Jump to content

Hugh Grant

This is a good article. Click here for more information.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by RichardHarris22 (talk | contribs) at 12:43, 22 November 2016 (→Career: source). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For other people named Hugh Grant, see Hugh Grant (disambiguation).

Hugh Grant
Grant during his Wetten, dass..? appearance in November 2014
Born
Hugh John Mungo Grant

(1960-09-09) 9 September 1960 (age 64)
Hammersmith, London, England
NationalityEnglish
Alma materNew College, Oxford
Occupation(s)Actor, producer
Years active1982–present
PartnerElizabeth Hurley (1987–2000)
Children4

Hugh John Mungo Grant[1] (born 9 September 1960)[2] is an English actor and film producer. Grant has received a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César for his work. His films have earned more than US$2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide.[3] Grant achieved international success after appearing in the Richard Curtis-scripted Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).[4] Grant used this breakthrough role as a frequent cinematic persona during the 1990s, delivering comic performances in films such as Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) and Notting Hill (1999). One of the best known figures in 1990s British popular culture, Grant was in a high profile relationship with Elizabeth Hurley, which was the focus of much attention in the British and international media.[5][6]

By the turn of the 21st century, Grant had established himself as a leading man, skilled with a satirical comic talent.[7] Grant has expanded his oeuvre with critically acclaimed turns as a cad in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), About a Boy (2002), and American Dreamz (2006).[8] Grant later played against type with multiple cameo roles in the epic sci-fi drama film, Cloud Atlas (2012).

Within the film industry, Grant is cited as an anti-star who approaches his roles like a character actor, and attempts to make his acting appear spontaneous.[9] Hallmarks of his comic skills include a nonchalant touch of irony/sarcasm and studied physical mannerisms, as well as his precisely-timed dialogue delivery and facial expressions. The entertainment media's coverage of Grant's life off the big screen has often overshadowed his work as an actor.[10] Grant has been outspoken about his antipathy towards the profession of acting, and in his disdain towards the culture of celebrity and hostility towards the media.[11][12] In a career spanning 30 years, Grant has repeatedly claimed that acting was not his true calling, but rather a career that unintentionally developed by happenstance.[13]

Early life

Grant was born at Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith, London, the second son of Fynvola Susan MacLean (b. Wickham, Hampshire, 11 October 1933; d. Hounslow, London, July 2001) and Captain James Murray Grant (b. 1929). Grant's grandfather, Colonel James Murray Grant, DSO was decorated for bravery and leadership at Saint-Valery-en-Caux during World War II.[14] Genealogist Antony Adolph has described Grant's family history as "a colourful Anglo-Scottish tapestry of warriors, empire-builders and aristocracy."[15] A few of his notable ancestors include William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan, Dr. James Stewart,[15][16][17] John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl, Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, Sir Evan Nepean, and a sister of former Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.[18]

Grant's father was trained at Sandhurst and served with the Seaforth Highlanders for eight years in Malaya, Germany and Scotland.[19] He ran a carpet firm, pursued hobbies such as golf and painting watercolours, and raised his family in Chiswick, west London, where the Grants lived next to Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane.[20][21] In September 2006, a collection of Capt. Grant's paintings was hosted by the John Martin Gallery in a charity exhibition, organised by his famous son, called "James Grant: 30 Years of Watercolours."[22] His mother worked as a schoolteacher and taught Latin, French and music for more than 30 years in the state schools of west London.[23] She died at the age of 65, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.[24]

Grant's accent is an inheritance from his mother; and, on Inside the Actors Studio in 2002, he credited her with "any acting genes that [he] might have."[21] Both his parents were children of military families,[25] but, despite his parents' backgrounds, Grant has stated that his family was not always affluent while he was growing up.[26] Grant spent his childhood summers shooting and hunting with his grandfather in Scotland.[20] Grant has an older brother, James, living in Portugal.

Education

Grant started his education at Hogarth Primary School in Chiswick but then moved to St Peter's Primary School in Hammersmith, Grant was then educated at an independent prep school Wetherby School. From 1969 to 1978, he attended the independent Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith on a scholarship and played 1st XV rugby, cricket and football for the school.[27][28] He also represented Latymer on the popular quiz show, Top of the Form, an academic competition between two teams of four secondary school students each.[29]

In 1979, Grant won the Galsworthy scholarship to New College, Oxford, where he starred in his first film, Privileged, produced by the Oxford University Film Foundation. He studied English literature and graduated with 2:1 honours.[30] Actress Anna Chancellor, who met Grant while she was still at school, has recalled, "I first met Hugh at a party at Oxford. There was something magical about him. He was a star even then, without having done anything. Grant joined the exclusive Piers Gaveston Society at Oxford, a group with a reputation for debauchery and decadence."[31]

Grant received an offer from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London to pursue a PhD in the history of art, but decided not to take the offer because he failed to secure a grant. Viewing acting as nothing more than a creative outlet,[32] he joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and starred in a successful touring production of Twelfth Night.[33]

Young earner

After making his debut as Hughie Grant in the Oxford-financed Privileged (1982), Grant dabbled in a variety of jobs: he worked as assistant groundsman at Fulham Football Club,[34] tried his hand at tutoring, wrote comedy sketches for TV shows,[35] and was hired by Talkback Productions to write and produce radio commercials for products such as Mighty White bread and Red Stripe lager.[36] To obtain his Equity card, he joined the Nottingham Playhouse, a regional theatre, and lived for a year at Park Terrace in The Park Estate, Nottingham.[37] Bored with small acting parts, he created his own comedy revue called The Jockeys of Norfolk, a name taken from Shakespeare's Richard III, with friends Chris Lang and Andy Taylor. The group toured London's pub comedy circuit with stops at The George IV in Chiswick, Canal Cafe Theatre in Little Venice and The King's Head in Islington.[38] Starting on a low note, The Jockeys of Norfolk eventually proved a hit at the Edinburgh Festival after their sketch on the Nativity, told as an Ealing comedy, gained them a spot on the BBC2 TV show called Edinburgh Nights.[38] During this time, Grant also appeared in theatre productions of plays such as An Inspector Calls (at the Royal Exchange, Manchester), Lady Windermere's Fan, and Coriolanus.[39]

Career

Grant at the Cannes film festival, 1997

Grant's first leading film role came in Merchant-Ivory's Edwardian drama, Maurice (1987), adapted from E. M. Forster's novel. He and co-star James Wilby shared the Volpi Cup for best actor at the Venice Film Festival for their portrayals of lovers Clive Durham and Maurice Hall, respectively. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Grant balanced small roles on television with rare film work, which included a supporting role in The Dawning (1988), opposite Anthony Hopkins and Jean Simmons and a turn as Lord Byron in a Goya Award-winning Spanish production called Remando al viento (1988). He also portrayed some other real life figures during his early career such as Charles Heidsieck in Champagne Charlie and as Hugh Cholmondeley in BAFTA Award-nominated White Mischief.

In 1990, he made a cameo appearance in the sport/crime drama The Big Man, opposite Liam Neeson, and in which Grant assumed a Scottish accent. The film explores the life of a Scottish miner (Neeson) who becomes unemployed during a union strike. In 1991, he played Julie Andrews' gay son in the ABC made-for-television film Our Sons.

In 1992, he appeared in Roman Polanski's film Bitter Moon, portraying a fastidious and proper British tourist who is married, but finds himself enticed by the sexual hedonism of a seductive French woman and her embittered, paraplegic American husband. The film was called an "anti-romantic opus of sexual obsession and cruelty" by the Washington Post.[40] His other work in period pieces such as Ken Russell's horror film, The Lair of the White Worm (1988), award-winning Merchant-Ivory drama The Remains of the Day (1993) and (as Frédéric Chopin in) Impromptu (1991) went largely unnoticed. He later called this phase of his career "hilarious," referring to his early films as "Europuddings, where you would have a French script, a Spanish director, and English actors. The script would usually be written by a foreigner, badly translated into English. And then they'd get English actors in, because they thought that was the way to sell it to America."[41]

At 32, Grant claimed to be on the brink of giving up the acting profession but was surprised by the script of Four Weddings and a Funeral (FWAAF).[7] "If you read as many bad scripts as I did, you'd know how grateful you are when you come across one where the guy actually is funny," he later recalled.[4] Released in 1994, FWAAF became the highest-grossing British film to date with a worldwide box office in excess of $244 million,[42] making Grant an overnight international star. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, and among numerous awards won by its cast and crew, it earned Grant his first and only Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. It also temporarily typecast him as the lead character, Charles, a bohemian and debonair bachelor. Grant and Curtis saw it as an inside joke that the star, due to the parts he played, was assumed to have the personality of the screenwriter, who is known for writing about himself and his own life.[41][43] Grant later expressed:

File:Hugh Grant in FWAAF.jpg
Grant in his breakthrough performance as Richard Curtis's alter ego, Charles, in Four Weddings and a Funeral

Although I owe whatever success I've had to Four Weddings and a Funeral, it did become frustrating after a bit that people made two assumptions: One was that I was that character – when in fact nothing could be further from the truth, as I'm sure Richard would tell you – and the other frustrating thing was that they thought that's all I could do. I suppose, because those films happened to be successful, no one, perhaps understandably, ... bothered to rent all the other films I'd done.[7]

In July 1994, Grant signed a two-year production deal with Castle Rock Entertainment and by October, he became founder and director of the UK-based Simian Films Limited.[44] He appointed his then-girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, as the head of development to look for prospective projects. Simian Films produced two Grant vehicles in the 1990s and lost a bid to produce About a Boy to Robert De Niro's TriBeCa Productions.[45] The company closed its US office in 2002 and Grant resigned as director in December 2005.[46] Grant was one of the choices to play James Bond in 1995's GoldenEye, but eventually lost out to Pierce Brosnan.

Grant's first studio-financed Hollywood project was Chris Columbus's comedy Nine Months. Though a hit at the box office, it was almost universally panned by critics. The Washington Post called it a "grotesquely pandering caper" and singled out Grant's performance, as a child psychiatrist reacting unfavourably to his girlfriend's unexpected pregnancy, for his "insufferable muggings."[47] The same year, he played leading roles as Emma Thompson's suitor in Ang Lee’s Academy Award-winning adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and as a cartographer in 1917 Wales in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. In the same year he performed in the Academy Award-winning Restoration.

Before the release of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Grant reunited with its director, Mike Newell, for the tragicomedy An Awfully Big Adventure that was labelled a "determinedly off-beat film" by The New York Times.[48] Grant portrayed a bitchy, supercilious director of a repertory company in post-World War II Liverpool. Critic Roger Ebert wrote, "It shows that he has range as an actor,"[49] but the San Francisco Chronicle disapproved on grounds that the film "plays like a vanity production for Grant."[50] Janet Maslin, praising Grant as "superb" and "a dashing cad under any circumstances," commented, "For him this film represents the road not taken. Made before Four Weddings and a Funeral was released, it captures Mr. Grant as the clever, versatile character actor he was then becoming, rather than the international dreamboat he is today."[48] Grant made his debut as a film producer with the 1996 thriller Extreme Measures, a commercial and critical failure, though Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel each gave the film three out of four stars with Siskel writing "Hugh Grant's work in 'Extreme Measures' is a refreshing standout."[51]

After a three-year hiatus, in 1999 he paired with Julia Roberts in Notting Hill, which was brought to theatres by much of the same team that was responsible for Four Weddings and a Funeral. This new Working Title production displaced Four Weddings and a Funeral as the biggest British hit in the history of cinema, with earnings equalling $363 million worldwide.[42] As it became exemplary of modern romantic comedies in mainstream culture, the film was also received well by critics. CNN reviewer Paul Clinton said, "Notting Hill stands alone as another funny and heartwarming story about love against all odds."[52] Reactions to Grant's Golden Globe-nominated performance were varied, with Salon.com's Stephanie Zacharek criticising that, "Grant's performance stands as an emblem of what's wrong with Notting Hill. What's maddening about Grant is that he just never cuts the crap. He's become one of those actors who's all shambling self-caricature, from his twinkly crow's feet to the time-lapsed half century it takes him to actually get one of his lines out."[53] The film provided both its stars a chance to satirise the woes of international notoriety, most noted of which was Grant's turn as a faux-journalist who sits through a dull press junket with, what the New York Times called, "a delightfully funny deadpan."[54] Grant also released his second production output, a fish-out-of-water mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes, that year. It was dismissed by critics, performed modestly at the box office, and garnered its actor-producer mixed reviews for his starring role. Roger Ebert thought, "Hugh Grant is wrong for the role [and] strikes one wrong note and then another,"[55] whereas Kenneth Turan, writing in the Los Angeles Times, said, "If he'd been on the Titanic, fewer lives would have been lost. If he'd accompanied Robert Scott to the South Pole, the explorer would have lived to be 100. That's how good Hugh Grant is at rescuing doomed ventures."[56]

While promoting Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks on NBC's The Today Show in 2000, Grant told host Matt Lauer, "It's my millennium of bastards".[57] In 2000, Grant also joined the Supervisory Board of IM Internationalmedia AG, the powerful Munich-based film and media company.[58]

File:Hugh Grant in About a Boy.jpg
Giving his most critically acclaimed performance to date, Grant plays snooker as Will Freeman in About a Boy.

Small Time Crooks starred Grant, in the words of film critic Andrew Sarris, as "a petty, petulant, faux-Pygmalion art dealer, David, [who] is one of the sleaziest and most unsympathetic characters Mr. Allen has ever created."[59] In a role devoid of his comic attributes, the New York Times wrote: "Mr. Grant deftly imbues his character with exactly a perfect blend of charm and nasty calculation."[60] A year later, his turn as a charming but womanising book publisher Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) was proclaimed by Variety to be "as sly an overthrow of a star's polished posh – and nice – poster image as any comic turn in memory".[61] The film, adapted from Helen Fielding's novel of the same name, was an international hit, earning $281 million worldwide.[42] Grant was, according to the Washington Post, fitting as "a cruel, manipulative cad, hiding behind the male god's countenance that he knows all too well".[62]

Grant's "immaculate comic performance" (BBC) as the trust-funded womaniser, Will Freeman, in the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's best-selling novel About a Boy received raves from critics.[63] Almost universally praised, with an Academy Award-nominated screenplay, About a Boy (2002) was determined by the Washington Post to be "that rare romantic comedy that dares to choose messiness over closure, prickly independence over fetishised coupledom, and honesty over typical Hollywood endings."[64] Rolling Stone wrote, "The acid comedy of Grant's performance carries the film [and he] gives this pleasing heartbreaker the touch of gravity it needs,"[65] while Roger Ebert observed that "the Cary Grant department is understaffed, and Hugh Grant shows here that he is more than a star, he is a resource."[66] Released a day after the blockbuster Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, About a Boy was a more modest box office grosser than other successful Grant films, making all of $129 million globally.[42] The film earned Grant his third Golden-Globe nomination, while the London Film Critics Circle named Grant its Best British Actor and GQ honoured him as one of the magazine's men of the year 2006.[67] "His performance can only be described as revelatory," wrote critic Ann Hornaday, adding that "Grant lends the shoals layer upon layer of desire, terror, ambivalence and self-awareness."[64] The New York Observer concluded: "[The film] gets most of its laughs from the evolved expertise of Hugh Grant in playing characters that audiences enjoy seeing taken down a peg or two as a punishment for philandering and womanising and simply being too handsome for words-and with an English accent besides. In the end, the film comes over as a messy delight, thanks to the skill, generosity and good-sport, punching-bag panache of Mr. Grant's performance."[68] About a Boy also marked a notable change in Grant's boyish look. Now 41, he had lost weight and also abandoned his trademark floppy hair. Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman took note of Grant's maturation in his review, saying he looked noticeably older and that it "looked good on him."[69] He added that Grant's "pillowy cheeks are flatter and a bit drawn, and the eyes that used to peer with 'love me' cuteness now betray a shark's casual cunning. Everything about him is leaner and spikier (including his hair, which has been shorn and moussed into a Eurochic bed-head mess), but it's not just his surface that's more virile; the nervousness is gone, too. Hugh Grant has grown up, holding on to his lightness and witty cynicism but losing the stuttering sherry-club mannerisms that were once his signature. In doing so, he has blossomed into the rare actor who can play a silver-tongued sleaze with a hidden inner decency."[69]

Grant was also paired with Sandra Bullock in Warner Bros.'s Two Weeks Notice, which made $199 million internationally but received poor reviews.[42] The Village Voice concluded that Grant's creation of a spoiled billionaire fronting a real estate business was "little more than a Britishism machine."[70]

Two Weeks Notice was followed by the 2003 ensemble comedy, Love Actually, headlined by Grant as the British Prime Minister. A Christmas release by Working Title Films, the film was promoted as "the ultimate romantic comedy" and accumulated $246 million at the international box office.[42] It marked the directorial debut of Richard Curtis, who told the New York Times that Grant adamantly tempered the characterisation of the role to make his character more authoritative and less haplessly charming than earlier Curtis incarnations.[71] Roger Ebert claimed that "Grant has flowered into an absolutely splendid romantic comedian" and has "so much self-confidence that he plays the British prime minister as if he took the role to be a good sport."[72] Film critic Rex Reed, on the contrary, called Grant's performance "an oversexed bachelor spin on Tony Blair" as the star "flirted with himself in the paroxysm of self-love that has become his acting style."[73]

In a 2005 speech, British Prime Minister Tony Blair referred to Grant's character in a speech, saying: "I know there's a bit of us that would like me to do a Hugh Grant in Love Actually and tell America where to get off. But the difference between a good film and real life is that in real life there's the next day, the next year, the next lifetime to contemplate the ruinous consequences of easy applause."[74]

Grant in Brussels, October 2008

In 2004, Grant reprised his role as Daniel Cleaver for a small part in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, which, like its predecessor, made more than $262 million commercially.[42] Gone from the screen for two years, Grant next reteamed with Paul Weitz (About a Boy) for the black comedy American Dreamz (2006). Grant starred as the acerbic host of an American Idol-like reality show where, according to Caryn James of the New York Times, "nothing is real ... except the black hole at the centre of the host's heart, as Mr. Grant takes Mr. Cowell's villainous act to its limit."[75] American Dreamz failed financially but Grant was generously praised. He played his self-aggrandising character, an amalgam of Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest, with smarmy self-loathing. The Boston Globe proposed that this "just may be the great comic role that has always eluded Hugh Grant,"[76] and critic Carina Chocano said, "He is twice as enjoyable as the preening bad guy as he was as the bumbling good guy."[77]

In 2007, Grant starred opposite Drew Barrymore in a parody of pop culture and the music industry called Music and Lyrics. The Associated Press described it as "a weird little hybrid of a romantic comedy that's simultaneously too fluffy and not whimsical enough."[78] Though he neither listens to music nor owns any CDs,[25] Grant learned to sing, play the piano, dance (a few mannered steps) and studied the mannerisms of prominent musicians to prepare for his role as a has-been pop singer, based loosely on Andrew Ridgeley, the lesser-known member of 1980s pop duo Wham!.[11] The Star-Ledger dismissed the performance, writing that "paper dolls have more depth."[79] The film, with its revenues totalling $145 million, allowed Grant to mock disposable pop stardom and fleeting celebrity through its washed-up lead character. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Grant strikes precisely the right note with regard to Alex's career: He's too intelligent not to be a little embarrassed, but he's far too brazen to feel anything like shame."[80] In 2009, Grant starred opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the Marc Lawrence's romantic comedy Did You Hear About the Morgans?, which was a critical failure but was a box office success.[81] He reunited with Lawrence again for a dramedy film The Rewrite, starring opposite Marisa Tomei. The film received mixed-to-positive reviews, while Grant's performance was praised by many critics.[82][83] In 2015, he had a supporting role as Alexander Waverly in Guy Ritchie's The Man from U.N.C.L.E.[84] Entertainment Weekly described his performance as "the only bit of fun" in the film.[85] Glenn Kenny of Rogerebert.com gave film a mixed review but stated that "while it can’t be said that Hugh Grant saves the movie, his return to prominence in the last half-hour, after a plot-seeding-walk-on earlier in the movie, peps things up considerably."[86] In 2016, he played St. Clair Bayfield, partner of the title character, in the film Florence Foster Jenkins, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Meryl Streep.[87]

Screen roles

Grant has predominantly been a comedy (especially a romantic comedy) actor for almost all of his mainstream film career. He also never ventures to play characters who are not British. While some film critics, such as Roger Ebert, have defended the limited variety of his performances, others have dismissed him as a one-trick pony. Eric Fellner, co-owner of Working Title Films and a long-time collaborator of Grant, said, "His range hasn't been fully tested, but each performance is unique."[88] A majority of Grant's popular films in the 1990s followed a similar plot that captured an optimistic bachelor experiencing a series of embarrassing incidents to find true love, often with an American woman. In earlier films, Grant was adept at plugging into the stereotype of a repressed Englishman for humorous effects, allowing him to gently satirise his characters as he summed them up and played against the type simultaneously.[37] These performances were sometimes deemed overbearing, in the words of Washington Post's Rita Kempley, due to his "comic overreactions—the mugging, the stuttering, the fluttering eyelids." She added: "He's got more tics than Benny Hill."[89] Grant's penchant for conveying his characters' feelings with mannerisms, rather than direct emotions, has been one of the foremost objections raised against his acting style. Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post once stated that, to be effective as a comic performer, he must get "his jiving and shucking under control."[90] Film historian David Thomson wrote in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film about how it is merely "itchy mannerisms" that Grant equates with screen acting.[91] On his choice of roles, Grant has said:

I've never been tempted to do the part where I cry or get AIDS or save some people from a concentration camp just to get good reviews. I genuinely believe that comedy acting, light comedy acting, is as hard as, if not harder than serious acting, and it genuinely doesn’t bother me that all the prizes and the good reviews automatically by knee-jerk reaction go to the deepest, darkest, most serious performances and parts. It makes me laugh.[92]

Grant's screen persona of later films, in the new millennium, gradually developed into a cynical, self-loathing cad.[93] Claudia Puig of USA Today celebrated this transformation with the observation that finally "gone [were] the self-conscious 'Aren't I adorable' mannerisms that seemed endearing at the start of [Grant's] film career but have grown cloying in more recent movies."[94] Using his facial contortions and an affected stammer for varied comic purposes,[95] According to Carina Chocano, amongst film critics, the two tropes most commonly associated with Grant are that he reinvented his screen persona in Bridget Jones's Diary and About a Boy and dreads the possibility of becoming a parody of himself.[96]

Nonetheless, Grant has occasionally acted in dramas. He played a sleazy, snide community theatre director with a penchant for adolescent boys in the drama film An Awfully Big Adventure, which received critical praise, and for "a very quiet, dignified" performance as Frédéric Chopin in James Lapine's biopic film Impromptu.[97][98] In 2012, Grant played six cameo roles of "incredibly evil" characters in the epic drama film Cloud Atlas, an experience he has spoken about positively. Grant said:

I do a lot of killing and raping [in the film]... But it was a laugh. I thought before I read it that I'd turn it down, which I normally do, but I was interested in meeting [Cloud Atlas co-directors] the Wachowskis because I have always admired them enormously. And they are so charming and fascinating.... I slightly called my own bluff. In one of the parts I am a cannibal, about 2,000 years in the future, and I thought, "I can do that. It's easy." And then I am suddenly standing in a cannibal skirt on a mountaintop in Germany and they are saying, "You know, hungry! We must have that flesh-eating, like a leopard who is so hungry," and I am thinking, "I can't do that! Just give me a witty line!"[99]

Personality

Grant has expressed boredom with playing the celebrity in the press[100] and is known in popular media for his guarded privacy.[101] On probing of his personal life, he has remained steadfast in "offering a dead bat to any question he feels is not general enough."[102] Grant has described himself as a reluctant actor, has called being a successful actor a mistake and has repeatedly talked of his hope that film stardom would just be "a phase" in his life, lasting no more than ten years.[41][103]

A 2007 Vogue profile of Grant referred to him as a man with a "professionally misanthropic mystique".[11] Grant has expressed distaste for focus groups, market research, and emphasis on opening weekend box-office numbers, saying: "It's so destructive to the filmmaking process. What was wrong with the way they used to release films, more slowly, let them build?"[104] The director Mike Newell has said: "There is at least as much of Hugh that is charismatic, intellectual, and whose tongue is maybe too clever for its own good as there is of him that's gorgeous and kind of woolly and flubsy."[105] Filmmaker Paul Weitz said that Grant is funny and that "he perceives flaws in himself and other people, and then he cares about their humanity nonetheless."[106] British newspapers regularly refer to him as "grumpy".[107]

Grant is a self-confessed "committed and passionate" perfectionist on a film set.[13] The American film critic Dave Kehr has written that Grant "is known in the film industry as a meticulous performer who takes his time to prepare a role – someone who works hard to make it look easy – though that isn't a trait he admires in himself."[9] Grant is noted by co-workers for demanding endless takes until he achieves the desired shot according to his own standard.[11][108][109]

Grant dropped his agent in 2006, ending a 10-year relationship with CAA.[110] Grant has proclaimed in interviews that he does not listen to external views on his career: "They've known for years that I have total control. I've never taken any advice on anything."[11][92]

In the media

Libel lawsuits

In 1996, Grant won substantial damages from News (UK) Ltd over what his lawyers called a "highly defamatory" article published in January 1995. The company's now-defunct newspaper, Today, had falsely claimed that Grant verbally abused a young extra with a "foul-mouthed tongue lashing" on the set of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.[111]

On 27 April 2007, Grant accepted undisclosed damages from the Associated Newspapers over claims made about his relationships with his former girlfriends in three separate tabloid articles, which were published in the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday on 18, 21 and 24 February. His lawyer stated that all of the articles' "allegations and factual assertions are false."[112] Grant said, in a written statement, that he took the action because: "I was tired of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday papers publishing almost entirely fictional articles about my private life for their own financial gain." He went on to take the opportunity to stress, "I'm also hoping that this statement in court might remind people that the so-called 'close friends' or 'close sources' on which these stories claim to be based almost never exist."[113]

On 27 June 1995, Grant was arrested in Los Angeles, California, in a police vice operation not far from Sunset Boulevard for engaging in oral sex in a public place with Hollywood prostitute Divine Brown.[114] He pleaded no contest and was fined $1,180, placed on two years' summary probation, and was ordered to complete an AIDS education program by Robert J. Sandoval.[115][116]

The arrest occurred about two weeks before the release of Grant's first major studio film, Nine Months, which he was scheduled to promote on several American television shows. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno had him booked for the same week.[117] In the much-watched interview, Grant was noted for not making excuses for the incident after Leno asked him, "What the hell were you thinking?"[118][119] Grant answered, "I think you know in life what's a good thing to do and what's a bad thing, and I did a bad thing. And there you have it."[120]

On Larry King Live, Grant declined host Larry King's repeated invitations to probe his psyche, saying that psychoanalysis was "more of an American syndrome" and he himself was "a bit old fashioned."[121] He told the host: "I don't have excuses."[122] Grant was appreciated for "his refreshing honesty" as he "faced the music and handled it with tongue [in] cheek."[123]

In April 2007, Grant was arrested on allegations of assault made by paparazzo Ian Whittaker.[124] Grant made no official statement and did not comment on the incident.[125] Charges were dropped on 1 June by the Crown Prosecution Service on the grounds of "insufficient evidence."[126]

Phone hacking exposé

Main article: News of the World phone hacking affair

In April 2011 Grant published an article in the New Statesman entitled "The Bugger, Bugged"[127] about a conversation (following an earlier encounter) with Paul McMullan, a former journalist and paparazzo for News of the World. In unguarded comments which were secretly taped by Grant, McMullan alleged that editors at the Daily Mail and News of the World, particularly Andy Coulson, had ordered journalists to engage in illegal phone tapping and had done so with the full knowledge of senior British politicians. McMullan also said that every British Prime Minister from Margaret Thatcher onwards had cultivated a close relationship with Rupert Murdoch and his senior executives. He stressed the friendship between David Cameron and Rebekah Brooks (née Wade), agreeing when asked that both of them must have been aware of illegal phone tapping, and asserting that Cameron's inaction could be explained by self-interest: "Cameron is very much in debt to Rebekah Wade for helping him not quite win the election ... So that was my submission to parliament – that Cameron's either a liar or an idiot."[127]

When asked by Grant whether Cameron had encouraged the Metropolitan Police to "drag their feet" on investigating illegal phone tapping by Murdoch's journalists, McMullan agreed this had happened, and stated that police themselves had taken bribes from tabloid journalists: "20 per cent of the Met has taken backhanders from tabloid hacks. So why would they want to open up that can of worms?... And what's wrong with that, anyway? It doesn't hurt anyone particularly."[127]

Grant's article attracted considerable interest, due to both the revelatory content of the taped conversation, and the novelty of Grant himself "turning the tables" on a tabloid journalist.[128]

Whilst the allegations regarding the News of the World continued to receive coverage in the broadsheets and similar media (Grant appeared, for example, on BBC Radio 4) it was only with the revelation that the voicemail of the by then murdered Millie Dowler had been hacked, and evidence for her murder enquiry had been deleted, that the coverage turned from media interest to widespread public (and eventually political) outrage. Grant became something of a spokesman against Murdoch's News Corporation, culminating in a performance on BBC television's Question Time in July 2011.[129]

Grant said, "It's been fascinating to have a little excursion into another world. I really needed that and also to be dealing with real life instead of creating synthetic life, which is what I've been doing for the last 25 years."[130]

Personal life

Relationships

Grant during the second round of Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, October 2007

In 1987, while playing Lord Byron in the Spanish production Remando Al Viento (1988), Grant met actress Elizabeth Hurley, who was cast in a supporting role as Byron's former lover Claire Clairmont.[41] Grant began dating Hurley during filming and their relationship was subsequently the subject of much media attention.[5][6] After 13 years together, they separated in May 2000.[131] He is godfather to her son Damian, born in 2002.[132] Grant subsequently began dating heiress Jemima Khan under the intense scrutiny of British tabloids.[11] Three years later, in February 2007, Grant and Khan separated amicably.[133]

In September 2011, Grant had a daughter, Tabitha, with Tinglan Hong, a receptionist at a Chinese restaurant in London.[134][135][136] His daughter's Chinese name is Xiao Xi, meaning "happy surprise".[137] Grant and Hong had a "fleeting affair", according to his publicist.[135] Grant has said that Hong has been "badly treated" by the media; the press intrusion prevented him from attending the birth of his daughter, with Hong obtaining an injunction to allow him to visit them in peace.[134] In September, 2012 Grant had a second child, John Mungo Grant, with Swedish television producer Anna Eberstein. He subsequently reunited with Hong, with whom he had his third child, Felix Grant, in 2013.[138][139] Grant and Eberstein then had a second child, Grant's fourth, in December 2015.[140]

Political views

In 2011, Grant appeared at the Liberal Democrats' conference on the News International phone-hacking scandal, where he briefly met then-party leader Nick Clegg. Grant said that he was attending the Conservative and Labour conferences as well, but told Lib Dem activists that "You, more than any of the other parties, have a good bill of health. You have never been in bed with these scumbags."[141]

In the 2015 UK general election, Grant expressed support for prominent Liberal Democrat figure Danny Alexander[142] and later hosted a dinner for the Liberal Democrats, in which he met the winner of a draw of donors to the Liberal Democrats.[143][144] In an email sent by former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown, Grant wrote: "I am not a Lib Dem, a Tory, a Labourite or anything in particular but I recognise political guts."[144]

In the 2015 election, Grant also endorsed two Labour candidates: Tom Watson (saying "I wish he could be our next Prime Minister to be honest"),[144] and his former agent, Michael Foster.[145]

Sports

As a young boy, he played rugby union on his school's first XV team at centre and played football as an avid fan of Fulham F.C.. He continued to play in a Sunday-morning football league in south-west London after college and remains an "impassioned Fulham supporter."[27] Grant's other interests include tennis[146] and snooker.[147]

In 2011, the BBC apologised after Grant made an offhand joke about homosexuality and rugby when he was invited into the commentary box during coverage of an England V Scotland game at Twickenham Stadium. Talking about playing rugby during his school days, Grant said: "I discovered it hurt less if you tackled hard than if you tackled like a queen."[148]

Charity work

Grant is a patron of the DIPEx Charity, which operates the website Healthtalkonline.[149][150][151] Grant is also patron of the Fynvola Foundation, named after his late mother; the foundation supports the Lady Dane Farmhouse, a home in Faversham for adults with learning disabilities.[152]

Since the death of his mother in 2001, Grant has worked as a fundraiser and ambassador for Marie Curie Cancer Care, promoting the charity's annual Great Daffodil Appeal on several occasions.[153][154][155] Grant is also a patron of Pancreatic Cancer Action.[156][157]

Filmography

Main article: Hugh Grant filmography

Awards and honours

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Hugh Grant

References

  1. ^ "Transcript of Afternoon Hearing 21 November 2011" (PDF). The Leveson Inquiry. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
  2. ^ "Hugh Grant Biography (1960–)". FilmReference.com. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
  3. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (16 December 2002). "Englishman who grossed B.O.". Variety. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  4. ^ a b Sharon Knolle and Liza Foreman (16 December 2002). "Scribe's alter ego evolves on celluloid". Variety. p. A8. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  5. ^ a b "Grant leaves girlfriend to face hurly-burly". The independent. 22 November 2015.
  6. ^ a b "Hurley and Grant fend off media". BBC. 22 November 2016.
  7. ^ a b c Knolle, Sharon (16 December 2002). "Prince Charming". Variety. p. A1. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  8. ^ "Rotten Tomatoes: Hugh Grant". IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 25 September 2007.
  9. ^ a b Dave Kehr, At the Movies: For Hugh Grant, Natural Does It, New York Times Archived 7 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine (17 May 2002)
  10. ^ "British screen legends: Hugh Grant". BBC. 21 February 2003. Retrieved 28 September 2007.
  11. ^ a b c d e f MacSweeney, Eve (1 February 2007). "Reluctant Romeo". Vogue. pp. 232–37. ISSN 0042-8000.
  12. ^ Parker, Eloise (3 February 2007). "Why Grant's so grumpy". Daily Post. p. 13. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  13. ^ a b "Bridget Jones's Diary: Interview With Hugh Grant". cinema.com. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
  14. ^ Cobain, Ian (4 June 2000). "Survivors of 'sacrificed' division still feel bitter". The Sunday Telegraph. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  15. ^ a b Gilchrist, Jim (17 August 2005). "Stars dig up surprises with their ancestors". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. Retrieved 10 September 2007.
  16. ^ "Grants of Glenmoriston". ElectricScotland.com. Retrieved 28 September 2007.
  17. ^ Hugh's Family Tree Archived 29 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ Hodgson, Richard. "Ancestors of a 21st century British family". MyFamily.com,Inc. Retrieved 10 September 2007.
  19. ^ Ritchie, John (24 January 2001). "'Upstage Guy? I should be so lucky". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 10 September 2007.
  20. ^ a b Nikkhah, Roya (9 October 2006). "Hugh Grant's (early) life in pictures". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 10 September 2007.
  21. ^ a b Presenter: James Lipton (12 May 2002). "Inside the Actors Studio: Hugh Grant". Inside the Actors Studio. Season 8. Episode 813. Bravo. Archived from the original on 13 May 2008. {{cite episode}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |transcripturl= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ "James Grant – 30 Years of Watercolours". jmlondon.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2007. Retrieved 18 October 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ Richard Boullemier (21 July 2007). "Chris bids farewell". Richmond & Twickenham Times. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  24. ^ WENN (13 July 2001). "Hugh Loses His Mother". cinema.com. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  25. ^ a b "Grant's Views". Variety. 16 December 2002. p. A2. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  26. ^ Zaslow, Jeffrey (23 May 1999). "Charming sex symbol? Handsome bumbler? Male chauvinist?". USA Weekend. Retrieved 10 September 2007. [dead link]
  27. ^ a b Philip, Robert (30 March 2003). "Fulham and golf top bill in Grant's off-screen life". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 14 September 2007.
  28. ^ "Hugh Grant amongst past pupils bidding farewell to Chris Hammond". ChiswickW4.com. 11 July 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  29. ^ Presenter: James Lipton (12 May 2002). "Inside the Actors Studio: Hugh Grant". Inside the Actors Studio. Season 8. Episode 813. Bravo. Archived from the original on 13 May 2008. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  30. ^ "Previous Judges: Hugh Grant". Costa Book Awards. Archived from the original on 24 August 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2007. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  31. ^ Driscoll, Margarette (13 October 2002). "Interview: Margarette Driscoll meets Anna Chancellor". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 10 September 2007.
  32. ^ Johnston, Damon (9 June 2002). "A not so rosy Hugh reveals his flaws". Sunday Telegraph. p. 99. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  33. ^ Zep. "Biography for Peter Kosminsky". IMDb. Retrieved 10 September 2007.
  34. ^ British Council (11 September 2005). "Hugh Grant Fulham FC (England)". ClubFootball-Fan Channel. Retrieved 10 September 2007.
  35. ^ Presenters: Valerie Pringle and Dan Matheson (6 September 1999). "British Filmmaker Divides Time Between Producing and Acting". Canada AM. CTV Television, Inc.
  36. ^ WENN (10 May 2002). "Hugh Grant Wistful For Radio Days". IMDB. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  37. ^ a b Arnold, Gary (14 May 1995). "'Charming, witty guy' puts his mark on summer films". The Washington Times. p. D3. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  38. ^ a b Tressider, Jody (2012). Hugh Grant: The Unauthorised Biography. Random House.
  39. ^ "Hugh Grant pines for a live crowd". Manchester Evening News. 22 November 2016.
  40. ^ Brown, Joe (15 April 1994). "Bitter Moon". Washington Post. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  41. ^ a b c d David, Kamp (1 May 2003). "Runaway bachelor". Vanity Fair. p. 170. ISSN 0733-8899.
  42. ^ a b c d e f g "Hugh Grant". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  43. ^ Jones, Chris (3 June 2005). "Faces of the week: Richard Curtis". BBC. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  44. ^ Marx, Andy (8 July 1994). "Grant inks two-year deal at Castle Rock". Variety. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  45. ^ Presenter: Jane Clayson (16 May 2002). "Hugh Grant discusses his new film 'About a Boy'". The Early Show. CBS.
  46. ^ "Hugh Grant and ex- may close movie company". UPI. 19 November 2004. Archived from the original on 30 December 2007. Retrieved 30 September 2007. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  47. ^ Howe, Desson (14 July 1995). "Movie Reviews:Nine Months". The Washington Post. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  48. ^ a b Maslin, Janet (21 July 1995). "Film Review:A Look at Hugh Grant Before His Big Success". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 January 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2007. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  49. ^ Ebert, Robert (25 September 1995). "Movie Reviews:An Awfully Big Adventure". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  50. ^ Guthmann, Edwards (21 July 1995). "This Grant 'Adventure' An Awfully Chilly One". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  51. ^ "Hugh Grant Stands Out In Generic Thriller `Extreme Measures'". Chicago Tribune. 22 November 2016.
  52. ^ Clinton, Paul (27 May 1999). "Review: Julia, Hugh a perfect match for 'Notting Hill'". CNN. Retrieved 21 May 2007.
  53. ^ Zacharek, Stephanie (28 May 1999). "Film Review:Notting Hill". Salon.com. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  54. ^ Maslin, Janet (28 May 1999). "Film Review:Looking for a Book And Finding a Man". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 30 December 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2007. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  55. ^ Ebert, Robert (20 August 1999). "Movie Reviews:Mickey Blue Eyes". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  56. ^ Turan, Kenneth (20 August 1999). "Movie Review: Mickey Blue Eyes". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 20 April 2006. Retrieved 29 September 2007. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  57. ^ Presenter: Matt Lauer (17 May 2000). "Hugh Grant discusses his new film, 'Small Time Crooks'". The Today Show. NBC.
  58. ^ "Hugh Grant joins board of IM Internationalmedia AG". PR Newswire Europe Limited. 8 May 2000. Retrieved 20 September 2007.
  59. ^ Sarris, Andrew (28 May 2000). "With Woody's Cookie Caper, Some Careers Could Cool Off". The New York Observer. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  60. ^ Holden, Stephen (20 May 2000). "Film Review: Just Take the Money and Run? Nah, She Wants Class and Culcha". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  61. ^ Robey, Tim (16 December 2002). "Auds Prefer Grant Unattached". Variety. pp. A2–A4. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  62. ^ Hunter, Stephen (13 April 2001). "Chaos and Cads". The Washington Post. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  63. ^ Dawson, Tom (22 April 2002). "Film Review: About a Boy (2002)". BBC. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  64. ^ a b Hornaday, Ann (17 May 2002). "'About a Boy': A Rake's Amusingly Slow Progress". The Washington Post. p. C01. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  65. ^ Peter, Travers (6 June 2002). "Reviews: About A Boy". Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone Australia. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  66. ^ Ebert, Roger (17 May 2002). "Movie Reviews: About A Boy". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  67. ^ "Hugh Grant Film Actor, Comedy". GQ. November 2002. p. 325. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  68. ^ Sarris, Andrew (26 May 2002). "Old Dog Loves New Trick, A Ploy for Seducing Singletons". The New York Observer. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  69. ^ a b Gleiberman, Owen (15 May 2002). "Review: About A Boy". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
  70. ^ Park, Ed (25 December 2002). "Working Weak". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 10 December 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  71. ^ Lyall, Sara (3 November 2003). "Four Comedies and a Collaboration". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
  72. ^ Ebert, Roger (7 November 2003). "Movie Reviews: Love Actually". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  73. ^ Reed, Rex (9 November 2003). "Lovesick Brits Ooze Treacle". The New York Observer. New York Observer. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  74. ^ "Blair lambasts 'fringe fanatics'". BBC. 27 September 2005. Retrieved 3 October 2007.
  75. ^ James, Caryn (26 April 2006). "Pop Beats Politics in the Race For Laughs". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  76. ^ Burr, Ty (21 April 2006). "American Dreamz Movie Review". Boston Globe. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  77. ^ Chocano, Carina (21 April 2006). "Movie Review: 'American Dreamz'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 24 October 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2007. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  78. ^ Lemire, Christy (13 February 2007). "Review: 'Music and Lyrics' an Odd Combo". San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 31 December 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2007. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  79. ^ Whitty, Stephen. "Film Review: Music and Lyrics". The Star-Ledger. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  80. ^ LaSalle, Mike (14 February 2007). "When cute couple write pop songs, they may find love". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  81. ^ "Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
  82. ^ Kerr, Elizabeth (18 June 2014). "'The Rewrite': Shanghai Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  83. ^ The Rewrite review – Irish times Archived 11 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  84. ^ "Hugh Grant Joins 'Man from U.N.C.L.E.'". hollywoodreporter.com. 8 August 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
  85. ^ "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: EW review". Entertainment Weekly. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  86. ^ "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: RogerEbert.com review". RogerEbert.com. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  87. ^ "imdb.com Florence Foster Jenkins". Imdb.com. IMDb.
  88. ^ Marre, Oliver (29 April 2007). "I want to be alone. Oh really?". The Observer. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  89. ^ Kempley, Rita (12 July 1995). "'Nine Months'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  90. ^ Hunter, Stephen (14 February 2007). "'Music and Lyrics': Work Is What Makes Life Hum". The Washington Post. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  91. ^ David Thomson A New Biographical Dictionary of Film, London: Little Brown, 2002, p.352. Published in New York by Knopf.
  92. ^ a b Vanessa Thorpe, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, the screen's leading Englishmen at 50, Guardian (September 26, 2010).
  93. ^ Dargis, Manohla (21 April 2006). "Paul Weitz's 'American Dreamz': An 'Idol' Clone With a Presidential Aura". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  94. ^ Puig, Claudia (16 May 2002). "'About a Boy' has singular charm". USA Today. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  95. ^ Hodgman, John (12 November 2006). "How to Be Funny". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  96. ^ Chocano, Carina (14 February 2007). "A reluctant leading man". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  97. ^ Hicks, Chris (20 May 1991). "Film review: Impromptu". Deseret News. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  98. ^ Maslin, Janet (21 July 1995). "FILM REVIEW; A Look at Hugh Grant Before His Big Success". The New York Times.
  99. ^ De Semlyen, Phil (15 February 2012). "Exclusive: Hugh Grant Talks Cloud Atlas". Empire. Retrieved 2 November 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  100. ^ Kung, Michelle (11 February 2007). "Fashioning Hugh into a proper pop star". The Boston Globe. p. 13. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  101. ^ "Hugh Grant pays a moving tribute to his mother at charity dinner1". Hello!. 8 June 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  102. ^ Masterson, Lawrie (23 April 2006). "Taken for granted". Sunday Tasmanian. p. A06. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  103. ^ Thompson, Bob (27 January 2007). "Shrug, actually: "Hugh Said, Drew Said,"". National Post. Canada. p. TO30. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  104. ^ Lyman, Rick (20 August 1999). "Sweating Out The Numbers". The New York Times. p. 23. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  105. ^ Svetkey, Benjamin (30 December 1994). "Cover Story: 7 HUGH GRANT". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 21 September 2007.
  106. ^ Ginsberg, Merle (April 2002). "True Hugh". W. Archived from the original on 14 August 2007. Retrieved 21 October 2007.
  107. ^ Turner, Janice (29 January 2005). "In this girls' world, boys are deviants". Times Online. London. Retrieved 19 September 2007.
  108. ^ Foreman, Liza (16 December 2002). "Curtis, Grant team for boffo B.O.". Variety. pp. A8. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  109. ^ Presenter: Scott Simon (8 November 2003). "Richard Curtis discusses his new film, 'Love Actually'". Weekend Edition Saturday. NPR. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  110. ^ Fleming, Michael (30 November 2006). "Grant has alone time". Variety. p. 4. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  111. ^ Howard, Stephen (4 June 1996). "Actor Hugh wins substantial libel award". Press Association. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  112. ^ "Hugh Grant accepts libel damages". BBC. 27 April 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  113. ^ Tryhorn, Chris (27 April 2007). "Associated pays Grant damages". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 17 February 2007.
  114. ^ Wilson, Jeff (27 June 1995). "Suave, Charm and Good Looks: Why Would Hugh Grant Pay for Sex?". Associated Press. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  115. ^ Moyes, Jojo (12 July 1995). "Grant pays for his 'lewd conduct'". The Independent. p. 1. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  116. ^ "British actor pleads no contest to lewd conduct". Deutsche Presse-Agentur. 12 July 1995. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  117. ^ Sweeney, Don (June 2006). "Tonight Show Hits the Road". Backstage at the Tonight Show: From Johnny Carson to Jay Leno. Maryland, USA: Taylor Trade Publishing. p. 210.
  118. ^ Lowry, Brian (12 July 1995). "Hugh-man interest lifts 'Leno' rating". Variety. p. 5. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  119. ^ Kitty Bean Yancey, Jeannie Williams (11 July 1995). "Grant confesses: No excuse for escapade". USA Today. p. 1D. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  120. ^ "Nine Months star Hugh Grant runs talk show gauntlet". CNN. 11 July 1995. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  121. ^ "Hugh Grant Declines Interviewer's Invitation to Probe His Psyche". Associated Press. 12 July 1995. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  122. ^ Interviewer: Larry King (12 July 1995). "Hugh Grant Talks About His Arrest". Larry King Live. CNN. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  123. ^ "Hugh Grant finds "honesty" best policy". CNN. 17 July 1995. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  124. ^ "Hugh Grant arrested over 'attack'". BBC. 26 April 2007. Retrieved 1 October 2007.
  125. ^ "Hugh Grant arrested over "baked beans attack"". Reuters. 26 April 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2007.
  126. ^ "No assault charges for Hugh Grant". BBC. 1 June 2007. Retrieved 3 October 2007.
  127. ^ a b c Hugh Grant (12 April 2011). "The bugger, bugged". New Statesman.
  128. ^ Benedictus, Leo; Long, Josie (16 April 2011). "From Stephen Fry to Hugh Grant: The rise of the celebrity activist". The Guardian. London.
  129. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (8 July 2011). "Hugh Grant's best role yet – scourge of News International". The Guardian. London.
  130. ^ Asi, Husam Sam (8 March 2012). "Hugh Grant prefers politics to acting". UKScreen.com. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  131. ^ "Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley announced the split due to an affair with Matt Colburn from Danville, Ca". Associated Press Archive. Associated Press. 23 May 2000. Retrieved 17 February 2007.
  132. ^ "Liz Hurley's son finally permitted to watch godfather Hugh Grant's movie". Yahoo news. ANI. 24 March 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  133. ^ "Hugh Grant splits with girlfriend Jemima Khan". Reuters. 16 February 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  134. ^ a b Aitkenhead, Decca (16 March 2012). "Hugh Grant: 'I love getting into a taxi and saying House of Lords instead of Soho – again'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  135. ^ a b "Hugh Grant's supplemental witness statement to the Leveson inquiry". The Guardian. London. 23 November 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
  136. ^ "Grant wooed in Chinese restaurant". news.com.au. 7 November 2011. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  137. ^ "Hugh Grant on being a dad". The Ellen DeGeneres Show. 26 April 2012.
  138. ^ Nikkhah, Roya (16 February 2013). "Hugh Grant 'thrilled' with his new baby boy". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  139. ^ Lee, Esther (12 September 2014). "Hugh Grant Breaks Silence on His Love Child With Anna Eberstein: 'I Love Him Very Much'". Us Weekly. The actor is also a dad to two other kids: daughter Tabitha, 3, and son Felix, 21 months, with Tinglan Hong
  140. ^ "Nu kan Anna från Sundsvall fira ny babylycka med Hugh Grant / Now Anna from Sundsvall celebrates new baby happiness with Hugh Grant". Sundsvalls Tidning. 20 December 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2015. Anna Ebersteins mamma Susanne Eberstein, socialdemokratisk riksdagsledamot, som bor i Sundsvall bekräftar att de fått ytterligare ett barn. / Anna Eberstein's mother Susanne Eberstein, a Social Democratic member of parliament, who lives in Sundsvall, confirmed that they had another child.
  141. ^ Emma Griffiths, Hugh Grant reverts to type to charm Lib Dems Archived 4 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News (18 September 2011).
  142. ^ "Hugh Grant backing Danny Alexander in election". The Scotsman. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  143. ^ Lindsay, Caron (2 May 2015). "Fancy a chance of dinner with Hugh Grant? Just donate to Lib Dems before Monday evening". Liberal Democrat Voice. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  144. ^ a b c Tom Watson should be Prime Minister, says Hugh Grant Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Express & Star (4 May 2015).
  145. ^ Katy Forrester, Hugh Grant jokes about seeing his former agent in the BATH in hilarious video for Labour MP candidate Archived 9 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Mirror (20 April 2015).
  146. ^ "Up Close and Personal". Variety. 16 December 2002. pp. A10–12. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  147. ^ "Hugh Grant biography, net worth, quotes, wiki, assets, cars, homes and more". Born Rich. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  148. ^ "BBC apologises for Hugh Grant's gay rugby comment". Pink News. 14 March 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
  149. ^ Amanda Williams, Docs honoured in UK health awards Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine (24 May 2011), Oxford Mail.
  150. ^ Hugh Grant Backs Bipolar Disorder Experience Website Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Equilibrium: The Bipolar Foundation (13 January 2010).
  151. ^ Fiona Barr, [Patient experience pioneer dies], DigitalHealth.net (31 May 2011).
  152. ^ Actor Hugh Grant drops into Faversham to support Fynvola Foundation Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Kent Online (28 June 2010).
  153. ^ Hugh Grant backs Marie Curie Cancer Care appeal in his mother's memory Archived 4 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Telegraph (25 February 2008).
  154. ^ Hugh Grant backs Wiltshire Daffodil Appeal Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Gazette & Herald (8 February 2009).
  155. ^ [Hugh Grant in video plea for Marie Curie fund], Bolton News (9 March 2010).
  156. ^ Mary Elizabeth Williams, Pancreatic Cancer Action charity should realise that the disease is not a competition Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Independent (6 February 2014).
  157. ^ Hugh Grant holds a purple P to show his support for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month Archived 29 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine (press release), Pancreatic Cancer Action (7 November 2013).
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hugh Grant.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Grant&oldid=750949480"