Hugh Laurie

James Hugh Calum Laurie was born on June 11, 1959 in Oxford (UK), the son of Dr. Ran Laurie and housewife Patricia. Hugh is the youngest of four children, he has a brother and two sisters.

Laurie received a prestigious education: he studied at Oxford Dragon School and Eton. In 1981 he graduated from Cambridge University (George Selwyn College) with a third-class degree in anthropology and archaeology.

But the young archaeologist was drawn to the theater, from his first year at the university, Laurie began to participate in the activities of amateur theater "Footlights Dramatic Club", where his constant colleagues were the same student actors Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry, with whom in the later years Laurie will be associated with many years of joint work on stage and television. In 1981, Hugh became president of that theater.

After university, Laurie, Fry and Thompson wrote and directed the comedy The Cellar Tapes, which earned them their first theater award and a contract to telecast plays from the West End Theater in 1982.

Laurie began as a comedy actor, it was the comedy roles that brought him national success: the series "Blackadder" (1983-89), in which he played the roles of various characters, the adaptation of the humorous novels of Woodhouse about Jeeves (TV series "Jeeves and Wooster" was released in 1990-1993). It was the role of Bertie Wooster, a frivolous aristocrat, that most fully, according to critics and fans, embodied the talent and style of Laurie. In this film, the British actor tried his hand as a musician - the series was filled with ragtime music performed by Laurie himself. Later he formed a rock band and began to play concerts.

In June 1989, the actor married theater administrator Joe Green. The couple has three children: Charles Archibald (1988), William Albert (1991) and Rebecca Augusta (1993).

Since the mid-90s Hugh Laurie began acting in films, but usually in small roles: "Sense and Sensibility" (1995), "101 Dalmatians" (1996), "Man in the Iron Mask" (1998), a remake of the film "Flight of the Phoenix" (2004). In Anything Is Possible, Baby (2000), Laurie played the title role.

Besides comedy and music Laurie also discovered his talent as a writer: in 1996 his novel The Gun Seller became a bestseller. He is currently working on his second book, The Gun Seller.

In 2004 Hugh Laurie changed his role radically, accepting an offer to star in the American television series "Dr. House". Laurie plays the grim but brilliant misanthropic doctor. "Dr. House" brought him two Golden Globes and fame in the United States, where before the series almost no one knew him.

After "Dr. House" recognition and awards have fallen on a talented Briton: for this role in 2005 and 2006, he was awarded the "Golden Globe"; January 28, 2007 Hugh Laurie won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series; in January 2009 he won "Favorite Drama Actor on TV.

In August 2010, he topped the list of highest-paid actors starring in American drama television series, and in 2011 he was included in the Guinness Book of World Records as the actor who draws the largest audience to television screens.

In 2007 Queen Elizabeth II of the UK made the actor an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Actor, musician, writer - a talented person is talented in everything. But, as it turned out, this is not all the British talent. Inspired by his father, who won the gold medal in men's rowing at the 1948 London Olympics, Laurie took up rowing at school and continued at Cambridge. In 1977, he won the British Junior Rowing Championship and represented Great Britain at the World Junior Rowing Championships, where, together with his partner, he placed fourth. In 1980, he also competed for Cambridge in the famous race between Oxford and Cambridge. Despite the fact that their team lost the race, lagging by only a meter and a half at 6,779 meters, Laurie won the prestigious Blue award. A few months later, Lori competed in the Silver Goblets & Nicklass Cup, part of the Henley Regatta, where he finished second, behind the American team.

Lori is currently a member of one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world, the Leander Club, of which his father was once president.

After the dizzying success of the acting career, thanks to "Dr. House", Laurie has decided to devote himself to music. Now he actively travels around Europe and America with his rock-band concerts, and in spite of the fact that he is over 50, he charges the hall with crazy energy.