Background
Hugh Grant was born on 9 September 1962 in London, City of London, United Kingdom.
Hugh Grant was born on 9 September 1962 in London, City of London, United Kingdom.
He went to Oxford and worked on stage.
His first movie—as Hughie Grant—was the Oxford- based Privileged (82, Michael Hoffman), as “Lord Adrian.” He also played Apsley Cherry- Garrard in a TV version of The Last Place on Earth (85, Ferdinand Fairfax). His screen career began properly a few years later: Maurice (87, James Ivory); White Mischief (88, Michael Radford); The Lair of the White Worm (88, Ken Russell); as Byron in Rowing with the Wind (89, Gonzalo Suarez); as Chopin in Impromptu (90, James Lapine); Crossing the Line (91, David Leland); Bitter Moon (92, Roman Polanski); a breakthrough in Four Weddings and a Funeral (94, Mike Newell); Night Train to Venice (95, Carlo U. Quinterio); Sirens (94, John Duigan); An Awfully Big Adventure (95, Newell); The Eng¬lishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain (95, Christopher Monger); Nine Months (95, Chris Columbus); Restoration (95, Hoffman); Sense and Sensibility (95, Ang Lee); Extreme Measures (96, Michael Apted)—which was produced by Elizabeth Hurley, his then companion (when he wasn’t availing himself of Hollywood prostitutes, and getting caught—the homeless sneeze syndrome); allegedly breathing the same air as Julia Roberts in Notting Hill (99, Roger Michell); Mickey Blue Eyes (99, Kelly Makin); Small Time Crooks (00, Woody Allen);
Bridget Jones’s Diary (01, Sharon Maguire); About a Boy (02, Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz).
With his drooping chin and pouty lips, his quaff of hair and dithery manner, Hugh Grant seems like a refugee from 1930s theatre—or an incipient sneeze looking for a vacant nose. That he gets away with it—or has done so far—attests to the special American sentimentality for soft toffee in Brits. Of course, it is no small part of this that his successful romantic comedies all give up the ghost before they’re over, as if succumbing to the itchy mannerisms that pass for acting in Grant.