Hugh Laurie Biography

HUGH LAURIE

Date of Birth: June 11, 1959

The youngest of four children, award-winning actor Hugh Laurie hails from Oxford, England. He is the son of an outstanding Cambridge University oarsmen who went on to win a gold medal at the 1948 Olympics. Laurie took up the oar while attending Eton College where he became house captain and a national junior champion. He continued rowing while attending Cambridge University where he studied archaeology and anthropology.

When not on the water or deep in his studies, Laurie joined the Footlights Club at Cambridge, where he started performing in their comedy revues and pantomimes. This club helped launch the careers of many notable British actors including Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle. Laurie quickly excelled in his theater work, becoming President in his final year beside fellow actress Emma Thompson.

As The Footlights Club performed all over the country, the troop was picked up to star in a television sketch series, Alfresco. The exposure led to more television roles in the 1980s and '90s, such as the buffoonish Prince Regent in Rowan Atkinson's series Blackadder III, the equally dim Lt. George in Blackadder Goes Forth, the sketch series A Bit of Fry and Laurie and four Jeeves and Wooster miniseries, shown on Masterpiece Theatre.

Feature length films were also in the works, but they did not add to his credits as much as television roles. After a small roles in Plenty, and Strapless (both 1989), Laurie took his first major role in Peter's Friends (1992), which was soon followed up with a meaty role in Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility (1995) playing Mr. Palmer.

At the end of the 1990s, Laurie spent much of his time in children's films. Beginning in 1996 with the live action 101 Dalmations playing one of Cruella De Ville's henchmen, playing Frankie Little in the Stuart Little films (1999 and 2002) and voicing Hare in the animated series Little Grey Rabbit. More recently he took on a lead role in the film Flight of the Phoenix (2004), starring Dennis Quaid.

However, he has become a household name thanks to his starring role in the TV medical drama, House, M.D. playing a gruff but lovable doctor. He's received five Emmy award nominations for his role and has won two Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series - Drama. In 2009, he won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Male TV Star as well as his second Screen Actors Guild award (he won his first SAG award in 2007) for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series.

In 2015, he starred in Tomorrowland alongside George Clooney, on the HBO mini-series The Night Manager (2016) and in The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020).

Besides acting, Laurie has written the best-selling thriller The Gun Seller and is working on a screenplay for a film version.

Laurie, his wife, Jo Green and their three children divide their time between Los Angeles and London, England.

Filmography:

The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020)
Holmes and Watson (2018)
The Night Manager (2016)
Tomorrowland (2015)
Mr. Pip (2012)
Arthur Christmas (2011)
The Oranges (2011)
Hop (2011)
Monsters vs Aliens (2009)
Street Kings (2008)
Valiant (2005)
Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
Stuart Little 2 (2002)
Chica de Rio (2001)
Maybe Baby (2000)
Carnivale (2000)
Stuart Little (1999)
Cousin Bette (1998)
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
Spice World (1997)
The Borrowers (1997)
The Ugly Duckling (1997)
101 Dalmatians (1996)
The Snow Queen’s Revenge (1996)
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
The Snow Queen (1995)
A Pin for the Butterfly (1994)
Peter’s Friends (1992)
Strapless (1989)
Plenty (1985)