Despite earning $700,000 each episode in the last season of “House,” Hugh Laurie, the primary actor, feels he made a mistake. His father wanted him to become a doctor, but he played a “fake version” on TV. Hugh said his dad would have disliked his shortcut.
Doctor William (Ran) Laurie had huge plans for Hugh, his youngest son born in June 1959. Hugh Laurie emulated his father. His father was a distinguished doctor, 1948 Olympic gold champion in coxless pairs rowing, and Cambridge college graduate.
While at the same college as his father, British-born Hugh Laurie aspired to follow in his footsteps. The rowing team member wanted to train for the Olympics and attend medical school.
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He found the Cambridge Footlights drama club, which changed everything. There, he met Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry, his eventual comedy partner. The now-64-year-old actor co-starred with Fry in the BBC sitcom Blackadder in the 1980s and 1990s.
Previously dated Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie appeared in “Sense and Sensibility” in 1995. He appears in Disney’s 1996 live-action picture “101 Dalmatians” and a “Friends” episode.
He played a doctor in the eight-season medical drama “House” in 2004. Laurie ditched his British accent to play egotistical genius Dr. Gregory House, who led a New Jersey teaching hospital, and win a Golden Globe.
The show made Laurie a Hollywood star, but fame came with its complications.
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“I went through some really tough times, dark days when it felt like there was no way out,” Laurie told Radio moments in 2013. I was resolved to never miss a filming day due to my strong work ethic. I wouldn’t call to say, “I might be getting the flu.” But sometimes I thought, “If I just had an accident on the way to the studio and got a couple of days off to recover, how great would that be?”
He finally got a chance in 2012 after House’s finale.
Laurie has since been in Veep and Tomorrowland with George Clooney, another famous TV doctor.
Hugh Laurie, famed for “Maybe Baby,” played another doctor in 2016. His role was Dr. Eldon Chance, a neuropsychiatrist in the TV series “Chance.”
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“As a gambler, I tend to leave after a small win…I keep coming back, pulled by a fantastic idea that was irresistible,” Laurie told the Los Angeles Daily News in 2016. Comparing his “House” role to “Chance,” which was cancelled after two seasons in 2017, he remarked, “The characters are massively different. They do things differently. Their life outlook is different.”
Laurie, known for the 2018 film “Holmes & Watson,” feels guilty for not becoming a doctor like his father, who died of Parkinson’s disease in 1998.
“My father was a doctor. If it’s true that most men aspire to be like their father and fail, it’s fitting that I was a false doctor, Laurie said. He played a doctor in 2005’s “The Big Empty.”
“My father hoped I would study medicine.” He maintains his desire to become a doctor and still harbours medical fantasies.We live in a shortcut world, right? So I took them. Dad would have despised that.”
The Blackadder actor calls himself a “cop out,” adding, “Seriously, this is a source of great guilt to me.”
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