Hugh Grant

Biography: An English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary C�sar. His movies have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis?s sleeper hit Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). He used this breakthrough role as a frequent cinematic persona during the 1990s to deliver comic performances in mainstream films like Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) and Notting Hill (1999). By the turn of the century, he had established himself as a leading man skilled with a satirical comic talent. Since the 2000s, Grant also starred in the critically acclaimed Bridget Jones?s Diary (2001), About A Boy (2002), Love Actually (2003), and American Dreamz (2006).

Within the film industry, Grant is cited as an anti-movie star who approaches his roles like a character actor, with the ability to make acting look effortless. Hallmarks of his comic skills include a nonchalant touch of irony/sarcasm and studied physical mannerisms as well as his precisely-timed dialogue delivery and facial expressions. The entertainment media?s coverage of Grant?s life off the big screen has often overshadowed his work as a thespian. He has been vocal about his disrespect for the profession of acting, his disdain towards the culture of celebrity, and hostility towards the media. In a career spanning 30 years, Grant has repeatedly claimed that acting is not a true calling but just a job he fell into.

Grant was born at Hammersmith Hospital in Hammersmith, London, England, the second son of Fynvola Susan and Captain James Murray Grant. Grant has an older brother, James Grant, who is a banker. Genealogist Antony Adolph described Grant?s family history as "a colourful Anglo-Scottish tapestry of warriors, empire-builders and aristocracy," including William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan and Dr. James Stewart. John Murray, 1st Duke of Atholl (his uncle through William Murray, 2nd Baron Nairne), Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, Rt. Hon. Sir Evan Nepean, and a sister of former British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, are a few of his notable maternal antecedents. Grant?s grandfather, Major James Murray Grant, DSO, a native of Inverness in Scotland, was decorated for bravery and leadership at Dunkirk during World War II.

Grant?s father, Capt. Grant, was trained at Sandhurst and served with the Seaforth Highlanders for eight years in Malaya, Germany and Scotland. Capt. Grant gained the rank of Officer in the service of the Seaforth Highlanders and lived at Findhorn, Morayshire in 1957, and at Sutton, London in 1974. He ran a carpet firm, pursued hobbies such as golf and watercolouring, and raised his family in Chiswick, west London, where the Grants lived next to Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane. In September 2006, a collection of Capt. His mother, Fynvola, was the great-granddaughter of Sir Evan Colville Nepean (CB), whose father, Rev. Canon Evan Nepean, served as the Canon of Westminster and was Chaplain In Ordinary to Queen Victoria. She worked as a schoolteacher and taught Latin, French and music for more than 30 years in the state schools of west London. She died at the age of 65, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Grant?s accent is an inheritance from his mother and, on Inside the Actors Studio in 2002, he credited her with "any acting genes that [he] might have." Both his parents were children of military families, but, despite his parents? backgrounds, Grant has stated that his family was not always affluent while he was growing up. Grant spent his childhood summers shooting and hunting with his grandfather in Scotland. Grant?s elder brother, James "Jamie" Grant, is a successful banker as Managing Director, Head of Healthcare, Consumer, & Retail Investment Banking Coverage, at JPMorgan Chase in New York.

Grant is well known for having a very strong work ethic. He himself 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. He pins his lack of interest in acting on two different thoughts: first, that he drifted into the job as a temporary joke at age 23 and finds it an immature way for a grown man to spend his time; and secondly, because he believes to have already given the one remarkable comic performance he had hoped to create on screen. A self-confessed "committed and passionate" perfectionist on a film set, Grant has constantly opted to describe himself as a reluctant actor, who chooses to be neutral about his career and works mostly with friends from previous collaborations. Richard Curtis, a frequent collaborator, revealed that Grant is not fluid about the filmmaking process and tends to be unrelaxed while filming because he does not feel as though he?s in the director?s hands and prefers instead to take responsibility for giving a definitive performance. Grant is noted by co-workers for demanding endless takes until he achieves the desired shot according to his own standard.

In 1987, while playing Lord Byron in a Spanish production called Remando Al Viento (1988), Grant met actress Elizabeth Hurley, who was cast in a supporting role as Byron?s former lover Claire Clairmont. Grant started dating the aspiring model while shooting and their relationship was subsequently the subject of much media attention. After 13 years together, the two made "a mutual and amicable decision" to split in May 2000. In 2004, he began dating Jemima Khan under the intense scrutiny of British tabloids. Three years later, in February 2007, Grant?s publicist announced that the couple had "decided to split amicably." The spokesman added, "Hugh has nothing but positive things to say about Jemima.