Rupert Everett

Rupert Everett
Everett at the 2007 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
Born	Rupert James Hector Everett 29 May 1959 (1959-05-29) Norfolk, England, U.K.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1982–present

Rupert James Hector Everett (/ˈɛvərɪt/; born 29 May 1959) is an English actor. He first came to public attention in 1981, when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film Another Country as an openly gay student at an English public school, set in the 1930s. He has since appeared in many other films including My Best Friend's Wedding, An Ideal Husband, The Next Best Thing and the Shrek sequels.

Early life

Everett was born in Norfolk, England, to Major Anthony Michael Everett (1921–2009), who worked in business and served in the British Army, and wife (m. 7 May 1955) Sara (née Maclean, b. 19 September 1934). His maternal grandfather, Vice Admiral Sir Hector Charles Donald Maclean, was a nephew of Hector Lachlan Stewart MacLean, who received the Victoria Cross. His maternal grandmother, Opre Vyvyan, was a descendant of the baronets Vyvyan of Trelowarren and the German Freiherren (Barons) von Schmiedern. He has a brother, Simon Anthony Cunningham Everett (born 1956). Everett was raised Roman Catholic.

From the age of seven, Everett was educated at Farleigh School, Hampshire, and later was educated by Benedictine monks at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire, but he left school at 16 and ran away to London to become an actor. In order to support himself, he worked as a male prostitute for drugs and money as he later admitted to US magazine in 1997. After being dismissed from the Central School of Speech and Drama for insubordination, he travelled to Scotland and got a job at the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow.

1980s

Everett's break came in 1981 at the Greenwich Theatre and later West End production of Another Country, playing a gay schoolboy opposite Kenneth Branagh, followed by a film version in 1984 with Cary Elwes and Colin Firth. Following on with 1985's Dance With a Stranger, Everett began to develop a promising film career until he co-starred with Bob Dylan in the huge flop Hearts of Fire (1987). Around the same time, Everett recorded and released an album of pop songs entitled Generation Of Loneliness. Despite being managed by the largely successful pop svengali Simon Napier-Bell (who also managed Marc Bolan, launched and managed Japan, and steered Wham! to international fame), the public didn't take to his change in direction. The shift was short-lived, and he would only return to pop indirectly by providing backing vocals for his friend Madonna many years later, on her cover of "American Pie" and on the track "They Can't Take That Away from Me" on Robbie Williams' Swing When You're Winning in 2001.

1990s

Rupert Everett at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1989, Everett moved to Paris, writing a novel, Hello, Darling, Are You Working? and coming out as gay, a disclosure which he has said may well have damaged his career. Returning to the public eye in The Comfort of Strangers (1990), several films of variable success followed. The Italian comics character Dylan Dog, created by Tiziano Sclavi, is graphically inspired by him. The English actor, in turn, later appeared in an adaptation of a novel based on Sclavi's novel, Dellamorte Dellamore. In 1995 he released a second novel, The Hairdressers of St. Tropez.

His career was revitalised by his award-winning performance in My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), playing Julia Roberts's gay friend. In 1999, he played Madonna's best friend in The Next Best Thing (he also sang backup on her cover of "American Pie", which is on the film's soundtrack). He has since appeared in a number of high-profile film roles, often playing leads. Also in 1999 he starred as the villainous Sanford Scolex/Dr. Claw in Disney's Inspector Gadget with Matthew Broderick.

2000s

Everett at a speed dating event with When The Music Stops, for Channel 4's The Friday Night Project in July 2007

For the 21st Century, Everett has decided to write again. He has been a Vanity Fair contributing editor and wrote a film screenplay on playwright Oscar Wilde's final years, for which he seeks funding. In 2006, he published a memoir, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins. In it he revealed he had a six-year affair with British television presenter Paula Yates. "I am mystified by my heterosexual affairs – but then I am mystified by most of my relationships," he wrote.^{[citation needed]} Although he is sometimes described as bisexual as opposed to homosexual, at a radio show with Jonathan Ross, he described his heterosexual affairs as resulting from adventurousness: "I was basically adventurous, I think I wanted to try everything" and in an interview on This Morning he simply described himself as homosexual, making a joke of any suggestion he might find a woman attractive.^{[citation needed]}

Since then, Everett has participated in public activities (leading the 2007 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras), played a double role in the film St. Trinian's, and has appeared on TV several times (as a contestant in the special Comic Relief Does The Apprentice, as a presenter at Live Earth and as guest host at Channel 4 show The Friday Night Project among others), but has made much news for making shocking comments and remarks at interviews that have caused public outrage.

In 2009, Everett told British newspaper The Observer that he wished he had never come out of the closet as he feels that it hurt his career and advises younger actors not to:

“

The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business. It just doesn't work and you're going to hit a brick wall at some point. You're going to manage to make it roll for a certain amount of time, but at the first sign of failure they'll cut you right off... Honestly, I would not advise any actor necessarily, if he was really thinking of his career, to come out.

”

In May 2007, he delivered one of the eulogies at the funeral of fashionista Isabella Blow, his friend since they were in their teens. He currently lives in London.

Recent projects

In recent years, Everett has returned to his acting roots appearing in several theatre productions; He made his Broadway debut in 2009 at the Shubert Theatre to good critical review, performing in a Noël Coward play, Blithe Spirit, starring alongside Angela Lansbury, Christine Ebersole and Jayne Atkinson, directed by Michael Blakemore. He was also expected to tour several Italian cities during the 2008–2009 winter season in another Noël Coward play, Private Lives (performed in Italian, which he speaks fluently), playing Elyot to Italian actress Asia Argento's Amanda. However, production was cancelled and the play never opened. During the summer of 2010 he played in a revival of Pygmalion as Professor Henry Higgins next to English actress Honeysuckle Weeks, with Stephanie Cole in the role of the Professor's mother, at the Chichester Festival Theatre and reprised this role in May 2011, at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End, starring along side Diana Rigg as Professor Higgins mother and Kara Tointon as Eliza.

As for television projects, Everett has presented Channel 4 documentaries; one on Romantic poet Lord Byron's travels, broadcast in July 2009 and another on British explorer Sir Richard Burton. In July 2010, Everett featured in the popular family history programme Who Do You Think You Are?.

He also has a part in the comedy film Wild Target, starring Bill Nighy.

Filmography

Cinema

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1982	A Shocking Accident	Jerome and Mr. Weathersby	Short film
1983	Princess Daisy	Ram Valenski	TV mini-series
1984	Another Country	Guy Bennett	based on the young Guy Burgess Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
1985	Dance with a Stranger	David Blakeley
1986	Duet for One	Constantine Kassanis
1987	Gli occhiali d'oro	Davide Lattes
	Hearts of Fire	James Colt
	Chronicle of a Death Foretold	Bayardo San Román
	The Right-Hand Man	Lord Harry Ironminster	Australian film, based on the book of the same name
1990	The Comfort of Strangers	Colin
1992	And Quiet Flows the Don	Grigory	aka Tikhiy Don
1994	Prêt-à-Porter	Jack Lowenthal
	The Madness of King George	Prince of Wales
	Dellamorte Dellamore	Francesco Dellamorte	aka Cemetery Man
1996	Dunston Checks In	Lord Rutledge
1997	My Best Friend's Wedding	George Downes	American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance Nominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor
1998	Shakespeare in Love	Christopher Marlowe
	B. Monkey	Paul Neville
1999	An Ideal Husband	Lord Goring	Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated – European Film Award for Best Actor Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
	Inspector Gadget	Sanford Scolex/Dr. Claw
	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Oberon
2000	The Next Best Thing	Robert Whittaker
	Paragraph 175	Narrator	Narrator for documentary film
2001	South Kensington	Nick
2002	The Importance of Being Earnest	Algernon / "Ernest"
	The Wild Thornberrys Movie	Sloan Blackburn	voice role
2003	Unconditional Love	Dirk S.
	To Kill a King	King Charles I
2004	Stage Beauty	King Charles II
	Shrek 2	Prince Charming	voice role
	A Different Loyalty	Leo Cauffield
2005	Separate Lies	Bill Bule
	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	Mr. Fox	voice role
2007	Stardust	Secundus
	Shrek the Third	Prince Charming	voice role
	St. Trinian's	Headmistress Camilla Fritton/Carnaby Fritton
2009	St. Trinian's II: The Legend of Fritton's Gold	Headmistress Camilla Fritton
2010	Wild Target	Ferguson
2011	Hysteria	Lord Edmund St. John-Smythe

Television (selection)

• The Manhood of Edward Robinson (1981) – guy
• Soft Targets (1982) – Actor
• Princess Daisy (1983) – Ram Valenski
• The Far Pavilions (1984) – George Garforth
• Arthur the King (1985) – Lancelot
• Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (2001) – Host
• Les Liaisons dangereuses (2003) – Vicomte Sébastien de Valmont
• Mr. Ambassador (2003) – Ambassador Ronnie Childers
• To Kill a King (2003) – King Charles I
• Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004) – Sherlock Holmes
• Boston Legal (2005) – Malcolm Holmes
• The Friday Night Project (2006) – Guest host, himself
• Comic Relief Does The Apprentice (2007) – Celebrity contestant (walked out during first episode)
• The Friday Night Project (2007) – Guest host
• Katie & Peter: Unleashed (2007) – Celebrity guest
• The Victorian Sex Explorer (2008) – Presenter
• The Paul O'Grady Show (2009) – Guest
• Who Do You Think You Are? (2010) – The subject, himself
• The Chris Moyles Show (2010) – Guest
• Black Mirror (2011) - Judge Hope
• Parade's End (2012)

External links

• Rupert Everett at the Internet Movie Database
• Rupert Everett at the Internet Broadway Database
• Rupert Everett at the TCM Movie Database
• Rupert Everett at AllRovi
• Rupert Everett biography and credits at the British Film Institute's Screenonline