103 Facts About Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant established himself early in his career as a charming and vulnerable romantic leading man, and has since transitioned into a character actor.

Hugh Grant has received several accolades including a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards.

Hugh Grant made his feature film acting debut in Privileged, followed by the romantic drama Maurice for which he gained acclaim as well as the Volpi Cup for Best Actor.

Hugh Grant then acted in a string of successful period dramas such as The Remains of the Day, Sense and Sensibility and Restoration.

Hugh Grant emerged as a star with Richard Curtis's romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, for which he won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Actor.

Hugh Grant starred in further romantic comedies such as Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary and its 2004 and 2025 sequels, About a Boy, Two Weeks Notice, Love Actually and Music and Lyrics.

Hugh Grant began to take against-type parts earning nominations for two BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his roles as St Clair Bayfield in Florence Foster Jenkins and a haughty actor in Paddington 2.

Hugh Grant has acted in the science fiction film Cloud Atlas, several Guy Ritchie action films including The Gentlemen, the musical fantasy Wonka, and the horror film Heretic, which earned him another BAFTA nomination.

Hugh Grant earned two nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor for his roles as Jeremy Thorpe in the BBC miniseries A Very English Scandal and a man accused of murder in the HBO miniseries The Undoing.

Hugh Grant has been outspoken about his antipathy towards the profession of acting, his disdain towards the culture of celebrity, and his hostility towards the media.

Hugh Grant emerged as a prominent critic of the conduct of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation during the News International phone hacking scandal.

Hugh Grant was born on September 9,1960 in Hammersmith Hospital, the second son of Fynvola Susan MacLean.

Hugh Grant's father was an officer in the Seaforth Highlanders for eight years in Malaya and Germany.

Hugh Grant ran a carpet business and pursued hobbies such as golf and watercolour painting; he raised his family in Chiswick, West London, where the Grants lived next to Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane.

Hugh Grant spent many of his childhood summers hunting and fishing with his grandfather in Scotland.

Hugh Grant has an older brother, James "Jamie" Hugh Grant, a New York-based investment banker.

Hugh Grant started his education at Hogarth Primary School in Chiswick, then moved to St Peter's Primary School in Hammersmith, followed by Wetherby School, an independent preparatory school in Notting Hill.

Hugh Grant was educated on a scholarship and played 1st XV rugby, cricket, and football.

Hugh Grant represented Latymer Upper on the quiz show Top of the Form, an academic competition between two teams of four secondary school students each.

Hugh Grant starred in his first film, Privileged, produced by the Oxford University Film Foundation.

Hugh Grant turned down an offer from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, to pursue a PhD in art history because he failed to secure a grant.

Still intending to begin his MPhil at the Courtauld Institute, Hugh Grant declined, but then later reconsidered, thinking that acting for a year would be a good way to save some money for his studies.

Bored with small acting parts, Hugh Grant created a sketch-comedy group called The Jockeys of Norfolk, a name taken from Shakespeare's Richard III, with friends Chris Lang and Andy Taylor.

In 1985 and 1986, Hugh Grant had minor roles in eight television productions, including TV films, historical miniseries and single episodes of series.

Hugh Grant was Lord Byron in a Goya Award-winning Spanish production called Remando al viento and portrayed legendary champagne merchant Charles Heidsieck in the television film Champagne Charlie.

At 32, Hugh 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.

Hugh Grant was careful to play up to the affable and self-deprecating English gent.

Hugh Grant 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.

Hugh Grant appointed his then-girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, as the head of development to look for prospective projects.

Hugh Grant closed its US office in 2002 and Grant resigned as director in December 2005.

Hugh Grant portrayed the supercilious director of a repertory company in post-World War II Liverpool.

Hugh Grant's first studio-financed Hollywood project was opposite Julianne Moore in Chris Columbus's comedy Nine Months.

In 1995 he performed in Restoration; Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote that Hugh Grant is "having a fine and liberating time playing a supercilious court portrait painter", and Kevin Thomas of Los Angeles Times said he has "some delicious moments" in the film.

Hugh Grant made his debut as a film producer with the 1996 thriller Extreme Measures.

What's maddening about Hugh Grant is that he just never cuts the crap.

Hugh Grant released his second production output, a fish-out-of-water mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes, that year.

That's how good Hugh Grant is at rescuing doomed ventures.

Hugh 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".

In 2002, Hugh Grant starred as the trust-funded womaniser, Will Freeman, in the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's best-selling novel About a Boy.

The BBC thought Hugh Grant delivered an "immaculate comic performance", and with an Academy Award-nominated screenplay, About a Boy 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".

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.

Hugh Grant was paired with Sandra Bullock in Warner Bros.

Roger Ebert claimed that "Hugh 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".

Hugh Grant played his self-aggrandising character, an amalgam of Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest, with smarmy self-loathing.

Hugh Grant was featured in the Wachowskis' and Tom Tykwer's epic science fiction film Cloud Atlas in 2012, playing six different dark characters.

Hugh Grant reunited with Lawrence again for a dramedy film The Rewrite, starring opposite Marisa Tomei.

The film received mixed-to-positive reviews, while Hugh Grant's performance was praised by many critics; director Quentin Tarantino has stated that the film is one of his favourites of the year and called Hugh Grant a "perfect leading man".

In 2016, Hugh Grant played St Clair Bayfield, partner of the title character, in the film Florence Foster Jenkins, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Meryl Streep.

Hugh Grant was nominated for his first individual Screen Actors Guild Award and earned nominations for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, a Critics' Choice Award, a Satellite Award and a European Film Award.

Hugh Grant's next appearance was as Phoenix Buchanan, the main antagonist of Paddington 2, which was a commercial and critical success.

Hugh Grant's performance was ranked as the 22nd greatest movie performance of the decade by IndieWire in 2019.

In 2018, Hugh Grant returned to television screens after 25 years, as Jeremy Thorpe opposite Ben Whishaw as Norman Josiffe in the BBC One miniseries A Very English Scandal, which marked his second collaboration with director Stephen Frears.

The miniseries, and in particular Hugh Grant, were widely and highly praised.

Digital Spy's review stated that "There's always been a bit of the devil in Hugh Grant's best turns, and in Thorpe, a man with a fully-realised dark side, he's found his richest part in years".

Hugh Grant was nominated for several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

Hugh Grant plays Fletcher, a seedy and unscrupulous private investigator, which he called "a fun bit of casting" referring to his Hacked Off campaigning.

Hugh Grant has stated he based his character on tabloid reporters who "used to be my enemies and now they're my friends".

In 2020, Hugh Grant starred in HBO miniseries The Undoing, opposite Nicole Kidman and Donald Sutherland.

The miniseries was premiered on 25 October 2020 to mixed reviews, though Hugh Grant's performance was widely acclaimed.

Hugh Grant received a Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award and Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for his performance.

In 2023, Hugh Grant reunited with Guy Ritchie for the action Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre alongside Jason Statham and Aubrey Plaza.

Club said Hugh Grant "delivers a fantastic character performance" and "is so committed that he throws off the balance of the ensemble because no one else is as good as he is".

Also in 2023, Hugh Grant appeared as an Oompa-Loompa in Wonka, a film which serves as a prequel to the Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, exploring Willy Wonka's origins.

Hugh Grant next starred in the A24 horror film Heretic.

In 2025, Hugh Grant returned to the romantic comedy genre in a supporting role, reprising his role as Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.

Hugh Grant has stated that his role is brief and the film has more dramatic depth than previous parts, claiming the script has made him cry.

Over his career Hugh Grant has received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Volpi Cup for Best Actor as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Hugh Grant began his career as a character actor but became predominantly a comedy actor from his rise to stardom in mid-1990s until the 2010s.

Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post once stated that, to be effective as a comic performer, Hugh Grant must get "his jiving and shucking under control".

Hugh Grant played a sleazy, snide community theatre director with a penchant for young actors in the drama film An Awfully Big Adventure, which received critical praise, and for "a very quiet, dignified" performance as Frederic Chopin in James Lapine's biopic film Impromptu.

Hugh Grant is known as a meticulous performer who approaches his roles like a character actor, working hard to make his acting appear spontaneous.

Hugh Grant has expressed boredom with playing the celebrity in the press and is known in the media for his guarded privacy.

Hugh 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.

Hugh Grant is a self-confessed "committed and passionate" perfectionist on a film set.

Hugh Grant is noted by co-workers for demanding endless takes until he achieves the desired shot according to his own standard.

Hugh Grant dropped his agent in 2006, ending a 10-year relationship with CAA.

In 1996, Hugh Grant won substantial damages from News Ltd over what his lawyers called a "highly defamatory" article published in January 1995.

Hugh Grant's lawyer stated that all of the articles' "allegations and factual assertions are false".

Hugh Grant pleaded no contest and was fined $1,180 by Judge Robert J Sandoval, was placed on two years' summary probation, and was ordered to complete an AIDS education program.

Hugh Grant made no official statement and did not comment on the incident.

In unguarded comments which were secretly taped by Hugh 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.

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

Hugh Grant became something of a spokesman against Murdoch's News Corporation, culminating in his appearance on BBC television's Question Time in July 2011.

Hugh Grant donated the payout to the press campaign group Hacked Off.

In 1987, while playing Lord Byron in the Spanish production Remando Al Viento, Hugh Grant met actress Elizabeth Hurley, who was cast in a supporting role as Byron's former lover Claire Clairmont.

Hugh Grant began dating Hurley during filming and their relationship was the subject of much media attention.

Hugh Grant is godfather to Hurley's son Damian, born in 2002.

In September 2012, Hugh Grant's second child, a son, was born to Swedish television producer Anna Eberstein.

Later, Hugh Grant reunited briefly with Hong, and she gave birth to Hugh Grant's third child, a son, in December 2012.

Hugh Grant's daughters with Eberstein were born in December 2015 and March 2018.

In 2011, Hugh Grant appeared at the Liberal Democrats' conference on the News International phone-hacking scandal, where he briefly met then-party leader Nick Clegg.

Hugh Grant was seen canvassing with Liberal Democrats candidates, Labour candidates, and independent Dominic Grieve.

Hugh Grant stated that Denyer was "a politician with integrity, who puts the public first".

Hugh Grant continued to play in a Sunday-morning football league in south-west London after college and remains an "impassioned Fulham supporter".

In 2011, the BBC apologised after Hugh 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.

In 2018, Hugh Grant mentioned the on-set tension that he and Robert Downey Jr.

Hugh Grant took one look at me and wanted to kill me.

However, on a Graham Norton Show appearance, Hugh Grant told Graham Norton he did not know why he mentioned Weisz and he was probably "going for a 'comedy triple'".

Hugh Grant is on good terms with Barrymore and appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show.

Hugh Grant has praised many other female co-stars, including Sandra Bullock, Sarah Jessica Parker, Emma Thompson, and Meryl Streep, who co-starred with him in Florence Foster Jenkins and was "a genius" according to Hugh Grant.

Hugh Grant referred to his Bridget Jones's Diary co-star Renee Zellweger as "delightful".

Hugh Grant is a patron of the DIPEx Charity, which operates the website Healthtalkonline.

Hugh Grant is patron of the Fynvola Foundation, named after his late mother; it supports the Lady Dane Farmhouse, a home in Faversham for adults with learning disabilities.