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In 1994, HUGH GRANT (William Thacker) became an international star with
his role in Four Weddings and a Funeral, directed by Mike Newell and co-starring
Andie MacDowell. His performance earned him a Golden Globe Award and a British
Academy Award. In the same year he also starred in Roman Polanski’s Bitter
Moon opposite Kristin Scott Thomas, and in Sirens, directed by John
Duigan.
Most recently he was seen in the thriller Extreme Measures with Gene Hackman. This was the first feature from Simian Films, the development company Grant and Elizabeth Hurley set up in partnership with Castle Rock Entertainment. The company has most recently released Mickey Blue Eyes, starring Grant, Jeanne Tripplehorn and James Caan.
Grant first came to notice in 1982 while at Oxford University, when he made the movie Privileged. But it was the 1987 Merchant-Ivory production of E.M. Forster’s Maurice, where Grant first received international acclaim, as well as the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival.
This led to a succession of roles including The Dawning with Anthony Hopkins, Ken Russell’s The Lair of the White Worm, The Big Man opposite Joanne Whalley-Kilmer and the role of Chopin in James Lapine’s Impromptu. Grant was reunited with director James Ivory in 1993 in The Remains of the Day, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
In 1995, he appeared as Edward Ferrers in the Oscar-winning adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, as the nervous father-to-be in Chris Columbus’ Nine Months, and in the critically-acclaimed The Englishman Who Went up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, written and directed by Christopher Monger. Grant was also seen in the British comedy An Awfully Big Adventure, directed by Mike Newell, and had a cameo role in the 17th century romp Restoration. His other film credits are White Mischief, Bengali Nights and Rowing in the Wind.
Grant’s television credits include The Changeling and The Trials of Oz, both for the BBC, ABC’s Our Sons with Julie Andrews and Ann-Margret and CBS’ Dangerous Love and Till We Meet Again. On the stage, Grant has worked with director Richard Wilson in An Inspector Calls at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, and with Richard Digby Day in Lady Windermere’s Fan, Hamlet and Coriolanus at the Nottingham Playhouse.
He starred opposite Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones Diary and can also be seen in Small Time Crooks. Look for him next year in About A Boy.