British actor Hugh Grant was an immensely popular film star in the 1990s. He played the English gentleman in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill. American and international audiences loved him.
ARISTOCRATIC
Hugh John Mungo Grant was born in Hammersmith in West London on September 9th, 1960. His mother was aristocratic and his father was an army officer, but Grant says that they were not particularly rich. He attended a local private school, where he was an excellent athlete. He was also good academically and won a scholarship to Oxford. He began acting at Oxford, but considered it a hobby rather than a profession.
AMERICAN BEAUTY
Hugh Grant’s first important film was Maurice in 1987. This was about a homosexual love affair at Cambridge in Edwardian times. It was a Merchant Ivory production, as was 1993’s The Remains of the Day. Hugh Grant’s acting career was not going very well and he wanted to give up, but then came Four Weddings and a Funeral. It was one of the most successful British films of all time. The combination of Andie MacDowell’s American beauty and Hugh Grant’s English charm was perfect for the US market.
SCANDAL
Hugh Grant said he wasn’t a gentleman in real life. The proof came the following year when police officers in Los Angeles arrested him in the company of Divine Brown, a prostitute. But Grant’s career recovered and in 1999 he made Notting Hill, with Julia Roberts. It was even more popular than Four Weddings and a Funeral. In 2001 he appeared in Bridget Jones’s Diary. It also starred Colin Firth, who has probably replaced Hugh Grant as the world’s favourite English actor.
TODAY
Hugh Grant’s private life is certainly interesting. His past girlfriends include Liz Hurley and Jemima Khan. He has two children with the Chinese actress Tinglan Hong, although people aren’t sure about the state of their relationship: are they together as a couple? Hugh Grant hates questions about his private life and he has publicly attacked Rupert Murdoch and the tabloid press for their phone hacking of celebrities.
Grant is a very intelligent man, but he can be difficult. In 2009 he appeared on The Daily Show in the United States to promote his film, Did You Hear About the Morgans? Presenter Jon Stewart said Grant was “a big pain in the ass. He was my least favourite guest and we’ve had dictators on the show!”
But will Hugh Grant appear in more films? In theory he is working on two at the moment, but he doesn’t like acting. He recently said in an interview with Vanity Fair: “I hate acting – all acting, but especially movie acting.”
