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Richard E. Grant

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Richard E. Grant
File:Grant222.JPG
Grant as The Voice for "2+2+2" at Heavy Entertainment, London.
Born
Richard Grant Esterhuysen
Years active1987 – present
Spouse(s)Joan Washington (m. 1986, 1 daughter, 1 stepson)

Richard E. Grant (born Richard Grant Esterhuysen, 5 May 1957) is a Swazi born English actor, screenwriter and director.

Biography

Early life

Grant was born in Mbabane, Swaziland. He adopted the surname Grant when he moved to the UK as an adult and registered with the British Actors' Equity Association. His father was Henrik Esterhuysen, a man of Afrikaner extraction, who was head of education for the British government administration in the British Protectorate of Swaziland. His mother was a local ballet teacher of South African and German extraction.[1][2] As a young child Richard went to primary school at St Marks, a local government school in Mbabane that had only recently become racially integrated. At the age of nine, he witnessed an adulterous relationship between his mother and another man that subsequently led to the break-up of his parents' marriage.[3] This event inspired him to keep a daily diary, which he has continued to do ever since.[4] He wears a watch on each wrist, one given to him by his dying father, permanently set on Swaziland time.[5]

He attended secondary school at Waterford Kamhlaba, just outside Mbabane, where he was a day scholar. He studied English and Drama at the University of Cape Town. He was a member of the Space theatre company in Cape Town before moving to London in 1982.[6]

"I grew up in Swaziland when it was mired in a 1960s sensibility", he later said. "The kind of English spoken where I grew up was a period English sound and when I came to England people said 'how strange'. Charles Sturridge, who directed Brideshead Revisited for TV, said 'you speak English like someone from the 1950s'. [7]

Career

His first film role was the perpetually inebriated title character in Withnail and I, which has established a large cult following. During the story his character drinks a bottle of lighter fluid, which the set crew had intentionally filled with vinegar prior to filming. His reaction in the film was genuine.

Following Withnail and I, Grant began appearing in Hollywood films, and quickly established himself as a powerful character actor in a wide array of films, from blockbuster studio movies to small independent projects. Over the past twenty years, Grant has had strong supporting roles in such films as Henry & June, L.A. Story, The Player, The Age of Innocence, The Portrait of a Lady, Spiceworld: The Movie, Gosford Park, Bright Young Things and Penelope. Unlike other prominent British actors working in Hollywood, Grant has performed in movies well beyond period historical films.

Grant has twice portrayed the Doctor from Doctor Who, unofficially on both occasions. In the comedy sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, he portrayed a version of the Tenth Doctor, referred to as the Quite Handsome Doctor. He also voiced a now non-canonical Ninth Doctor for the BBC original animated webcast Scream of the Shalka.

On 1 December 2006, Grant turned real life investigator when, with the help of BBC Newsnight he exposed a $98 million scam to sell a bogus AIDS cure.[8][9]

Grant appeared as "The Voice" in 2+2+2 at American Nights at The King's Head Theatre, from 3 July to 29 July 2007, and also recently co-starred in the London-based comedy Filth and Wisdom, a film which marks the directorial debut of pop singer Madonna.

On 22 November 2007, he gave a keynote speech at North London Collegiate School in North London as part of their Performing Arts Centre Opening Festival,[10] and presented the 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards.[11]

In 2008, he will star in the movie adaptation of Irvine Welsh's best-selling novel Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance, and he will also make his musical theatre debut with Opera Australia, playing the role of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, at the Theatre Royal, Sydney.

Grant is a successful author, with works such as By Design calling on his Hollywood experience.

Wah-Wah

Grant wrote and directed the critically acclaimed[12] 2005 film, Wah-Wah, loosely based on his own childhood experiences. A screenwriter recommended he write a screenplay, after reading Grant's memoirs of his Withnail and I experience.

The film took him over seven years to complete,[13] and starred Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson, Julie Walters and Emily Watson. It was also the first film to have ever been shot in Swaziland.

Grant kept a diary of the experience, later published as a book (The Wah-Wah Diaries). The book received positive reviews from critics, many of whom were impressed at the honesty of the tale, especially in regard to his difficult relationship with the "inexperienced" producer Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar.[14][15][16]

Grant stated in subsequent interviews that she was a "control freak out of control", and that he would "never see her again as long as [he] lives".[17][18] In a BBC interview, he again mentioned his "disastrous" relationship with Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, relating that he received five emails in the last two months of pre-production from her, and that she rarely turned up on the set at all and failed to obtain clearance firstly for song rights, and secondly to actually film in Swaziland (without the knowledge of Grant, who eventually was forced to meet the King of Swaziland to seek clemency).[19]

During an interview with an Australian chat show, he mentioned that Wah-Wah wasn't released in France, and as a result, his producer didn't make money out of it.[20]

Personal life

He married voice coach Joan Washington in 1986 and has one daughter with her (Olivia) and a stepson (Tom). Grant is a teetotaler. After casting him as the alcoholic Withnail, director Bruce Robinson made Grant drink a bottle of vodka in one sitting so that he had experience of the sensation. He is an avid follower of West Ham United, and appeared on Sky Sports' Soccer AM to show his support for the team on the morning of the 2006 FA Cup Final.

He also appeared on BBC1's show Saturday Kitchen on 14 July 2007, where he confessed to detesting dairy products, while his favourite food is giant prawns on a bed of rice.

In October 2008, he told The Times that he is an atheist.[21]

Filmography

Films

Television

Voice acting

Bibliography

  • The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making of a Film. 2006. ISBN 0-330-44196-5 (hardcover).
  • With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant. ISBN 0-87951-828-6 (hardcover). ISBN 0-87951-935-5 (paperback).
  • By Design (novel)|By Design: A Hollywood Novel. Picador, 1999. ISBN 033036829X (10). ISBN 978-0330368292 (13).

Notes

  1. ^ Richard E. Grant Biography (1957-)
  2. ^ Richard E. Grant Biography - Yahoo! Movies
  3. ^ http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001018.php
  4. ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/features/richard-e-grant-welcome-to-my-family-480162.html
  5. ^ ENOUGH ROPE with Andrew Denton - episode 108: Richard E. Grant (19/06/2006)
  6. ^ http://www.film.com/celebrities/richard-e-grant/14657135
  7. ^ Interview with Valerie Lawson of the Sydney Morning Herald on 04/06/08.
  8. ^ Swazi 'Aids cure' scam uncovered, BBC Newsnight.
  9. ^ "Richard E Grant investigates the AIDS scam", Newsnight, 1 December 2006.
  10. ^ North London Collegiate School - an independent day school for girls from the ages of 4 to 18
  11. ^ "Playbill News: London Hairspray Breaks Record With 11 Olivier Award Nominations".
  12. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wah_wah/
  13. ^ Wah-Wah Interview - "I've had seven birthdays..."
  14. ^ Amazon.co.uk - The Wah-Wah Diaries
  15. ^ The Guardian - Books - Wah-Wah Diaries review
  16. ^ The Independent - Books - Wah-Wah Diaries review
  17. ^ Richard E Grant - Wah-Wah interview
  18. ^ The Sun Herald Interview - Wah-Wah
  19. ^ BBC Interview with Richard E. Grant - Stand Alone Player
  20. ^ Interview with "Ten" - REG
  21. ^ http://www.secularism.org.uk/comingoutasatheistricharde.grant.html

References

Preceded by The Doctor
(Shalka Doctor)
2003 		Succeeded by


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