Stephen Fry

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Stephen John Fry
Born August 24, 1957 (age 49)
Hampstead, London, England
Notable roles various in Blackadder
A Bit of Fry and Laurie
Jeeves in Jeeves and Wooster

Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English comedian, author, actor and filmmaker. Erstwhile comedy collaborator of Hugh Laurie, he was once described as "a man with a brain the size of Kent" in an interview with Michael Parkinson.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and business insiders. In September 2006, he was also voted by the general public as number 9 in a poll of TV's Greatest Stars. In December 2006, Fry was ranked 6th for the BBC's Top Living Icon Award[1], featured on The Culture Show and has also been voted most intelligent man on television by readers of Radio Times.

Contents

[edit] Childhood and education

Fry was born in Hampstead, London, the son of Alan Fry, an English scientist, and Marianne Neumann, an Austrian of Jewish descent. He has one older brother, Roger, and a younger sister, Joanna. When he was young, the family moved to the country, and he grew up in the village of Booton near Reepham, Norfolk. He briefly attended Gresham's School, Holt, before going on to Stout's Hill Preparatory School, Uppingham School, Rutland, where he joined Fircroft house. He was expelled from Uppingham when he was fourteen, and subsequently from the Paston School. At seventeen, following his failure at Norfolk College of Arts and Technology, Fry absconded with a credit card stolen from a family friend, and as a result spent three months in Pucklechurch Prison for fraud. He then returned to his education at Norwich City College — persuading its authorities to take him on in order to study for the Cambridge Entrance Exams. He passed well enough to gain a scholarship before going on to Queens' College, Cambridge, where he gained a 2:1 in English literature. During his time at Cambridge, he met his longstanding friend and collaborator, Hugh Laurie, joined the Cambridge Footlights, and appeared on University Challenge [2].

[edit] Career

Fry came to the attention of the public in the mid-1980s with appearances on Saturday Live alongside Hugh Laurie. After this he worked with frequent Saturday Live host Ben Elton on the second series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder as Lord Melchett. In the late 1980s, Fry's profile increased: in 1987 he made a cameo in Blackadder the Third as the Duke of Wellington and made the first series of A Bit of Fry and Laurie. The next year, he became a regular contestant on Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Blackadder Goes Forth, in 1989, allowed Fry to give a career-defining performance as General Melchett (based heavily on his previous Duke of Wellington character).

Fry has often expressed great admiration for three authors in particular: Anthony Buckeridge, his friend the late Douglas Adams, and P.G. Wodehouse, all of whom have strongly influenced his own writing. Appropriately, he has also appeared in dramatic adaptations of all three men's works: as Jeeves (alongside Hugh Laurie's Bertie Wooster) in the Granada television adaptations of Wodehouse's novels and short stories; as the voice of The Guide in the film adaptation of Adams' novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; and narrating a BBC radio reading of Buckeridge's Jennings stories. He has also been a fan of Oscar Wilde since he was 13, finding Wilde to be someone with whom he could "fiercely and proudly identify". Fry portrayed Wilde in the 1997 film of the same name, fulfilling a role that he has said that he was "born to play".

Fry is also well known as the voice of the audio book version of the Harry Potter series where he has recorded all of the British version of the books so far and is confirmed as the voice of the final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which will be released on the same day as the paper book.

Fry is also a devoted fan of the late Vivian Stanshall, about whom he wrote a long loving piece in his autobiography, Moab Is My Washpot. (See below.) Fry is so much a fan that he appeared as Stanshall in the first few 2006 "reunion" gigs of the Bonzo Dog Band. Since Fry, many other English comedians, also Stanshall fans, have tried their hand at "Being Vivian," most notably Fry and Ade Edmonson.

Fry has been the host of the question and answer programme QI since its inception in 2003. The programme (in which guests are supposedly rewarded for being "Quite Interesting", rather than necessarily getting the correct answers to questions) features regular contestants such as Alan Davies, Rich Hall, Bill Bailey, Phill Jupitus, and Jo Brand. He won the 2006 Rose d'Or award for Best Game Show Host for his work on the series. He has been a regular host of the BAFTA Film Awards, but in 2006, stepped down as host, noting, "It has been a tremendous six years, and I look forward to watching it without nerves in the future."[3] Fry has had recent (as of February 2007) high-profile exposure in the United States as he has taken up a recurring guest role as a psychiatrist in the popular Fox TV drama Bones.

Fry also voices or appears in many television advertisements in the UK, most recently for Twinings tea.

Additionally, Fry is the off-screen narrator in the award-winning animated pre-school childrens' programme Pocoyo.

In 2007 Fry interviewed British prime minister Tony Blair, which can be heard on the official UK Number 10 Downing Street website.

[edit] Personal life

Fry struggled to keep his homosexuality secret during his teenage years at public school, and practised a celibate lifestyle for 16 years. He once jokingly commented, "I suppose it all began when I came out of the womb. I looked back up at my mother and thought to myself, 'That's the last time I'm going up one of those.'" (Fry later admitted in his autobiography, Moab Is My Washpot, that he "borrowed" the line from a friend at university). Fry currently lives in London with his long-time partner, Daniel Cohen. He also has a second home in West Bilney near King's Lynn, Norfolk.

He met Cohen following his highly publicised nervous breakdown in 1995, which was attributed at the time to bad reviews of Fry's performance in the play Cell Mates. Fry was also suffering from serious clinical depression at the time as a result of his as-yet undiagnosed cyclothymia, a form of bipolar disorder. He subsequently walked out of the production, prompting its early closure and incurring the displeasure of his co-star, Rik Mayall, and the wrath of playwright Simon Gray. Fry subsequently was missing for several days, during which period he contemplated suicide. He abandoned the idea but fled from the United Kingdom by ferry, eventually resurfacing in Belgium.[4]

Fry has spoken publicly about the experience of living with a bipolar disorder and has made and presented a documentary about the condition and his personal experience thereof Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic-Depressive.[5] In the documentary, he interviews celebrities (such as Robbie Williams, Rick Stein, Carrie Fisher, Richard Dreyfuss, and Tony Slattery) among others who also suffer from the illness. The programme was broadcast BBC Two in September 2006 and March 2007.

Stephen Fry was an active supporter of the British Labour Party for many years: however, he did not vote in the 2005 General Election, because of the stance of both the Labour and Conservative parties with respect to the Iraq War. Fry has been critical of the British Prime Minister and the Labour Party's "Third Way" concept. He is on cordial terms with Prince Charles (despite satirising him heavily as King Charles I in the comedy programme Blackadder: The Cavalier Years), through his work with the Prince's Trust. He attended the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker-Bowles in 2005.

Fry is a friend of English comedian and actor Rowan Atkinson and was best man at Atkinson's wedding to Sunetra Sastry in The Russian Tea Room at New York City. Fry was also a friend of the late classic English actor John Mills [2], and is godfather to all three of Hugh Laurie's children.

[edit] Quotations

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  • "A cut glass English accent can fool unsuspecting Americans into detecting a brilliance that isn't there."

"As someone who worked hard for a Labour victory in the 90s, do I regret it? Not really. It was bound to happen. And it'll happen with the next government, and the one after it. Because all governments serve us. They serve the filth."[6]

  • From an interview in OutUK:

"What you do with your penis or your bottom or anything else is so supremely irrelevant in a moral sense. It's what we do with our personalities and other people that matters."[7]

  • From his autobiography, Moab Is My Washpot:

"There are plenty of other things to be got up to in the homosexual world outside the orbit of the anal ring, but the concept that really gets the goat of the gay-hater, the idea that really spins their melon and sickens their stomach is that most terrible and terrifying of all human notions, love. That one can love another of the same gender, that is what the homophobe really cannot stand. Love in all eight tones and all five semitones of the word's full octave. Love as agape, eros and philos; love as romance, friendship and adoration; love as infatuation, obsession and lust; love as torture, euphoria, ecstasy and oblivion (this is beginning to read like a Calvin Klein perfume catalogue); love as need, passion and desire."

"My vocal cords are made of tweed. I give off an air of Oxford donnishness and old BBC wirelesses."

  • From his radio broadcast, "Trefusis Blasphemes":

"I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of language and purity and tolerance. That is my religion, and every day I am sorely, grossly, heinously and deeply offended, wounded, mortified and injured by a thousand different blasphemies against it. When the fundamental canons of truth, honesty, compassion and decency are hourly assaulted by fatuous bishops, pompous, illiberal and ignorant priests, politicians and prelates, sanctimonious censors, self-appointed moralists and busy-bodies, what recourse of ancient laws have I? None whatever. Nor would I ask for any. For unlike these blistering imbeciles my belief in my religion is strong and I know that lies will always fail and indecency and intolerance will always perish."

"You should try the fruit of every tree of every garden in the world. But 'try' is the word. Some fruits will be rotten, some will be poisonous, and some will be so seductive you eat nothing else and become malnu-treated, if there is such a word."

  • From his article "Television Review" for Arena magazine:

"A short word about Noel Edmonds: No."

"How can one not be fond of something that the Daily Mail despises?"

"One of the nice things about looking at a bear is that you know it spends 100 per cent of every minute of every day being a bear. It doesn't strive to become a better bear. It doesn't go to sleep thinking, "I wasn't really a very good bear today". They are just 100 per cent bear, whereas human beings feel we're not 100 per cent human, that we're always letting ourselves down. We're constantly striving towards something, to some fulfilment".

  • From "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" (BBC Radio 4)

New definition of Countryside: "Murder of Piers Morgan"

  • From his appearance on The Princes Trust 2006:

"I am a self-proclaimed gangster rapper. I have created a new fusion of disco and techno that I like to call Tesco"

  • From the QI Website;

"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people in the world?"

[edit] List of works

[edit] Written works

[edit] Performances

  • Plays

[edit] Directorial filmography

[edit] Trivia

  • As well as having competed on University Challenge whilst at Cambridge, Fry appeared in The Young Ones as "Lord Snot", one of the "Footlights College" team (alongside Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Ben Elton) against whom The Young Ones are competing in a fictitious edition of the quiz.[10] Fry appeared in a 2006 Documentary University Challenge: The Story So Far that also featured a clip from the show.[11] He later appeared in a Comic Relief edition of University Challenge as part of the "Gownies" team of University-graduate comedians against the (victorious) team of "Townies"; and in another Comic Relief special two years later as part of the South team who beat the North.
  • He appeared several times as a panellist on Have I Got News for You during the 1990s, but now refuses to appear on the show as a protest against the sacking of Angus Deayton in 2002.[12]
  • In 1995, Fry was presented with an honorary doctorate from the University of Dundee, which named their main Students' Association bar after one of his novels ('The Liar Bar'). He has also served a term as Dundee's Lord Rector, and is patron of Dundee University's Lip Theatre Company.[13]
  • In 2005, Fry was made honorary president of the Cambridge University Quiz Society, as well as an honorary fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge.
  • Fry was the last ever person awarded the title of Pipe Smoker of the Year before the award was discontinued for legal reasons.
  • Stephen is a Patron of the Norwich Playhouse theatre.
  • He drives a former London Taxi when driving in London, as documented on his 25 January 2006 segment of the BBC 2 genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?[14]
  • Fry is an avid Mac user, owning three iMac Core Duos, two Mac minis, two MacBook Pros, a dual-processor Power Mac G5, a PowerBook G4 and an iMac G5. He also claims to have bought one of the very first Apple Macintosh computers sold in the UK (the first was bought by Fry's friend Douglas Adams), in 1984.[9]
  • As related on QI, Fry is allergic to champagne, and is related to the polymath C.B. Fry.
  • In 2001, he appeared on Room 101: a show where guests are allowed to get rid of the things they hate the most. One of his nominations was Room 101 itself.
  • In 2002, 2004 and 2006, Fry appeared as guest host on the Sport Relief spin-off, They think it's a Question of Sport Relief
  • Fry was Liza Tarbuck's 'phone a friend' on celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. He provided the correct answer before being given the four options. However, on a subsequent show he was uncertain which city had hosted the first Formula One Grand Prix in China and suggested the wrong answer, which the player used.
  • When writing a book review for the Tatler he wrote under a disguised persona in what he describes as 'typical cowardice'. He became Williver Hendry, editor of A Most Peculiar Friendship: The Correspondence of Lord Alfred Douglas and Jack Dempsey, a topic close to Fry's heart as a renowned Wilde enthusiast.
  • Acclaimed Brazilian artist Zeca Baleiro cited Stephen Fry on the name of his first album, "Por Onde Andará Stephen Fry?" ("Where Might Be Stephen Fry?) and on the title song, "Stephen Fry".
  • On December 14, 2006, Fry was found guilty of speeding at King's Lynn Magistrates Court. He lost his licence for 6 months and was fined £150.[15]
  • He was asked to write a script for the 2006 series of Doctor Who, but his episode was postponed until the 2007 series. However, Fry eventually ran out of time to finish the script, so it was cancelled. [16]

[edit] References

  1. ^ BBC: Living Icons
  2. ^ University Challenge page at UK Game Shows.
  3. ^ BBC: "Fry quits as host of film Baftas"
  4. ^ BBC News: Comedian Fry reveals suicide bid
  5. ^ Cardiff University: Genetic research into mood disorders
  6. ^ BBC This Week: Stephen Fry
  7. ^ OutUK
  8. ^ Branagh to make Mozart opera film
  9. ^ a b Douglas Adams Continuum Forum: webchat
  10. ^ Stephen Fry on imdb.
  11. ^ University Challenge: The Story So Far (2006) on imdb.
  12. ^ BBC News: Fry boycotts 'pathetic' quiz
  13. ^ Lip Theatre: History
  14. ^ BBC History: Who Do You Think You Are? Series 3 Celebrity Gallery
  15. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/6179523.stm
  16. ^ [1]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e
QI
Quite Interesting People
Stephen Fry | Alan Davies | John Lloyd | Repeat offenders
Quite Interesting Series
A | B | C | D
Other Quite Interesting Things
General Ignorance
Persondata
NAME Fry, Stephen John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fry, Stephen
SHORT DESCRIPTION Comedian
DATE OF BIRTH 1957-08-24
PLACE OF BIRTH Hampstead, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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