Here's 'House MD' Star Hugh Laurie Built His Multi-Million-Dollar Empire
English actor, comedian, writer, and musician Hugh Laurie is widely known in the entertainment industry as Dr. Gregory House following his eight year long portrayal of the character on the medical drama House. He initially gained recognition while working with Stephen Fry whom he met in the university club. With the success of the Fox’s House, he was even named one of the highest-paid actors on TV earning about $400,000 per episode on average.
Hugh Laurie eventually started appearing in different films and TV shows during and after the airing of House. At the moment, Hugh has a massive net worth of $45 million as per Celebrity Net Worth. Take a peek at how the British actor started his career and how he rose to prominence.
Hugh Laurie, who’s born James Hugh Calum Laurie, was born on June 11, 1959 in Blackbird Leys area of Oxford. He is the youngest child of four kids to his mother Patricia Laidlaw and famed father William George Ranald Mundell Laurie who’s an Olympic gold medalist in rowing for coxless pairs in 1948. Growing up, Hugh had a pretty strained relationship with his mother as he believes that his mother was presbyterian by character, by mood.
Growing up, Hugh was raised attending St Columba's Presbyterian Church as both of his parents are of Scottish descent. Although he grew up in a religious household, Hugh believes that God did not play a large role in his life.
Despite not becoming overly religious, he’s a little skeptical about the goodness of the Lord. He said in an interview "I don't believe in God, but I have this idea that if there were a God, or destiny of some kind looking down on us, that if he saw you taking anything for granted, he'd take it away."
Hugh’s mother later died at the age of 73 in 1989 due to motor neurone disease. His father took care of his mother for two years before her demise. Hugh saw how his father took care of his mother during these trying times and he just appreciated his father claiming that he’s the sweetest man in the world. Hugh’s father eventually succumbed to his death about ten years after his mother’s death.
Hugh Laurie attended the Dragon School when he was seven until he turned thirteen. He believes that he grew up as a horrible kid. He’s not the bookey type and he did spend a large part of his childhood cheating numerous times during tests. He eventually went to the Eton College which he believed is the most private of private schools.
He then went to further his education at the Selwyn College, Cambridge. He thinks that he attended the said school for the sake of attending the school since it is sort of like a family tradition as his father attended the same school. He tried following the footsteps of his father and rowed while attending university. He then went on to study archaeology and anthropology and eventually graduating third in class.
Although he was busy with rowing, he found time to join a university dramatic club called Cambridge Footlights. The said club has produced tons of well-known actors and comedians including British actress Emma Thompson. That’s where he met his future comedy partner, Stephen Fry. The pair went on to do parodies of themselves representing Footlights College, Oxbridge in an episode of The Young Ones titled Bambi.
At the final year of his university, he began making time for rowing and for the Footlights since he’s the president of the club from 1980 until 1981. He then joined the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as they took their annual revue called The Cellar Tapes. They won the festival and got their first Perrier Comedy Award.
Hugh Laurie’s career in the entertainment scene was only starting at that point. The Cellar Tapes were mainly written by Laurie and Fry and among the casts members were Tony Slattery, Paul Shearer, and Penny Dwyer. Since then, the pair has worked on several projects from 1980s until the 1990s. Among their projects together were Blackadder series starting Rowan Atkinson.
Hugh’s comedy career has been smooth sailing as he participated in numerous projects including Hysteria! 1, 2 & 3 and Amnesty International's The Secret Policeman's Third Ball. Fry and Laurie went on their separate careers but collaborated again on Peter's Friends in 1992. Since then Hugh has been appearing in several British television dramas.
He also directed and starred in the comedy-drama series fortysomething. He was already making a name for himself and even lent his voice on one of episode of comedy sitcom Family Guy titled One If by Clam, Two If by Sea. Hugh finally had his career breakthrough when he was chosen to star as Dr. Gregory House on Fox’s medical drama House.
As soon as he starred in the medical drama, he earned recognition from different award giving bodies. He was nominated for an Emmy Award just three years after he starred in House in 2005. Despite not winning, he ended up winning a Golden Globe Award for two consecutive years in 2006 and 2007. Because of the massive success of the show, Fox began rewarding him with an increase in his salary of $350,000 per episode.
When the show ended, he probably earned about $7 million per season and was reportedly making about $700,000 per episode at the peak of the show. Although the show ended in 2012, he has been starring in different comedy projects including He's currently leading the cast of Avenue 5 as Ryan Clark. The show started in 2020 and was fairly received among audience.
Sources: Britannica, The Guardian, Cheat Sheet
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