BIOGRAPHY

Hugh was born June 11, 1959 in Oxford, England, the youngest of four children of Dr. W.G.R.M. and Patricia Laurie. He attended the Dragon School, a well-known prep school in Oxford, and went on to Eton College, perhaps England's best-known public school.

Hugh's father had been an outstanding oarsman at Cambridge, Henley Royal Regatta, and in the Olympic Games, where he won a gold medal in 1948. At Eton, Hugh also became an oarsman. He rowed for the school, becoming junior national champion in coxed pairs (with J.S. Palmer) and finishing fourth in the Junior World Championships in 1977.

Hugh went up to Cambridge University in 1978 to read archaeology and anthropology - and to row. He rowed for his college (Selwyn) and also for the University in one of its premier sporting events, the annual Boat Race against Oxford University.

This race, going back to the mid-1800s, is a gruelling contest between two crews of eight rowed on the tidal Thames each spring. To be a rowing Blue, as those who participate in the race are called, is to have earned one of the most highly-prized sporting honors Oxbridge has to offer. In his first year at Cambridge, Hugh was rowing in the "A" trials crew for Boat Race selection, and was tipped to be picked for the six-seat, the "strong man" position. Unfortunately, he fell ill with glandular fever and had to quit rowing in early January 1979. He did make the crew for the 1980 Boat Race, as did his former Etonian crewmate J.S. Palmer. The race they rowed in was one of the most exciting in years, with Cambridge almost coming from behind (an unheard-of occurrence for any crew in this race) and eventually losing to Oxford by less than ten feet, the closest finish of the century. Hugh has mentioned in interviews that the loss still rankles.

A few months later Laurie and Palmer entered for the Silver Goblets (coxless pairs) at Henley Royal Regatta; they were the only British crew that year to reach a final in an elite event. They finished second to a heavily-favored American pair.

Hugh also joined the Footlights Club at Cambridge, and got his start performing in their comedy revues and pantomimes. Footlights is a comedy club that has launched the show-business careers of such famous alumni as Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, John Lloyd, Griff Rhy Jones, and on and on. Also joining Footlights that year was Emma Thompson, with whom he had a brief romance. Hugh was president and Emma vice-president of the club in 1980/81, a year which saw one of the club's most successful revues, The Cellar Tapes, win the first Perrier "Pick of the Fringe" Award for comedy at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The revue co-starred and was co-written by new recruit Stephen Fry, whose 1980 Fringe play Latin! had so impressed Hugh that he asked Emma to introduce them with a hope of getting Stephen to write with him for the coming year's revues. They became good friends, and their writing partnership was to last more than ten years.

Winning the Perrier Award led to a West End transfer for the revue, and then to a TV offer for Hugh, Emma and Stephen in two sketch series for Granada. Hugh and Stephen Fry went on to form a comedy double-act that became a fixture of British television through the mid-1990s in series such as Blackadder, A Bit of Fry & Laurie, and most notably, Jeeves and Wooster. [See filmography]

Subsequently, Hugh branched out into films, in such diverse roles as Cruella DeVil's henchman in 101 Dalmatians, Baron Hector Hulot in the adaptation of Balzac's Cousin Bette, Mr. Little in Stuart Little and its sequel, a BBC staffer in Maybe Baby, and an oil company exec in Flight of the Phoenix. [See Filmography]

Hugh has also starred in a West End play (Ben Elton's satire Gasping), done TV commercials as both actor and director, been one of the leading commercial voice artists in Britain, and recorded a number of audiobooks.

Hugh's first novel was published in 1996. The Gun Seller, an affectionate homage to the espionage novels of LeCarre and others, made the best-seller list in Britain and was well-received on both sides of the Atlantic. [See Other Work]

In 2004, Hugh took on the career-changing role of Dr. Gregory House in a medical drama series for Fox-TV. The series House introduced Hugh to a new audience of appreciative fans. He was widely credited for much of the show's first-season success. He won an award for Best Actor - Drama from the Television Critics' Association, and was nominated for an Emmy in 2005. In January 2006, he took home the Golden Globe from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his role in House.

Hugh married Jo Green in June 1989. They have two sons and a daughter. Hugh now divides his time between the family home in London, and Los Angeles, where House is filmed. His hobbies are music, motorcycles, and, more recently, boxing.