Hugh Grant was born on September 9, 1960, in London, England. The hit 1994 comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral earned him a Golden Globe and made him an international heartthrob. Grant was arrested with a Hollywood prostitute in 1995, but his career weathered the scandal and he starred in subsequent hits such as The Diary of Bridget Jones and The Prima Donna. Grant also published an article in 2011 that helped expose the hacking practice of phones by Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World newspaper.
Early life
Hugh John Mungo Grant was born on September 9, 1960, in London, England. He studied English at Oxford before pursuing a career in theater. He worked in the repertoire and as an advertising copywriter, eventually forming his comedy troupe, The Jockeys of Norfolk.
Films
- Four weddings and one funeral
Hugh Grant’s early films include his screen debut in 1982 in Privilege and Bitter Moon in 1992. Much of his early work went unnoticed, except his portrayal of the sexually conflicted Edwardian in Ismail Merchant’s Maurice, which won him the Best Actor award at the 1987 Venice Film Festival. Only after the hit comedy “Four Weddings and One Funeral” was released in 1994, the handsome actor became world-famous. His charming performance as a fool in love earned Grant a Golden Globe for Best Actor.
In 1995, just before the actor’s debut in American cinema nine months later, with Julianne Moore, Grant was arrested for participating in an indecent act in a parked car with the Hollywood prostitute Divine Brown. The scandal and his photograph instantly spread through the media. This was followed by a contrite apology on “The Tonight Show” to Hurley’s then-girlfriend.
- Sense and Sensibility, Notting Hill
Public disgrace had little effect on Hugh Grant’s career. Shortly thereafter, he starred in several successful films, including Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility in 1995 and another historical play, Restoration. He was firmly re-established as one of Hollywood’s most charming leading men when he returned to the romantic comedy with the 1999 film Notting Hill, opposite Julia Roberts. In the same year, he also starred in the mafia comedy Blue Eyed Mickey.
- Bridget Jones’s Diary, My Boy
Subsequent box-office hits such as 2001’s Bridget Jones Diary starring Renee Zellweger, 2002’s My Boy by Nick Hornby, and 2003’s Love also played on his comedic virtues. His music and lyrics for the 2007 film with Drew Barrymore received mixed reviews. Two years later, he co-starred with Sarah Jessica Parker in the critically-acclaimed comedy Morgan on the Run, which became a box-office success.
- “Prima Donna”, “The Adventures of Paddington 2”
Continuing to act in films in both big and small roles, Grant made a huge impact in 2016 with the lighthearted biopic Prima Donna, earning a Golden Globe nomination for his role opposite Meryl Streep. In 2017, Grant played the villainous Phoenix Buchanan in the international hit live family film, The Adventures of Paddington II. He then played the role of Fletcher, a detective who trades in his outlandish script, in Guy Ritchie’s Gentlemen (2019).
Roles on television
Grant worked primarily in film, although he had several minor television roles in the 1980s and 90s. In 2018, he teamed up with Ben Whishaw (the voice of the Paddington bear in the Paddington film franchise) for a true BBC story based on The Extremely English Scandal. In the three-part series, Grant starred as British Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe, who tried to assassinate his secret gay lover Norman Scott (played by Whishaw) in the 1970s.
