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Hugh Laurie
February 19th, 2010 by Lynn DeVries

Hugh Laurie: Plays Dr. Gregory House

Full Name: James Hugh Calum Laurie

[Photo: ©2010 FOX Broadcasting Co.]
Interviews: Live Chat Transcript August 2009
Birth Date: June 11, 1959
Astrological Sign: Gemini
Birth Place: Oxford, England
Spouse:
  • Jo Green (1989 – present)
  • Children:
    • Charles Archibald Laurie (b. Nov 1988)
    • William (Bill) Albert Laurie (b. Jan 1991)
    • Rebecca Laurie (Rebecca Augusta Laurie, b. Sep 10, 1993)
College:
  • Eton College in Berkshire, England
  • Selwyn College
  • University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England (BS in Anthropology)
Awards:
  • Annie Awards

    • 2010 Voice Acting in a Feature Production for: Monsters vs Aliens (2009) For playing “Dr. Cockroach Ph.D.” – Nominated
  • Emmy Awards
    • 2010 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2009 Outstanding Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • Shared with: Paul Attanasio (executive producer), Katie Jacobs (executive producer), David Shore (executive producer), Bryan Singer (executive producer), Thomas L. Moran (executive producer), Russel Friend (executive producer), Garrett Lerner (executive producer), Gerrit van der Meer (co-executive producer), Deran Sarafian (co-executive producer), Doris Egan (co-executive producer), Eli Attie (co-executive producer), Peter Blake (co-executive producer), Leonard Dick (co-executive producer), Lawrence Kaplow (co-executive producer), Liz Friedman (supervising producer), David Foster (producer), David Hoselton (producer), Marcy G. Kaplan (producer)
    • 2009 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2008 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2007 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2005 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
  • Golden Globes, USA
    • 2010 Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2009 Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2008 Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2007 Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Winner
    • 2006 Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Winner
  • People’s Choice Awards, USA
    • 2010 Favorite Male TV Star – Winner
    • 2009 Favorite Male TV Star – Winner
  • Prism Awards
    • 2010 Performance in a Drama Series Episode for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2007 Performance in a Drama Series, Multi-Episode Storyline for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2006 Performance in a Drama Series Episode for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
  • Satellite Awards
    • 2007 Best Actor in a Series, Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2006 Best Actor in a Series, Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Winner
    • 2005 Outstanding Actor in a Series, Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Winner
  • Screen Actors Guild Awards
    • 2010 Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2009 Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Winner
    • 2009 Actor Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
      Shared with: Lisa Edelstein, Omar Epps, Peter Jacobson, Robert Sean Leonard, Jennifer Morrison, Kal Penn, Jesse Spencer, Olivia Wilde
    • 2008 Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2007 Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Winner
    • 2006 Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
  • Teen Choice Awards
    • 2007 Choice TV Actor: Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Winner
    • 2006 TV – Choice Actor for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
  • Television Critics Association Awards
    • 2009 Individual Achievement in Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2007 Individual Achievement in Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Nominated
    • 2006 Outstanding Individual Achievement in Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Winner
    • 2005 Individual Achievement in Drama for: “House M.D.” (2004) – Winner
  • Young Artist Awards
    • 1999 Best Performance in a Feature Film – Young Ensemble for: The Borrowers (1997) – Nominated
      Shared with: Bradley Pierce, Mark Williams, Flora Newbigin
Fast Facts:
  • Represented Cambridge as an oarsman in the University Boat Race of 1980 against Oxford.
  • Member of the Cambridge Footlights Revue theatre group with Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry; president in 1981.
  • Dated Emma Thompson while at Cambridge and later appeared in Sense and Sensibility with her.
  • British TV debut was Footlights special The Cellar Tapes, which won the Perrier "Pick of the Fringe" Award at the Edinburgh Festival of 1981.
  • Starred in numerous British comedy series, often with college friend Stephen Fry: A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Blackadder, and Jeeves and Wooster.
  • Has played keyboards in the group Poor White Trash and the Little Big Horns since the ’90s.
  • First novel, The Gun Seller, was published in both the UK and the U.S. to critical acclaim and adapted into a screenplay for MGM.
  • Appeared in Annie Lennox’s "Walking on Broken Glass" video, opposite John Malkovich.
  • Named one of TV’s Sexiest Men by TV GUIDE in 2005.
  • Named an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in December 2006.
  • Hugh Laurie attended the gala Red Tie Affair event on March 24, 2007, that recognizes the 90 years of service the Santa Monica chapter of the American Red Cross has provided to the community. In the festive spirit of the affair, Mr. Laurie wore red socks.
  • In March 2007, Hugh Laurie autographed a 2005 CBR1000RR Repsol sports bike, a replica of the motorcycle he rides on House, to be auctioned online to raise money for the American Red Cross.
  • On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (November 6, 2006), Hugh Laurie admitted to Jay that he has a tendency to sleep while standing up and has actually fallen asleep while riding his motorcycle. He also revealed he rarely feels as though he is having fun due to his Presbyterian upbringing.
  • When interviewed at the FOX party at the Ritz-Carlton following the 2006 TCA summer tour, Hugh told reporters he doesn’t want to know what is going to happen on House. He quipped jokingly that he didn’t even want to know what’s going to happen after lunch.
  • When Ellen DeGeneres asked Hugh Laurie on her show (September 12, 2006) if he finds it easier to work with an American accent after two seasons on House, he told her it was the single most difficult thing he has to do everyday. He lamented that almost every other thing done in life, whether it’s making omelettes or having sex, a person gets better at it the more it’s done. But, for some reason, he finds putting on the accent is as hard today as it was on the first day.
  • Hugh’s middle child, Bill, auditioned for a part in one of the Harry Potter films, but didn’t get the role.
  • Mr. Laurie’s youngest child and only daughter, Rebecca (born in 1992), had a role in the film Wit (2001) as Vivian Bearing, age 5. The starring role of the adult Vivian was played by Emma Thompson, a close friend of Hugh’s since their years at Cambridge.
  • Bought an all-black Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, a replica of the ’60s British model, in Los Angeles, upon getting the role in “House M.D.” (2004), but he was always an avid motorcyclist, even in England. He enjoys the anonymity the motorcycle helmet gives him.
  • Attended the Dragon School, a renowned British “public” college preparatory school located in Oxford, England. Also attended by actress Emma Watson and tennis player Tim Henman.
  • Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), originally wanted him to play Arthur Dent for the film adaptation. A deal was almost in place to have Hugh play Dent, along with Jim Carrey as Zaphod and Jay Roach directing, before Adams’s untimely death.
  • 1977: Won the National Junior Championship for rowing (coxed pair). In the same year, he and his rowing partner represented England in the World Junior Championship for rowing where they finished fourth place.
  • Plays the husband opposite Imelda Staunton’s characters in two films: Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Peter’s Friends (1992).
  • His father, William George Ranald Mundell Laurie (known as Ran), and mother, Patricia, are both of Scottish descent.
  • Is the youngest of four children, by six years. He has a brother, Charles, who works as a lawyer/shepherd in Scotland, and two sisters.
  • His father won an Olympic gold medal for coxless pairs in the 1948 Games in London. Hugh also had a promising career as an oarsman, but he was forced to give it up while at Cambridge when he contracted glandular fever (mononucleosis). His brother was also an oarsman.
  • Entered the 1980 Silver Goblets and Nicklass Cup with his Eton rowing partner J.S. Palmer at the Henley Royal Regatta, becoming the only British crew to reach the final that year. They finished in second place behind the favored American crew.
  • Was first cast in the role of Perry White in Superman Returns (2006). However, the popularity of his TV show “House M.D.” (2004) caused schedule conflicts. Frank Langella was then cast.
  • Auditioned for the part of Rimmer in “Red Dwarf” (1988). Others to audition for the part were Norman Lovett, Lee Cornes, Alfred Molina, Alan Rickman, and Craig Ferguson. The role went to Chris Barrie.
  • He was a house captain (senior prefect) in his last year at Eton College. He also played percussion for the school’s orchestra and was a “wet bob” – a member of Eton’s prestigious rowing team.
  • He received his first motorcycle when he was 16 as a present from his father. The same year he owned his first guitar, a Yamaha.
  • Although his first name is James, he has never been called that. His third name, Calum, is the short form of ‘Mael Calum’, which translates from Gaidhlig (Scots Gaelic) to Scottish and English as ‘Malcolm’. (The Gaeilge or Irish Gaelic form is ‘Maol Colm’, or ‘Colm’ in short form). His brother’s full name is Charles Alexander Lyon Mundell Laurie.
  • He took up diving a few years ago.
  • He’s a big fan of Clint Eastwood.
  • Was a member of Cambridge Footlights throughout his university years, serving as a writer and cast member for two years (1978-1980) and president during his last year (1980-1981). Emma Thompson was the vice president.
  • He is a member of the Leander Club, one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world. His father once served as the club’s president.
  • His son Bill auditioned for a role in a Harry Potter film but was told he was too young.
  • He is a member of the celebrity band Band From TV with Greg Grunberg of “Alias” (2001) and “Felicity” (1998), James Denton of “Desperate Housewives” (2004), Bob Guiney of “The Bachelor” (2002), and other special guests.
  • Plays keyboard in the band Poor White Thrash with Lenny Henry, Shade Adejumo, Kate McKenzie, Sophie Elton (wife of Ben Elton), ‘Ken Bowley’, Andy Gangadeen, John Thirkell, and Phil Smith.
  • Directed some scenes of his film Maybe Baby (2000) when Ben Elton had to go to hospital for the birth of his children.
  • He is a big fan of Steve McQueen.
  • Stephen Fry is godfather of his three children.
  • He was awarded the O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2007 Queen’s New Years Honours List for his services to drama.
  • Is very good friends with “House M.D.” (2004) co-star Robert Sean Leonard.
  • Great-great-nephew of George Alexander.
  • When Bryan Singer cast Laurie as Gregory House on “House M.D.” (2004), he was unaware that Laurie is British.
  • Is the uncle of actress Rachel Hurd-Wood.
  • During their time at Cambridge Footlights, he and Emma Thompson dated for some time.
  • Longtime best friend Stephen Fry served as best man at Laurie’s marriage to Jo Green (1989).
  • Stated on a British chat show that he doesn’t like doing plays; he said that in the only play he’d ever done (Gasping, by Ben Elton), he “felt like [he] was going out of [his] mind”, and that he had out of body experiences on stage. He also stated it was something he would never do again.
Quotes:
  • (discussing being overlooked for an Emmy nomination in 2006 at the 2007 TCA Summer Press Tour) You know, this is the natural ebb and flow of human affairs. No one has any right to ever feel slighted because one is never entitled to anything. I think all of us would agree that actors who have a job and, secondly, actors who have a job with other actors whose company they enjoy, while doing scripts they absolutely adore, have nothing to complain about. It’s actually slightly unhealthy. Those blessings are so manifold. Our cup runneth over, so we have absolutely no business being crabby if we don’t get a particular cherry on top. We already have so many cherries on top of so many cherries that one more cherry is – I’ve exhausted the metaphor.
  • (Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2007) I don’t talk like House, or walk like him. I certainly don’t think like him. I don’t like to think for more than 15 minutes at a stretch actually; I am a fragile flower.
  • (discussing Dr. House with Los Angeles Times reporter Mary McNamara, June 6, 2007) As a real person, he wouldn’t last a minute, would he? But drama is about imperfection. And we’ve moved away from the aspirational hero. We got tired of it, it was dull. If I was House’s friend, I would hate it. How he so resolutely refuses to be happy or take the kind-hearted road. But we don’t always like morally good people, do we?
  • (when asked by Ray Richmond, The Hollywood Reporter, May 22, 2007, where he keeps his Golden Globe award and does it make an effective bookend) Forgive me for being pedantic here, but I actually now have two — so your bookend idea works even better. Particularly since they weigh more than any earthly substance could in that volume. They are now installed in my son’s bedroom, which I have converted into a Hall of Fame. He sleeps in the garden.
  • (from his acceptance speech at the 2007 Golden Globe Awards) I’d like to thank Robert Sean Leonard. I can’t remember why. He did give me a reason.
  • People magazine’s Sexiest Man issue (November 2005) talking about having to mask his British accent in House: It’s as if you’re playing left-handed. Or like everyone else is playing with a tennis racket and you have a salmon. I moan about it a lot.
  • [on Cambridge] I went there to row. I’ll be blunt with it. It’s been ten years, and I think the admissions tutor can take it now . . . but that’s really what I went for, and anthropology was the most convenient subject to read while spending eight hours a day on the river.
  • [on the Oxford-vs.-Cambridge Boat Race] The year was 1980, I was #4 in this particular encounter, and the result was a loss by Cambridge by a distance of five feet, which is something which I will carry to my grave . . . in fact, I shouldn’t really say this, because I still to this day wouldn’t want to give any pleasure or satisfaction to the opposing crew. But yes, it’s true, it was a very bitter defeat.
  • [on picking up his new hobby] Boxing is fascinating. It’s good for the soul to be made to feel clumsy. I swank around during the week thinking I’m a big cheese, but you don’t feel like that when you’re in the ring with a chap who knows what he’s doing. It’s ritual humiliation. I’m going to be slugged about and probably killed, but I love it and have to do something to keep fit.
  • I picked a reverence for medicine because I rather hero-worshiped my father [a former doctor], and because I admire doctors, I admire study, empiricism and rational thought. I don’t admire crystals and chewing willow bark and herbal remedies.
  • [on his late father's reaction to his character Dr. Gregory House] He would be absolutely appalled. He was an endlessly polite, generous and soft-spoken man. He was no pushover, but he would never hurt, shock or outrage people just for the hell of it. At the same time, I hope he would be entertained and see that science and logic are like a religion to House. He’d approve of that.
  • [On what he misses about England] The buildings and the cruelty. They’re very harsh people, the British: hard to impress, very tough on each other, but I rather like that. It’s not that the British are more honest – you’re just under no illusion with them. L.A. runs on optimism, enthusiasm and flattery. I think you can go a little bit crazy. I’ve heard people say there’s a limit to the number of years you can stay in this city without going slightly mad. It’s just too damn sunny in every dimension – weather-wise, socially and professionally.
  • I travel to work on my motorcycle, so it’s jeans, boots and a brown Aero leather jacket that weighs as much as I do. If it were black, it would seem like I’ve got a [Marlon Brando] idea going on, which I don’t.
  • [on raising his daughter] Girls are complicated. The instruction manual that comes with girls is 800 pages, with chapters 14, 19, 26 and 32 missing, and it’s badly translated, hard to figure out.
  • 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 pajamas feeling each other’s chi.
  • [on the difficulty of performing with an American accent] It’s as if you’re playing left-handed. Or like everyone else is playing with a tennis racket and you have a salmon.
  • [his speech after winning a Golden Globe for "House M.D." (2004)] I am absolutely speechless. Seriously, I don’t have a speech. People are falling all over themselves to send you free shoes and free cuff links and colonic irrigations for two. Nobody ever offers you a free acceptance speech. There just seems to be a gap in the market. I would love to be able to pull out a speech by Dolce & Gabbana.
  • Guilt I can do. If [I have] any expertise at all, it’s in the area of guilt. I have a black belt in guilt. If you ever want a guilt-off, the next time we meet let’s see how we match up. I’m pretty confident in that area.
  • Obviously you are in a very vulnerable position when you give an interview. You are putting your testicles on a chopping board. I get anxious about a lot of things, that’s the trouble. I get anxious about everything. I just can’t stop thinking about things all the time. And here’s the really destructive part – it’s always retrospective. I waste time thinking of what I should have said or done. I can’t bear going through the same f***ing dance of despair.
  • On living in America while filming “House M.D.” (2004): I do feel very foreign there, as if I’m on safari, looking at the exotic animals and the way they behave. Then again America is made up of people who don’t feel American until they do, so I’m not alone in that.
  • When asked if living in America would make him any less pessimistic or miserable: Oh, I hope nothing would ever do that. I won’t let go of my roots.
  • I admit I can’t shake the idea that there is virtue in suffering, that there is a sort of psychic economy, whereby if you embrace success, happiness and comfort, these things have to be paid for.
  • Celebrity is absolutely preposterous. Entertainment seems to be inflating. It used to be the punctuation to your life, a film or a novel or a play, a way of celebrating a good week or month. Now it feels as if it’s all punctuation. The people I admire are those blokes in Fair Isle sweaters with pencils behind their ears who knew how to design mechanical things better than anybody else in the world.
  • Something in me says you shouldn’t have toys.
  • Recalling his father winning a gold medal in rowing at the 1948 Olympics in London: He was in a coxless pair with a man called Jack Wilson. I’ve got a fantastic picture on my desk of the two of them getting their medals on a pontoon at Henley. I imagine they were playing the national anthem and my dad is very rigid, ‘this is the way to behave’, and Jack Wilson is loose and groovy and looks like he should be mixing a martini. I sometimes wished my father could take that pleasure in himself.
  • [after he received his 2009 Screen Actors Guild Awards] I actually had a 100 dollars on James Spader, this is just not my night.
  • Commenting on The Paper Soldier, his sequel to his best-selling The Gun Seller: My second novel will be coming out two years ago.
Important Links:
Hugh Laurie

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