Hugh Laurie

James Hugh Calum Laurie (; born 11 June 1959) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and musician. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry. The two acted together in a number of projects during the 1980s and 1990s, including the BBC sketch comedy series A Bit of Fry & Laurie and the P. G. Wodehouse adaptation Jeeves and Wooster. From 1986 to 1989 he appeared in three series of the period comedy Blackadder alongside Rowan Atkinson, first as a recurring guest star in the last two episodes of Blackadder II, and remains the only actor in the Blackadder series to have played two completely different characters in the same series before he joined the main cast in Blackadder the Third, Laurie going on to appear in Blackadder Goes Forth and many future specials. From 2004 to 2012, Laurie starred as Dr. Gregory House on the Fox medical drama series House. He received two Golden Globe Awards and many other accolades for the role, and was listed in the 2011 Guinness World Records as the most watched leading man on television and was one of the highest-paid actors in a television drama at the time, earning $409,000 (£250,000) per episode of House. By the end of the series, he was earning $700,000 an episode. His other television credits include appearing in the London-based Friends episode, "The One with Ross's Wedding" (1998), starring as arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper in the miniseries The Night Manager (2016), for which he won his third Golden Globe Award, and playing Senator Tom James in the HBO sitcom Veep (2012–2019), for which he received his 10th Emmy Award nomination. Laurie has also appeared in films, including Peter's Friends (1992), Sense and Sensibility (1995), 101 Dalmatians (1996), The Borrowers (1997), The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), Stuart Little (1999), Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001), Arthur Christmas (2011) in which he voiced Steven Claus, and The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020). Outside of acting, Laurie released the blues albums Let Them Talk (2011) and Didn't It Rain (2013), both to favourable reviews. He authored the novel The Gun Seller (1996). He was appointed OBE in the 2007 New Year Honours and CBE in the 2018 New Year Honours, both for services to drama.