Oxford in 1959. His father, William George Ranald Mundell "Ran" Laurie, won an Olympic gold medal in the Coxless pair at the 1948 Games. Laurie was raised in Oxford and attended the Dragon School, a prestigious preparatory school. He later went on to Eton and then to Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he achieved a Third-Class Honours degree in Anthropology & Archaeology. Like his father, Laurie was a rower at school and university, taking part in the 1980 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Cambridge lost that year by five feet. Laurie is a member of the Leander Club.

Forced to abandon rowing during a bout of glandular fever, he joined the Cambridge Footlights, which has been the starting point for many successful British comedians. There he met Emma Thompson, with whom he had a relationship and is still good friends. She introduced him to his future comedy partner, Stephen Fry. Laurie, Fry and Thompson later parodied themselves as the University Challenge representatives of "Footlights College, Oxbridge" in "Bambi", an episode of The Young Ones, with the series' co-writer Ben Elton completing their team. In 1980 - 81, his final year at university, Laurie managed to find time alongside his rowing to be president of the Footlights, with Thompson as vice-president. They took their annual revue, The Cellar Tapes, written principally by Laurie and Fry, cast also including Thompson, Tony Slattery, Paul Shearer and Penny Dwyer, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and won the first Perrier Comedy Award for comedy.

Career

The Perrier Award led to a West End transfer for The Cellar Tapes and a television version of the revue, broadcast in May 1982. It also resulted in Laurie, Fry and Thompson being selected along with Ben Elton, Robbie Coltrane and Siobhan Redmond to write and appear in a new sketch comedy show for Granada Television, Alfresco, which ran for two series.

Laurie and Fry went on to work together on various projects throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Among them were the Blackadder series, written by Ben Elton and Richard Curtis and starring Rowan Atkinson, with Laurie in various roles, but most notably Prince George and Lieutenant George; their BBC sketch comedy series, A Bit of Fry and Laurie; and Jeeves and Wooster. The latter was an adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse's stories, in which Laurie played Jeeves' employer, the amiable twit Bertie Wooster. It was a role for which Laurie was considered particularly well suited, displaying his talent as a pianist and singer, alongside his celebrated 'posh' voice. He and Fry also worked together at various charity stage events, such as Hysteria! 1, 2 & 3 and Amnesty International's The Secret Policeman's Third Ball, Comic Relief TV shows and the variety show Fry and Laurie Host a Christmas Night with the Stars. They also collaborated on the film Peter's Friends. Laurie also appeared in an early 1980s British television commercial for Polaroid.

Laurie appeared in the music video for the 1992 single "Walking on Broken Glass" by Annie Lennox, in full Regency-period costume as in Blackadder the Third (and opposite John Malkovich, similarly reprising Dangerous Liaisons). He also appears as a scientist in the video for "Experiment IV" by Kate Bush.

Laurie's later film appearances include Sense and Sensibility (1995), adapted by and starring Emma Thompson; the Disney live-action movie 101 Dalmatians (1996), where he played Jasper, one of the bumbling criminals hired to kidnap the puppies; Ben Elton's adaptation of his novel Inconceivable, Maybe Baby (2000); Girl From Rio; the 2004 remake of Flight of the Phoenix; and the three Stuart Little films.

In 1996 Laurie's first novel, The Gun Seller, a spoof of the thriller genre, was published and became a best seller. He has since been working on the screenplay for a movie version and on a second novel, The Paper Soldier.

In 1998, Laurie had a brief guest-starring role on Friends in the episode "The One With Ross's Wedding, Part Two" as a man seated next to Rachel on a flight to London. With the popularity of House, his short scenes in the episode have become favourites of fans of both series, largely due to his comically disdainful use of the name 'Pheebs'.

Since 2002, Laurie began appearing in a range of British television dramas, guest-starring that year in two episodes of the first season of the spy thriller series Spooks on BBC One. In 2003, he starred in and also directed ITV's comedy-drama series Fortysomething (in one episode of which Stephen Fry appears). In 2001, he also voiced the character of a bar patron in the Family Guy episode "One If By Clam, Two If By Sea". Laurie was the character of Mr Wolf in the cartoon Preston Pig. He was also a panellist on the first episode of QI, alongside Fry as host. In 2004, Hugh Laurie guest-starred as a professor in charge of a space probe called Beagle, on The Lenny Henry Show.

Laurie as Gregory House

Although Laurie has been a household name in Britain since the 1980s, he only really came to the attention of the American public in 2004, when he first starred as the acerbic resident physician Dr Gregory House in the popular FOX medical drama, House. For his portrayal, Laurie assumes an American accent. As the story goes, Laurie was in Namibia filming Flight of the Phoenix and recorded the audition tape for the show in the bathroom of the hotel - the only place he could get enough light. His US accent was so convincing that the executive producer, Bryan Singer, who was unaware at the time that Laurie is British, pointed to him as an example of just the kind of compelling American actor he had been looking for. Laurie also adopts the voice between takes on the set of House, as well as during script read-throughs.

In July 2005, Laurie was nominated for an Emmy Award for his role in House. Although he did not win, he did receive a Golden Globe in 2006 for his work on the same series. Laurie has also been awarded a large increase in salary, from what was rumoured to be a mid-range five-figure sum to $300,000 per episode. His House contract was also extended for an additional year, allowing for at least a fourth season to be produced. Laurie was not nominated for the 2006 Emmys, apparently to the "outrage" of Fox executives. At the 2006 Primetime Emmy Awards, Laurie parodied his House character by rapidly diagnosing host Conan O'Brien and then proceeded to grope him as the latter stepped into one of Princeton-Plainboro Teaching Hospital's many clinic rooms asking for help to get to the Emmys on time. He would later go on to speak in French whilst presenting an award with Dame Helen Mirren on stage.

In July 2006, Laurie appeared on Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio.

It was recently announced that Hugh Laurie's comedy partner, Stephen Fry, would make a cameo appearance in House, but due to commitments in England, Fry is unable to do so for now.

On 28 October, 2006, Laurie hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live where he now famously, mostly to internet fans, wore drag for a sketch.

Personal life

Hugh Laurie married Jo Green, a theatre administrator, in June 1989. They live in north London with their daughter, Rebecca (born 1992), and two sons, Bill and Charlie. Rebecca had a role in the film Wit as five-year-old Vivian Bearing. The starring role of the adult Vivian was played by Emma Thompson, a close friend of Laurie since their years at Cambridge.

He stated on BBC Radio 2 in an interview with Steve Wright in January 2006 that he is currently living in an apartment in West Hollywood while he is in the United States, working on House.

Laurie is a skilled musician. He can play the piano, guitar and harmonica. He has displayed his musical talents in episodes of several series, most notably A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, House and on a recent episode of Saturday Night Live.

Laurie was made a OBE in the 2007 New Year Honours List for his services to drama .

Quotes

"I grew up with an impatience with the anti-scientific. So I'm a bit miffed with our current love affair with all things Eastern. If I sneeze on the set, 40 people hand me echinacea. But I'd no sooner take that than eat a pencil. Maybe that's why I took up boxing. It's my response to men in white pyjamas feeling each other's chi."

Emma Thompson on Laurie: "He is very very lovable. He is one of those rare people who manages to be lugubriously sexy, like a well-hung eel."

On the birth of his second son during filming for Jeeves and Wooster: "We were halfway through a scene and the phone call came from the hospital - I didn't even know she was pregnant, it was such a shock - and I had to, we'd done all my bit, with the camera pointing my way, so I ran off to the hospital in my costume, which was very exciting, well, vaguely exciting, and poor old Stephen was left to do the rest of the scene just to thin air. Which was probably preferable, I dunno." Stephen: "Yes, thin air's a better actor." Hugh: "Yeah, not so wooden."

Christopher Buckley, New York Times Book Review, on Laurie's book The Gun Seller: "As a writer, Mr. Laurie is smart, charming, warm, cool (if need be) and high-spirited [...] This is a genuinely witty and sophisticated entertainment."

Trivia

During a guest appearance on The Tonight Show on 16 November 2005, Laurie revealed that he once tried hydrocodone (Vicodin) in order to get into character for his role as Dr House.

In the late 1990s, Laurie concluded he was clinically depressed, a diagnosis that was later confirmed in analysis and treated successfully. Laurie first recognised the extent of his depression when he realized the car race he was in neither excited nor scared him.

Laurie was cast as The Daily Planet editor, Perry White, in the film Superman Returns by director Bryan Singer, but was unable to play the role due to his prior commitment to the second season of House. (The series is backed by Bryan Singer's production company, Bad Hat Harry Productions.)

Laurie admires the writings of P.G. Wodehouse: he explained in a 27 May 1999 article in The Daily Telegraph how reading Wodehouse novels had saved his life.

Selected filmography

Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild (2006) - Mr Frederick Little (voice)

House (2004 - present) - Dr Gregory House

Flight of the Phoenix (2004) - Ian

Stuart Little 2 (2002) - Mr Frederick Little

Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001) - Vincente Minnelli

Chica de Ri­o (2001) - Raymond

Maybe Baby (2000) - Sam Bell

Stuart Little (1999) - Mr Fredrick Little

Blackadder: Back & Forth (1999) - Viscount George Bufton-Tufton/Georgius

Cousin Bette (1998) - Baron Hector Hulot

The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) - Pierre, The King's Advisor

The Bill (1998)

The Borrowers (1997) - Police Officer Steady

Spiceworld (1997) - Poirot

101 Dalmatians (1996) - Jasper

Tracey Takes On... (1996) - Timothy Bugge (Season 1)

Sense and Sensibility (1995) - Mr Palmer

Peter's Friends (1992) - Roger Charleston

Jeeves and Wooster (1990 - 1993) - Bertie Wooster

The New Statesman (1989) - Waiter

Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) - Lt the Honourable George Colhurst St Barleigh

A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1989 - 1995) - writer/various characters

Blackadder the Third (1987) - George, Prince of Wales, Prince Regent

Filthy Rich & Catflap (1986) - N'Bend

Happy Families (1985) - Jim

Blackadder II (1985) - Simon Partridge (also known as Mr Ostrich & Farters Parters), Prince Ludwig the Indestructible

The Young Ones (1984) - Lord Monty

Alfresco (1983 - 1984) - writer/various characters

References

Zap2it.com: Raise Prescribed for 'House' Star
The First Post: Why Hugh Laurie was overlooked at this years Emmys
Fry unable to film House cameo with Laurie
"Rod and Zara top New Year Honours", BBC, 29 December 2006.
IMDb: Biography for Hugh Laurie
hughlaurie.co.uk: Insight into Hugh
Interview on Wogan, BBC1
BBC News Magazine: Faces of the week
pgwodehousebooks.com: Wodehouse saved my life

Awards

2005 Emmy Awards - Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series - Nominated

2006 Golden Globe - Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama - Won

2007 Golden Globe - Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama - Nominated

2005 Satellite Awards - Outstanding Actor in a Series, Drama - Won

2006 Satellite Awards - Outstanding Actor in a Series, Drama - Won

2006 Screen Actors' Guild Awards - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series - Nominated

2007 Screen Actors' Guild Awards - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series - Nominated

2005 Television Critics Association Awards - Individual Achievement in Drama - Won

2006 Television Critics Association Awards - Individual Achievement in Drama - Won

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Source: Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License