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oarsman like his father was the main reason he attended the university. He stated “Anthropology was the most convenient subject to read while spending eight hours a day on the river.” During this time in his life, he was dedicating a lot of time during his day to rowing and was on track to become an Olympic standard rower. In 1980, Laurie rowed for Cambridge in the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, but lost by nearly 5 feet. Unfortunately, Laurie was forced to put his rowing ambitions aside due to mononucleosis. This unexpected setback could have been the most important in his life. To fill his void of rowing, Laurie auditioned for Footlights, the university’s world-renowned drama society. His audition was successful, and by 1980, Laurie became the president of Footlights. Upon becoming a member of the society, Laurie became friends with Emma Thompson – whom he was romantically involved with for some time – and Stephen Fry. The three friends graduated from the university in 1981 with a road of opportunity in front of them. After the trio won the Perrier Comedy Award for their sketch, “The Cellar Tapes,” they took a tour across England and Australia. The three teamed up with Grenada television to create numerous sketch comedy shows throughout the 1980s. By 1986, Laurie and Fry went out on their own to establish themselves as household names in Britain thanks to their several comedy shows, including Fry and Laurie, which ran for 8 years. After marrying his wife, Jo Green, in 1989, Laurie and Fry had one last series together called Jeeves and Wooster. The show aired for four seasons until its end in 1993. In the 1990s, Laurie proved himself to be a multi-talented man. He branched out into films, music, and writing, where he first appeared alongside former girlfriend, Emma Thompson, in the film version of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (1995). Laurie also appeared in other films including The Borrowers, Spice World, 101 Dalmatians, The Man in the Iron Mask, and three Stuart Little films. In 1996, he published his first novel, The Gun Seller, which became a bestseller. Since 2002, Laurie had surfaced in a range of British dramas on television and had done a
few voice-overs for shows like Family Guy and Preston Pig. But Laurie really struck gold in 2004 when he was cast for the Fox television drama, House. During the time of auditions for the main character of the show, Laurie was in Namibia, filming Flight of the Phoenix. He decided to record his audition tape for House in the bathroom of the hotel because it was the only place he could get enough light. Laurie improvised and used an umbrella as a cane and covered up his British accent with a very convincing-sounding American accent. Despite the fact that Bryan Singer, the executive producer of House, thought that there was no way he was going to hire a non-American actor for the role, he was highly impressed by Laurie’s audition tape. Singer was completely unaware that Laurie was British and commented on how well the “American actor was able to grasp the character.” Needless to say, Singer went against his statement about not wanting a non-American actor and cast Laurie for the character of Dr. Gregory House. Laurie’s infamous character on the drama series was known to be a Vicodin-addicted, tortured, erratic, and pessimistic doctor with a damaged leg. He was the head of a team of diagnosticians at the PrincetonPlainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. Most of the episodes revolved around the diagnosis of patients in the hospital. Laurie commented in regards to playing House, “I don’t feel he was my character; he’s not like me, or I’m not like him, but I do love him. I think it’s part of an actor’s responsibility to love the character you play, and I found him endlessly unpredictable and funny and selfloathing and unhappy.” Laurie continued to play the brilliant yet arrogant Dr. House for eight years until the series finale on May 21, 2012. The TV drama was a hit series. House was among the top ten rated shows in the United States from its 2nd-4th seasons. The show was distributed to 66 countries with an audience of over 81.8 million viewers worldwide and became the most watched television program in 2008. Due to its popularity, Laurie was being paid $275,000 to $300,000 per episode from the start of season three. Later, Laurie’s payout increased drastically and he was listed in the 2011 Guinness Book of World Records as the highest paid ac-
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tor ever in a TV Drama with a payout of around $700,000 per episode, and for being the most watched leading man on television. Despite his high earnings, Laurie said he felt guilty for “being paid more to become a fake version of [his] father,” who was a British general practitioner. Although his father wasn’t alive to see Laurie take on the role of House, Laurie stated “I think he would enjoy elements of it and would be appalled, in some ways, by House’s boorish behavior. My father was a gentle, well-mannered, and considerate man and would have gone to great lengths to make patients feel at ease and content. At the same time, he would admire Dr. House’s ruthless pursuit of the correct diagnosis.” As for Laurie’s opinion of doctors in general, he said “I find white coats rather saintly in some ways. I have a reverence for the practice of medicine – I’m a great believer in Western medicine and all its wonders.” Along with his large salary, Laurie received two Golden Globe awards, two Screen Actors Guild awards, and six Emmy nominations. The show itself won a Peabody Award in 2005, Creative Arts Emmy Award for prosthetic makeup in 2007, four People’s Choice Awards in 2011, was nominated four times by the Emmy board for Outstanding Drama Series, and was nominated for six Golden Globe Awards and has received two. Laurie has absolutely made his mark on network television. House was a hit-show that broke records and managed to create buzz among over 80 million people worldwide. Laurie leaves his arrogant doctor character in the past, and is currently focusing more on his band, Copper Bottom Band, who has done numerous concerts around the world. Surely, this is not the last we will hear about the highly accomplished and world-famous Hugh Laurie.<
“I find white coats rather saintly in some ways. I have a reverence for the practice of medicine – I’m a great believer in Western medicine and all its wonders.” STYLETOME.COM