Hugh Laurie

Author profile

born

June 11, 1959 in Oxford, The United Kingdom

gender

male

website

http://hughlaurieblues.com/

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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British comedian Hugh Laurie could have easily taken another career track rather than that of well-known performer. As a secondary and college student, he was also a world-class oarsman. He wasn't the only one in the family to have a passion for the sport, however. His father won a gold medal at the 1948 London Olympics as part of the British national team. The youngest of four children, Laurie went to Eton College, perhaps Britain's best-known preparatory school. During his time there, he became involved in rowing. He quickly became one of the nation's best, and in 1977, he became one half of the national junior champion coxed pair. In the world junior championships held in Finland that year, he and his teammate finished fourth in the worl...more British comedian Hugh Laurie could have easily taken another career track rather than that of well-known performer. As a secondary and college student, he was also a world-class oarsman. He wasn't the only one in the family to have a passion for the sport, however. His father won a gold medal at the 1948 London Olympics as part of the British national team. The youngest of four children, Laurie went to Eton College, perhaps Britain's best-known preparatory school. During his time there, he became involved in rowing. He quickly became one of the nation's best, and in 1977, he became one half of the national junior champion coxed pair. In the world junior championships held in Finland that year, he and his teammate finished fourth in the world.

The following year, Laurie entered Cambridge University, with the intention of studying archeology and anthropology. He was also intent on joining the prestigious rowing team, rowing in the 1980 Cambridge/Oxford boatrace. More information on the race can be found at BBC Sport

He reportedly became ill during his first year, however, and was forced to withdraw from the rowing competitions. While regaining his health, Laurie had his first experiences as a performer by getting involved with the Footlights Club, a famed undergraduate comedy revue group. In his last year at Cambridge, Laurie was elected President of the club, with fellow Footlighter Emma Thompson acting as Vice President.

Traditionally, at the end of the year, the Footlights take their act on the road throughout the nation. While on these tours, he met, via Thompson, a young playwright named Stephen Fry . They collaborated on a sketch called The Cellar Tapes , which they entered in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1981. They were awarded "Pick of the Fringe," enabling the duo, along with the other Footlight performers (including Thompson) to go on tour through England and eventually, Australia.

Soon thereafter, Laurie, Fry, Thompson, Robbie Coltrane , and Ben Elton formed the television sketch program Alfresco , eventually leading Laurie to the famous (in Britain, at least) Black Adder series, headed by Rowan Atkinson , and also to the Jeeves and Wooster series with Fry.

It wasn't long after these successes that he began appearing in films. In 1992, he appeared alongside fellow comedians Fry and Thompson, as well as Kenneth Branagh and Rita Rudner in the ensemble comedy Peter's Friends

He subsequently did outstanding work as a character actor in such films as Sense and Sensibility (1995) and 101 Dalmations (1996). In 1999, he took the lead in the adaptation of E.B. White's Stuart Little, playing the adopted father to a walking, talking, fully dressed mouse, a role he'd reprise in the film's 2002 sequel Stuart Little 2.

After a two year absence from the big-screen, Laurie returned to the multiplexes in 2004 with a supporting role in Flight of the Phoenix, a remake of the 1965 James Stewart action-adventure film about a group of plane-crash survivors who attempt to build a new plane from the wreckage. That same year Laurie essayed the titular role as the cynical but trailblazing Dr. Greg House in the primetime Fox Network television drama House .

Laurie is also a musician of note, invariably performing as a keyboardist with the rock band Poor White Trash and the Little Big Horns. He currently plays keyboards with Band From TV - a band featuring other television stars who perform to raise money for various charities. He added yet another profession to his lengthy list of accomplishments when, in 1996, he published his first novel, The Gun Seller. Married since 1989, he has three children with his wife, Jo. (less)

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Books by Hugh Laurie

Average rating: 3.70 · 5,856 ratings · 896 reviews · 14 distinct works

	The Gun Seller 3.69 avg rating — 5,268 ratings — published 1996 — 42 editions	My rating:
	The Paper Soldier 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings	My rating:
	A Bit of Fry and Laurie by Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie 4.27 avg rating — 143 ratings — published 1990 — 2 editions	My rating:
	A Bit More Fry and Laurie by Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie 4.12 avg rating — 40 ratings — published 1991	My rating:
	House, M.D.: The Official Guide to the Hit Medical Drama by Ian Jackman, Hugh Laurie 3.80 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 2010 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Hugh Laurie (Reader) 3.45 avg rating — 48,666 ratings — published 1726 — 732 editions	My rating:
	Fry & Laurie: Bit No. 4 by Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie 4.19 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 1995	My rating:
	Great Classic Stories: 22 Unabridged Classics by Rosalind Ayres, Alphonse Daudet, Derek Jacobi (Read by) 3.25 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2006	My rating:
	Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson, Hugh Laurie 4.32 avg rating — 1,799 ratings — published 1948 — 50 editions	My rating:
	Fry and Laurie read Daudet & Jerome by Alphonse Daudet, Jerome K. Jerome, Stephen Fry (narrator) 3.70 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2006	My rating:

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Quotes by Hugh Laurie

“Death and disaster are at our shoulders every second of our lives, trying to get at us. Missing, a lot of the time. A lot of miles on the motorway without a front wheel blow-out. A lot of viruses that slither through our bodies without snagging. A lot of pianos that fall a minute after we've passed. Or a month, it makes no difference. So unless were going to get down on our knees and give thanks every time disaster misses, it makes no sense to moan when it strikes.”
― Hugh Laurie, The Gun Seller

89 people liked it

“I never was someone who was at ease with happiness. ”
― Hugh Laurie

56 people liked it

“Now, my mom always said two wrongs don't make a right. But she never said anything about four wrongs, and that always left me confused.”
― Hugh Laurie

49 people liked it

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Polls

Wybór książki na czerwiec

Bernhard Schlink | The Reader

6 votes 40.0%

J.D. Salinger | The Catcher in the Rye

3 votes 20.0%

Salman Rushdie | The Enchantress of Florence

2 votes 13.3%

Gabriel García Márquez | Love in the Time of Cholera

2 votes 13.3%

Hugh Laurie | Sprzedawca broni

2 votes 13.3%

15 total votes

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Hugh Laurie

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