20+ Facts About Hugh Laurie, Who, Thanks to “House, M.D.”, Broke a World Record, but Nearly Lost His Family

One of Hugh Laurie’s best-known roles is Dr. House, a brilliant doctor with a complex character and problems in his personal life. In reality, the actor had many things in common with his onscreen character, including bouts of depression and relationship problems. But while his character continued to suffer, the actor himself got lucky, and his life turned out to be more beautiful than any movie.

Difficulties with mom

• The actor’s childhood was hardly an easy one. He was the fourth child in his large family. According to Laurie, he had a strained relationship with his mother. He felt he was “a frustration to her [...] she didn’t like me.”
• His father, on the other hand, was a real source of inspiration for Laurie. Following in his footsteps, he went to Cambridge, and chose a degree that could be no further from acting: anthropology. Also, following his father’s example, Hugh took up rowing.
• After his mother passed away in 1989, Laurie realized that he himself was not always the perfect child to his parents. Maybe that’s why he decided to bring people joy through comedy — giving back what he himself had been missing.

Friendship with Stephen Fry

• After having suffered a severe fever, Hugh Laurie was forced to give up rowing. The future actor started looking for a new hobby, and soon joined the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club.
• Here, he not only got his first acting and directing experience, but also met people who changed his life. Among them were future actress Emma Thompson and comedian Stephen Fry.
• It was thanks to Stephen that Hugh experienced fame for the first time. Fry and Laurie, who had already become best friends, launched a successful comedy show, naming it after themselves.

Relationship with Emma Thompson

• Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson dated while they were working together at the Footlights. The relationship soon fizzled out, but the actors’ friendship remains strong to this day.
• “He is one of those rare people who manages to be lugubriously cool, like a well-hung eel,” Thompson said of Laurie years later.
• In 2010, Hugh gave a moving speech when Emma received her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. According to him, she always exuded talent.

• Hugh Laurie received his own star on the Walk of Fame six years later, in 2016. At the inauguration ceremony, he proved himself to be a true comedian, wiping the trophy with a rag and then promptly lying down for a nap.

• All three friends made their film debuts almost immediately after graduating. Back in the ’90s, they all starred together in Peter’s Friends. In this film they basically portrayed themselves — a group of university friends who went their separate ways after graduation, only to come together once again years later. Laurie’s romance with Emma Thompson had already died down by then, but that didn’t stop them being professional on set.
• In 2022, Thompson and Laurie reunited in Why Didn’t They Ask the Evans, an Agatha Christie drama, set in the heyday of the early 20th century. Laurie, as well as acting in the film, also directed it.

His love for Jo Green

• It would seem that the man who managed to get Emma Thompson herself just has to be a ladies’ man. In reality, however, Hugh Laurie, like his character Dr. House, was often a rather misanthropic person. Of course, he did have love affairs after Emma, but not that many.
• Hugh Laurie was introduced to his future wife, Jo Green, by a mutual acquaintance. At the time, she was working as an administrator in a theatre.

• In 1988 Jo fell pregnant and had her first child, Charles. In 1989 the couple decided to get married. The best man was, of course, Stephen Fry. In 1991 the couple had their second son, William, and in 1992 they had a long-awaited daughter, Rebecca.
• All three children participated in their father’s career, appearing in cameo roles. Charles, while he was still a baby, appeared in an episode of A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Rebecca appeared in the movie Wit, and William had a small role in the sitcom Fortysomething.
• The period of filming House, M.D. was a real challenge for the couple. The family lived in England, while filming took place in Los Angeles, so Hugh Laurie spent 9 months a year away from home, for almost 10 years.
• They thought about moving to America as a family, but they decided not to uproot the children from their familiar environment.

• Due to an overstretched schedule and long periods of separation from loved ones, Hugh Laurie developed symptoms similar to depression. Guilt may have been one of the reasons for his mental state. During the filming, he had an affair with one of the directors, which he immediately told his wife about.
• Somehow, the couple managed to cope with all the difficulties that befell them. After the ordeal, their marriage became stronger than ever.

New achievements and well-deserved recognition

• Hugh Laurie now continues to be active in film. Together with Mark Ruffalo, he has joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. There is currently no release date for the series yet, so Laurie fans are keeping a close eye out for updates.

• For his work on House, M.D., Hugh Laurie made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the most popular TV actor.
• In addition to numerous acting accolades (such as being nominated for an Emmy 10 times), Hugh Laurie has also earned fame as a prolific blues musician.

What do you love Hugh Laurie for?