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Stephen Fry

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Stephen Fry on the cover of his autobiography (US Edition)

Stephen John Fry (born 24 August, 1957) is an English comedian, author, actor and director. He is the son of Alan, an English scientist, and Marianne Fry, an Austrian immigrant.

He was educated at Stout's Hill, Uppingham School and Queens' College, Cambridge, where he gained a 2:1 in English. He lives in Norfolk and London. He is an erstwhile comedy collaborator of Hugh Laurie. He was described as being "a man with a brain the size of Kent" in an interview with Michael Parkinson.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

Career highlights

Highlights of Fry's career include:

List of works

Performances

File:Jeeves.jpg
Fry as P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves in the ITV series Jeeves and Wooster

Stephen Fry also narrates the UK audio versions of the Harry Potter books (this is Jim Dale's job in the US). He also made a guest appearance in a special webcast version of Doctor Who in a story called Death Comes to Time, in which he plays a Time Lord, the Minister of Chance. He was originally supposed to be writing Episode 11 of the 2006 series of Doctor Who, but this appears to have been pushed back to the 2007 season (possibly due to budget constraints).

Trivia

  • In recent years, Fry has more or less assumed the role of national treasure in the UK. He is popularly thought of as a tweedy, old-fashioned figure, despite his troubled teenage years and frequently-unconventional views.
  • The Stars' Tennis Balls' major characters all have names that are anagrams or other simple mutations of their counterparts in The Count of Monte Cristo (Fry claimed that he had almost completed writing the book when he realised that his plot was essentially the same as Dumas'. He thus changed the characters' names, so that his novel would appear to be a conscious homage to Dumas.):
Monte Cristo Stars' Tennis Balls Notes
Edmond Dantes Ned Maddstone anagram
Mercedes Portia pun: Mercedes-Benz → Porsche
de Villefort Oliver Delft anagram
the Abbe (Faria) the Babe (Fraser) partial anagram
Fernand Mondego Gordon Fendeman anagram
Noirtier Blackrow translated literally (calque)
Capt. Leclere Paddy Leclare homonym
Caderousse Rufus Cade translation: rousse = red = Rufus
Baron Danglars Barson-Garland anagram
Monte Cristo Simon Cotter anagram
  • As well as having competed on University Challenge whilst at Cambridge, he also appeared in The Young Ones as "Lord Snot", one of the "Footlights College" team against whom The Young Ones are competing in a fictitious edition of University Challenge. He later appeared in a Comic Relief edition of University Challenge as part of the "Gownies" team of University-graduate comedians, against the (victorious) team of "Townies"; and in another Comic Relief special two years later as part of the South team who beat the North.
  • While still at boarding school, Fry absconded with a stolen credit card and, when apprehended, spent three months in prison for fraud. The details of this period of his life, including a copy of his crimes' court records, are explored in depth in his critically acclaimed autobiography.
  • Very early in his West End debut (Simon Gray's play Cell Mates), Fry suffered an attack of stage fright so serious that he ran away, leaving only an apology, and turning up some days later in Belgium.
  • In 2005, Fry was made an honorary fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, from which he graduated. He has also served a term as Lord Rector of the University of Dundee, which named their main Students' Association bar after one of his novels.
  • Fry was the last ever person awarded the title of Pipe Smoker of the Year before the award's discontinuation for legal reasons.
  • He has spoken about his struggle to keep his homosexuality secret during his teen years at public school.
  • He once famously declared that he practised a celibate lifestyle (which he has since abandoned).
  • He has paid a high price for being a celebrity, his mental well-being becoming the stuff of public speculation.
  • He famously said about his homosexuality: "I guess it all began when I came out of the womb. I looked back up at my mother and thought to myself, "That's the last time I'm going up one of those."
  • A humorous book has been published that teaches people how to speak like Stephen Fry. It is called Tish and Pish - how to be of a speakingness like Stephen Fry (ISBN 1840244666). However, this is not endorsed by Stephen himself, does not accurately reflect his mannerisms, and contains various grammatical errors (most notably in the title).
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