James Hugh Calum Laurie (/ˈlɒri/; born 11 June 1959), colloquially known asHugh Laurie, is an English actor, comedian, and musician.
Laurie first gained professional recognition as a member of the English comedy double actFry and Laurie withStephen Fry. Fry and Laurie acted together in a number of projects during the 1980s and 1990s, including the BBC sketch comedy seriesA Bit of Fry & Laurie and theP. G. Wodehouse adaptationJeeves and Wooster. From 1986 to 1989, Laurie appeared in three series of the period comedyBlackadder.
From 2004 to 2012, Laurie starred asDr. Gregory House on theFox medical drama seriesHouse. He received twoGolden Globe Awards and many other accolades for his work onHouse. He was listed in the 2011Guinness World Records as the most-watched leading man on television and was one of the highest-paid actors in a television drama at the time. AfterHouse, Laurie won a Golden Globe for his starring role as arms dealerRichard Onslow Roper, the main antagonist in the miniseriesThe Night Manager (2016). He received his 10thEmmy Award nomination for his portrayal of Senator Tom James in theHBO sitcomVeep (2015–2019).
Laurie was born on 11 June 1959, in theBlackbird Leys area ofOxford.[1][2] He is the youngest of four children of Patricia (née Laidlaw) andWilliam George Ranald Mundell "Ran" Laurie, who was a physician and winner of an Olympic gold medal in thecoxless pairs (rowing) at the1948 London Games.[2][3] He has an older brother, Charles Alexander Lyon Mundell Laurie,[2] and two older sisters, Susan and Janet.[4][5] Laurie had a strained relationship with his mother,[2][6] whom he described as "Presbyterian by character, by mood".[2] He later said, "I was frustration to her. She didn't like me."[2]
Laurie's parents, who were both of Scottish descent, attendedSt Columba's Presbyterian Church (nowUnited Reformed Church)[7] in Oxford.[8][9] He notes that "belief in God didn't play a large role" in his home, but "a certain attitude to life and the living of it did".[2] He followed this by stating, "Pleasure was something that was treated with great suspicion, pleasure was something that... I was going to say it had to be earned but even the earning of it didn't really work. It was something to this day, I mean, I carry that with me. I find pleasure a difficult thing; I don't know what you do with it, I don't know where to put it."[2] He later stated, "I don't believe in God, but I have this idea that if there were a God, or destiny of some kind looking down on us, that if he saw you taking anything for granted, he'd take it away."[10]
Laurie was brought up in Oxford and attended theDragon School from seven to 13, later stating, "I was, in truth, a horrible child. Not much given to things of a 'bookey' nature, I spent a large part of my youth smokingNumber Six and cheating in French vocabulary tests."[11] He went on toEton College, which he described as "the most private of private schools".[2]
Laurie arrived atSelwyn College, Cambridge, in 1978,[12] which he says he attended "as a result of family tradition" since his father went there.[2] Like his father, Laurie rowed at school and university. He has noted that his father was a successful rower at Cambridge and that he was "trying to follow in [his] father's footsteps".[2] In 1977, he was a member of the junior coxed pair that won the British national title before representing Britain's Youth Team at the 1977 Junior World Rowing Championships. In 1980, Laurie and his rowing partner, J.S. Palmer, were runners-up in theSilver Goblets[13] coxless pairs for Eton Vikings rowing club. He also achieved aBlue while taking part in the1980 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.[14] Cambridge lost that year by five feet.[15] During this time, Laurie was training for up to eight hours a day and was on course to become an Olympic-standard rower.[16] He is a member of theLeander Club, one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world, and was a member of theHermes Club andHawks' Club.[2] Laurie studiedarchaeology andanthropology at Cambridge, specialising insocial anthropology.[17] He graduated withthird-class honours in 1981.[18]
Forced to abandon rowing during a bout ofglandular fever, Laurie joined theCambridge Footlights,[19] a university dramatic club that has produced many well-known actors and comedians including members of the popular British surreal comedy group,Monty Python. There he metEmma Thompson, with whom he had a romantic relationship; the two remain good friends.[2] She introduced him to his future comedy partner,Stephen Fry. Laurie, Fry and Thompson later parodied themselves in the sitcomThe Young Ones. In the episode "Bambi", they and the series' co-writerBen Elton appear onUniversity Challenge as representatives of "Footlights College, Oxbridge".[20]
In 1980–81, his final year at university, besides rowing Laurie was president of the Footlights, with Thompson as vice-president. They took their annual revue,The Cellar Tapes, to theEdinburgh Fringe Festival and won the firstPerrier Comedy Award which was presented to them byRowan Atkinson. The revue was written principally by Laurie and Fry, and the cast also included Thompson,Tony Slattery,Paul Shearer andPenny Dwyer. The Perrier Award led to a West End transfer forThe Cellar Tapes and a television version of the revue, broadcast in May 1982. It resulted in Laurie, Fry and Thompson being selected, along with Ben Elton,Robbie Coltrane andSiobhan Redmond, to write and appear in a new sketch comedy show forGranada Television,Alfresco, which ran for two series.[21]
Fry and Laurie worked together on various projects throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Among them was the sitcomBlackadder, written by Ben Elton andRichard Curtis and starring Rowan Atkinson. Laurie first appeared in the last two episodes of the second series,Blackadder II, debuting as Blackadder's drunken friend Simon Partridge in the episode "Beer", and then as the villainous Prince Ludwig the Indestructible in the episode "Chains". Laurie joined the main cast for the third series,Blackadder the Third, where he playedPrince George, followed by the fourth and final series,Blackadder Goes Forth, where he playedLieutenant George.[2] Other collaborations with Fry included theirBBC sketch comedy seriesA Bit of Fry & Laurie, as well asJeeves and Wooster,[2] a television adaptation ofP. G. Wodehouse's stories, in which Laurie played Jeeves's employer, the amiable twitBertie Wooster. He and Fry also participated in charity stage events, such asHysteria! 1, 2 & 3,Amnesty International'sThe Secret Policeman's Third Ball, theComic Relief TV shows, and the variety showFry and Laurie Host aChristmas Night with the Stars. They collaborated again on the filmPeter's Friends (1992) and came together for a retrospective show in 2010 titledFry and Laurie Reunited.[22]
Laurie starred in theThames Television filmLetters from a Bomber Pilot (1985) directed by David Hodgson. This was a serious acting role, the film being dramatised from the letters home ofPilot Officer J.R.A. "Bob" Hodgson, a pilot inRAF Bomber Command, who was killed in action in 1943.[23]
Since 2002, Laurie has appeared in a range of British television dramas, guest-starring that year in two episodes of the first season of the spy thriller seriesSpooks on BBC One. In 2003, he starred in and also directed ITV's comedy-drama seriesfortysomething (in one episode of which Stephen Fry appears). In 2001, he voiced the character of a bar patron in theFamily Guy episode "One If by Clam, Two If by Sea". Laurie voiced the character of Mr. Wolf in the cartoonPreston Pig. He was a panellist on the first episode ofQI, alongside Fry as host. In 2004, Laurie guest-starred as a professor in charge of a space probe calledBeagle, onThe Lenny Henry Show.[citation needed]
Between 2004 and 2012, Laurie starred as an acerbic physician specialising in diagnostic medicine,Dr. Gregory House, in the Fox medical dramaHouse. For his portrayal, he assumed an American accent.[2] He was inNamibia filmingFlight of the Phoenix and recorded his audition tape for the show in the bathroom of the hotel, as it was the only place he could get enough light.[27]Jacob Vargas operated the camera for the audition tape. Laurie's American accent was so convincing that executive producerBryan Singer, who was unaware at the time that Laurie was British, pointed to him as an example of just the kind of "compelling American actor" he had been looking for.[27] Laurie also adopted the accent between takes on the set ofHouse,[28] as well as during script read-throughs, although he used his native accent when directing the episode "Lockdown".[28] He also served as director for the episode "The C-Word".[29]
Laurie was nominated for anEmmy Award for his role inHouse in 2005.[30] Although he did not win, he did receive aGolden Globe in both 2006 and 2007 for his work on the series and theScreen Actors Guild award in 2007 and 2009. Laurie was also awarded a large increase in salary, from what was rumoured to be a mid-range five-figure sum to $350,000 per episode. Laurie was not nominated for the 2006 Emmys, apparently to the outrage of Fox executives,[31] but he still appeared in a scripted, pre-taped intro, where he parodied hisHouse character by rapidly diagnosing hostConan O'Brien and then proceeding to grope him as the latter asked him for help to get to the Emmys on time. He would later go on to speak in French while presenting an Emmy withDame Helen Mirren, and was since nominated in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.[32]
Laurie was initially cast asPerry White, the editor of theDaily Planet, in Singer's filmSuperman Returns but had to bow out of the project because of his commitment toHouse.[33] In 2006, Laurie appeared onInside the Actors Studio, where he also performed one of his own comic songs, "Mystery", accompanying himself on the piano.[2] He hosted NBC'sSaturday Night Live, in which he appeared indrag in a sketch about a man (Kenan Thompson) with a broken leg who accuses his doctor of being dishonest. Laurie played the man's wife.[34]
Hugh Laurie at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2007
In 2007, Laurie appeared onBBC Four's documentaryStephen Fry: 50 Not Out, filmed in celebration of Fry's 50th birthday. In 2008, he took part inBlackadder Rides Again which saw him reuniting with former Blackadder producer,John Lloyd who had travelled to the set of House MD in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California to interview Laurie who recalled his time working on the Blackadder series. Laurie also appeared as Captain James Biggs inStreet Kings, oppositeKeanu Reeves andForest Whitaker, and then in 2009 as the eccentric Dr. Herbert Cockroach, PhD inDreamWorks'Monsters vs. Aliens. He also hostedSaturday Night Live for the second time on the Christmas show in which he sang a medley of three-second Christmas songs to close his monologue. In 2009, Laurie returned to guest star in anotherFamily Guy episode, "Business Guy", parodyingGregory House. In 2010, Laurie guest starred inThe Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XXI" as Roger, a castaway who is planning a murder scheme on a ship during Homer and Marge's second honeymoon.[35]
Laurie was listed in the 2011Guinness World Records as the most-watched leading man on television and was one of the highest-paid actors in a television drama at the time.[36][37][38]
House ended in 2012 after an eight-season run. That same year, the media announced that Laurie was in negotiations to play the villain inRoboCop, a remake ofthe originalRoboCop film.[39] These negotiations ultimately fell through and Laurie passed on the project.[40] In 2012, Laurie starred in an independent feature calledThe Oranges that had a limited release.The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey thought that he was "particularly good".[41] After the end ofHouse, Laurie took a three-year hiatus from film and TV work.[42]
Laurie in 2012
Laurie was in negotiations to be cast in the role ofBlackbeard for the 2014 seriesCrossbones. However, the role went toJohn Malkovich.[43] In 2015 he returned to TV work with a recurring role onVeep as Tom James, a role written specifically for him after showrunnerArmando Iannucci heard he was a fan of the show.[44] Laurie continued to recur on the show until the final season in 2019.[45] For his work onVeep, he received his 10th Emmy nomination in 2017.[46]
Laurie played arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper in theBBC One miniseriesThe Night Manager. The series started filming in spring 2015 and aired first on the BBC.[49] He was nominated for two Emmys for his work on the miniseries and won theGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. In addition to being an executive producer on the show alongside Tom Hiddleston, it was also Laurie's first role on British TV in thirteen years.[50]
Laurie starred as Dr Eldon Chance, a San Francisco-based forensic neuropsychiatrist in theHulu thriller seriesChance which lasted for two seasons from 2016 to 2017.[51][52] In 2018, Laurie had a small role in the critically panned filmHolmes & Watson.[53]
In 2019, Laurie appeared inVeep creator Armando Iannucci's filmThe Personal History of David Copperfield, an adaptation of the novelDavid Copperfield byCharles Dickens. That same year it was announced he would also work with Iannucci on the upcoming space comedyAvenue 5 for HBO.[54] Season 2 ofAvenue 5 was released on 10 October 2022, with Laurie reprising his role as Captain Ryan.[55]
Laurie starred as Eric Peterson in the third season ofTehran in 2024.[56][57]
Hugh Laurie playing with his jazz band atBelo Horizonte, Brazil in 2014
Laurie is an accomplished pianist who began taking piano lessons at the age of six.[60] He sings and plays the piano, guitar, drums, harmonica, and saxophone. He has displayed his musical talents throughout his acting career, such as onA Bit of Fry & Laurie,Jeeves and Wooster,House, and his appearance as host ofSaturday Night Live in October 2006. He is a vocalist and keyboard player for the Los Angeles charity rock groupBand From TV.
FollowingMeat Loaf's appearance in theHouse episode "Simple Explanation", Laurie played piano as a special guest on the song "If I Can't Have You" fromMeat Loaf's 2010 albumHang Cool Teddy Bear. Laurie co-wrote and performed the humorous blues song, "Sperm Test in the Morning", in the filmMaybe Baby.[61]
On 26 July 2010 it was announced that Laurie would be releasing ablues album after signing a contract withWarner Bros. Records.[63] The album, calledLet Them Talk, was released in France on 18 April 2011 and in Germany on 29 April. The album features collaborations from well-known artists such asTom Jones,Irma Thomas andDr. John.
On 1 May 2011 Laurie and a jazz quintet closed the 2011Cheltenham Jazz Festival to great acclaim.[64] He followed that up as the subject of the 15 May 2011 episode ofITV's seriesPerspectives, explaining his love for themusic of New Orleans and playing music, from his albumLet Them Talk, at studios and live venues in the city itself.[60] He was the subject ofPBSGreat PerformancesLet them Talk, also about New Orleans jazz, first broadcast on 30 September 2011.[65]
His second album,Didn't It Rain, was released in the UK on 6 May 2013.[66] In the same year he played at theRMS Queen Mary together with his band. This concert was filmed and later released asLive on the Queen Mary on DVD and Blu-ray.
Laurie married theatre administrator Jo Green on 16 June 1989 in theCamden area of London.[67] They have three children.[68] Laurie's elder son played a small role as baby William inA Bit of Fry & Laurie, during a sketch titled "Special Squad". His daughter had a role in the filmWit as five-year-old Vivian Bearing.Stephen Fry, Laurie's best friend and long-time comedy partner, was the best man at his wedding and is the godfather of his children.[69]
Laurie's mother died frommotor neurone disease in 1989, at the age of 73. According to Laurie, she endured the disease for two years and suffered "painful, plodding paralysis" while being cared for by Laurie's father, whom he has called "the sweetest man in the whole world".[5]
While appearing onInside the Actors Studio in 2006, Laurie discussed his struggles with severeclinical depression.[2] He told hostJames Lipton that he first concluded he had a problem while driving in a charitydemolition derby, during which he realised that seeing two cars collide and explode made him feel bored rather than excited or frightened; he quipped that "boredom is not an appropriate response to exploding cars".[2][6]
Laurie admires the writings ofP. G. Wodehouse, explaining in a 1999 article inThe Daily Telegraph that reading Wodehouse novels had "saved his life".[70] In an interview also inThe Daily Telegraph, he confirmed that he is anatheist.[71] He is an avid motorcycle enthusiast and has two motorbikes, one at his London home and one at his Los Angeles home. His bike in the U.S. is aTriumph Bonneville, his self-proclaimed "feeble attempt to fly the British flag".[72]
^"The Young Ones – Bambi".Transcription of the "Young Ones" episode "Bambi" as it aired on American MTV in the mid-'80s. Archived fromthe original on 9 March 2007. Retrieved10 February 2007.
^Clune, Richard (28 October 2007)."Man about the House".The Daily Telegraph. Australia. Archived fromthe original on 20 August 2012. Retrieved30 April 2012.
^abcdefghijk"Hugh Laurie (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved1 October 2023. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
_(cropped).jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
