In the United Kingdom, Stephen Fry is seen as a veritable renaissance man -- a successful actor, comedian, novelist, playwright, and columnist. Best known for his appearances on television and in films, he is tall and large, funny-faced, and openly gay. In America, Fry is best known as Jeeves from his 1990s sitcom version of P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster, which aired in America on PBS. He also played Oscar Wilde in Wilde, and had small roles in Gosford Park and A Civil Action. Sharp-eyed viewers may remember his tiny part in A Fish Called Wanda, or his pivotal turn in V for Vendetta.
Fry's father was a physicist and inventor, and his mother and her Jewish family had immigrated to England prior to World War II. In his mid-teens, when he noticed he was drawn to boys instead of girls, Fry started getting into trouble. He was expelled from three schools, and attempted suicide at sixteen. At seventeen, he was found guilty of credit card fraud and spent three months in prison. He studied English at Cambridge, where his classmates included Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. It was she who introduced Fry to his long-time comic partner Hugh Laurie, who was Thompson's boyfriend at the time.
With and without Laurie, Fry has been a staple of British television and cinema for decades, dating back to the 1983 Robbie Coltrane sketch comedy show Al Fresco. Fry & Laurie have also appeared in other British shows, including A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Fortysomething, two incarnations of Blackadder, and sundry TV specials and movies.
[1] Interview with John Frame, Queer Radio, 7 February 2001: "It gives me enormous pleasure to know that everyone who says hello to me in the street in England also knows that I'm gay and that I have a gay lover -- and that that doesn't affect their view of me. It makes me very proud of myself, but also of my country and how it's changed, and of how people can accept things that they used not to be able to. And that's a genuine pleasure, no question."
Father: Alan John Fry (physicist)
Mother: Marianne Eve Newman
Brother: Roger
Sister: Jo
Boyfriend: Daniel Cohen (long term)
Husband: Elliot Spencer (writer, m. 2015)
High School: Stout's Hill, Uppingham
University: College of West Anglia
University: Queen's College, Cambridge University
The London Daily Telegraph Columnist (1990-)
Expelled from School
Suicide Attempt 1995
Suicide Attempt 2012
Drug Overdose
Stomach Pumped
Fraud stole a credit card in high school, spent three months in prison
Endorsement of Associated British Foods Twinings Tea
Cambridge Footlights
Funeral: Steve Jobs (2011)
Funeral: Christopher Hitchens (2012)
English Ancestry
Jewish Ancestry
Risk Factors: Bipolar Disorder, Cocaine
SPORTS FRANCHISE HISTORY
Norwich City FC Board of Directors (2010-)
TELEVISION
24: Live Another Day Prime Minister Alastair Davies (2014)
Bones Dr. Gordon Wyatt (2007-09)
Kingdom Peter Kingdom (2007-09)
Jeeves and Wooster Jeeves (1990-93)
Blackadder Goes Forth General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett (1989)
Blackadder II Lord Melchett (1986)
A Bit of Fry and Laurie Various Roles (1986-95)
FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
Bright Young Things (16-May-2003)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Missing Link (4-Apr-2019) [VOICE]
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (16-Sep-2017) · Himself
Alice Through the Looking Glass (10-May-2016) [VOICE]
Love & Friendship (23-Jan-2016)
The Man Who Knew Infinity (17-Sep-2015)
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (1-Dec-2014)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2-Dec-2013)
The Look of Love (19-Jan-2013)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (14-Dec-2011) · Mycroft Holmes
Wagner & Me (9-Oct-2010) · Himself
Alice in Wonderland (3-Mar-2010) · Cheshire Cat [VOICE]
House of Boys (20-Nov-2009)
St. Trinian's (10-Dec-2007)
Eichmann (22-Sep-2007)
Stormbreaker (21-Jul-2006)
V for Vendetta (11-Dec-2005)
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (17-Jul-2005)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (20-Apr-2005) [VOICE]
MirrorMask (25-Jan-2005) · Librarian
Tom Brown's Schooldays (1-Jan-2005)
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (21-May-2004)
Tooth (13-Feb-2004)
Le Divorce (8-Aug-2003) · Piers Janely
Bright Young Things (16-May-2003)
Thunderpants (24-May-2002)
Gosford Park (7-Nov-2001) · Insp. Thompson
The Discovery of Heaven (1-Oct-2001)
Londinium (2-Sep-2001)
Relative Values (23-Jun-2000) · Crestwell
Best (1-May-2000)
Gormenghast (17-Jan-2000)
Longitude (2-Jan-2000)
Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (13-Nov-1999)
A Civil Action (25-Dec-1998)
The Tichborne Claimant (Aug-1998)
Spice World (15-Dec-1997) · Judge
Wilde (1-Sep-1997)
The Wind in the Willows (18-Oct-1996)
The Steal (5-May-1995)
Cold Comfort Farm (1-Jan-1995) · Mybug
I.Q. (25-Dec-1994) · James Moreland
Peter's Friends (18-Sep-1992) · Peter
A Fish Called Wanda (15-Jul-1988) · Hutchison
A Handful of Dust (24-Jun-1988) · Reggie
Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988)
The Secret Policeman's Third Ball (1987) · Himself
The Good Father (Nov-1985)
Official Website:
http://www.stephenfry.com/
Author of books:
Paperweight (1992, novel)
The Liar (1993, novel)
The Hippopotamus (1994, novel)
Making History (1996, novel)
Moab Is My Washpot (1997)
The Stars' Tennis Balls (2000, novel)
Revenge (2002, novel)
Rescuing the Spectacled Bear: A Peruvian Diary (2002, travelogue)
Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music (2004)
The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within (2005)
Stephen Fry in America (2008, travelogue)
The Fry Chronicles (2010)
Wrote plays:
Latin! Or Tobacco and Boys (1980)
AKA Stephen John Fry