Although his comic persona is often smug, occasionally overbearing and sometimes even mannered, the multi-talented Stephen Fry is quite unlike that in real life. Tall and husky, with large, expressive eyes, a broken nose , strong jaw and a sonorous yet mellow voice, the actor exudes an easy charm and rapier wit. It is not hard to understand how this man has been able to carve careers as both an actor of repute and a respected author.
Born in Hampsted, the middle child of a physicist father and housewife mother, Fry was a curious child, who was constantly seeking knowledge to the point of reportedly memorizing the "Guinness Book of World Records". His education however, proved troublesome; over its course he was asked to leave several of the boarding schools he attended. (Fry was later diagnosed as dyslexic). Acknowledging his homosexuality at an early age also led to conflict with his father, a suicide attempt at age 16 and a scrape with the law the following year. When he was 17, Fry ran away from home and supported himself by using stolen credit cards. Eventually he was caught and jailed for a few months before receiving probation at his trial. According to Fry, that experience made him get serious about his education and he buckled down, won a scholarship to Cambridge and began to come into his own as an actor and writer. As a member of the famed Footlights theater group at Cambridge, he debuted as a playwright and met future collaborators and co-stars Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie.
After graduation, Fry, Thompson, Laurie and fellow Cantabrigian Robbie Coltrane joined the TV sketch comedy series "Alfresco" in 1982. Two years later, he garnered acclaim and earned millions for adapting the book of the musical "Me and My Girl", which teamed Robert Lindsay and Emma Thompson in London. When the show transferred to Broadway, only Lindsay was allowed to perform, but it proved to be one of the hits of the 1986-87 season and earned Fry a Tony nomination for his contributions to the script. He went on to portray the sniveling Lord Melchett opposite Rowan Atkinson in "Blackadder II" (BBC, 1986) and reprised the role (now transposed to 1917) as General Melchett in the final segments "Blackadder Goes Forth" (BBC, 1989). Sandwiched between were three seasons of "A Bit of Fry and Laurie", co-written with and co-starring Hugh Laurie and a column for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH. He and Laurie had a second success as "Jeeves & Wooster" (BBC, 1990-1993), adapted from the P G Wodehouse stories.
In features, Fry actually began his career as a screenwriter contributing to "Gossip" (1983) before moving in front of the cameras turning in insightful bits in "The Good Father" (1986) and "A Handful of Dust" (1988). Working with several of his Cambridge colleagues, he was the host of a reunion of college chums in Kenneth Branagh's comedy-drama "Peter's Friends" (1992). In "I.Q." (1994), Fry was cast as Meg Ryan's conniving psychologist fiance while in "Cold Comfort Farm" (1995), he was an odd-ball pursuing Kate Beckinsale. For much of his life, the actor had been told of his more than passing resemblance to the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde; he even got to portray the writer in a 1993 episode of the CBS series "Ned Blessing: The Story of My Life and Times" directed by David Hemmings. That was just a warm-up, however, for Brian Gilbert's 1997 biopic "Wilde". Touted as a role he was born to play, "Wilde" allowed the actor to deliver a fine impersonation but he was done in by a rather pallid script that attempted to stuff too much information into the feature. Fry returned to supporting turns as an expert witness called by lawyer John Travolta in "A Civil Action" (1998).
Throughout his illustrious career, Fry has periodically returned to the theater as an actor. He won particular notice for creating the role of the philosopher Humphry in Simon Gray's "The Common Pursuit" in 1988 (and reprised it in a 1992 TV production). So there was much anticipation when he agreed to co-star in Gray's spy drama "Cell Mates" in 1995. Three days after the play opened to rather poor reviews, the actor apparently quit causing mayhem; although he was replaced by Simon Ward, the producers found the resulting negative publicity too difficult to overcome and the show shut down ten weeks ahead of its scheduled closing. Fry's disappearance sparked headlines, with some fearing the actor was dead. Fry was found in Europe, copped to suffering a nervous breakdown and underwent psychiatric counseling. He also agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to the producers in an out-of-court financial settlement.
In addition to his acting career, Fry has found modest success as an author, penning three novels, "The Liar" (1991), "The Hippopotamus" (1994) and "Making History" (1998) and a memoir "Moab Is My Washpot" (1997). |
