Look up sir in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Sir is an honorific address used as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures. It is often used in formal correspondence (Dear Sir, Right Reverend Sir).

The term is often reserved for use only towards one of superior rank or status, such as an educator or commanding officer, an elder (especially by a minor), or as a form of address from a merchant to a customer.

Equivalent terms of address are "ma'am" or "madam" in most cases, or in the case of a very young woman, girl, or unmarried woman who prefers to be addressed as such, "miss". The equivalent term for a knighted woman is Dame, or "Lady" for the wife of a knight.

Origin[link]

Sir derives from the Middle French honorific title sire (messire gave rise to mylord), from the Old French sieur (itself a contraction of Seigneur meaning 'lord'), from the Latin adjective senior (elder), which yielded titles of respect in many European languages. The form sir is first documented in English in 1297, as title of honor of a knight or baronet, being a variant of sire, which was already used in English since at least c.1205 as a title placed before a name and denoting knighthood, and to address the (male) Sovereign since c.1225, with additional general senses of "father, male parent" is from c.1250 and "important elderly man" from 1362.

Formal styling[link]

In formal protocol Sir is the correct styling for a knight or a baronet (the United Kingdom nobiliary rank just below all peers of the realm), used with (one of) the knight's given name(s) or full name, but not with the surname alone ("Sir James Paul McCartney", "Sir Paul McCartney", or "Sir Paul", but never "Sir McCartney"). The equivalent for a woman is Dame, that is, for one who holds the title in her own right; for such women, the title "Dame" is used as "Sir" for a man, that is, never before the surname on its own. This usage was devised in 1917, derived from the practice, up to the 17th century (and still also in legal proceedings), for the wife of a knight. The wife of a knight or baronet now, however, is styled "Lady [Surname]" (e.g. "Lady McCartney", but never "Lady Linda McCartney," which is reserved for the daughter of a duke, marquess or earl, or now, more recently, for a female member of the Orders of the Garter and the Thistle who possesses no higher title).

In the UK and in certain Commonwealth realms (where the British monarch directly reigns), the following honours permit (in the case of three currently dormant honours, permitted) male subjects of those realms to use the prefix Sir :

Current honours[link]

United Kingdom and Commonwealth[link]

• Baronet (Bt.; not conferred since 1990)
• Knight of the Order of the Garter (KG)
• Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT)
• Knight Commander or Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (KCB/GCB)
• Knight Commander or Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG/GCMG)
• Knight Commander or Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO/GCVO)
• Knight Commander or Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (KBE/GBE)
• Knight Bachelor (Kt.)

Antigua and Barbuda[link]

• Knight of the Order of the National Hero (KNH)
• Knight Commander, Knight Grand Cross, or Knight Grand Collar of the Order of the Nation (KCN/KGCN/KGN)

Australia[link]

• Knight of the Order of Australia (AK; for male subjects of Australia only. Discontinued since 1986)

Barbados[link]

• Knight of St. Andrew of the Order of Barbados (KA)

New Zealand[link]

• Knight Companion or Knight Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM/GNZM)

Dormant honours[link]

Three currently dormant honours - the Order of St. Patrick, the Order of the Star of India and the Order of the Indian Empire - permitted male subjects of the UK and Commonwealth realms to use the prefix Sir.

Kingdom of Ireland[link]

• Knight of the Order of St. Patrick (KP)

Established in 1783 and primarily awarded to men associated with the Kingdom of Ireland. Regular creation of new knights of the order ended in 1921 upon the formation of the Irish Free State. With the death of the last knight in 1974, the Order became dormant.

British Raj[link]

• Knight Commander or Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI/GCSI)
• Knight Commander or Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE/GCIE)

As part of the British Empire's consolidation of their rule in India, the Order of the Star of India was established in 1861 to reward prominent British and Indian civil servants and military officers and prominent Indians associated with the Indian Empire. The Order of the Indian Empire was established in 1878 as a junior-level order to accompany the Order of the Star of India. The last creations of knights of either order were made on 15 August 1947 upon Indian independence. Both orders, and the use of their formal styling, became officially obsolete in India in 1950 upon the country becoming a republic within the Commonwealth, followed by Pakistan in 1956. The Order of the Star of India became dormant in the Commonwealth realms from February 2009, and the Order of the Indian Empire after August 2010, when the last knights of the orders died.

Combinations with other titles and styles[link]

In the case of a military officer who is also a knight, the appropriate form of address puts the professional military rank first, then the correct manner of address for the individual, then his name, e.g.,

• Admiral of the Fleet Sir Bruce Fraser, GCB, KBE (after 1941)^[1]
• Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey, GBE, KCB, CMG, DSO, ED (after 1941)^[2]

This is also the case with academic titles such as professor:

• Professor Sir Patrick Bateson, FRS

However, the title Doctor is not used in combination with Sir: the knighthood takes precedence, and knighted doctors are addressed as knights, though they may still use any postnominal letters associated with their degrees.

With regard to British knighthood, a person who is not a citizen of a Commonwealth realm who receives an honorary knighthood is entitled to use any postnominal letters associated with the knighthood, but not the title "Sir". A similar convention applies to Church of England clergy who receive knighthoods, for example:

• The Reverend Dr John Polkinghorne, KBE, FRS

Clergy in other denominations may use different conventions.

Dual nationals holding a Commonwealth citizenship that recognise the British monarch as head of state are entitled to use the styling. Common usage varies from country to country: for instance, dual Bahamian-American citizen Sidney Poitier, knighted in 1974, is often styled "Sir Sidney Poitier", particularly in connection with his official ambassadorial duties, although he himself rarely employs the title.

Especially in North America, the style "Sir" is frequently employed by Knights of the Order of Malta and the Knights of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (female members of these order are styled as Dame or Lady).

Use in disciplined services[link]

The common use of Sir instead of the rank specific address for a senior officer in a military, police or other hierarchical organisation is rather specific to English and, in some instances, French (Canada). In most languages, no such general address is considered respectful, or the two are combined, as in German Herr followed by the rank.

It is common in British tabloid newspaper slang as a shorthand for 'schoolteacher': Sir's sex shame. Usage of "sir" commonly appears in schools in portions of the Southern United States.

When addressing a male superior (e.g. Officer or Warrant Officer, but not usually a non-commissioned officer, in the military), "sir" is used as a short form of address. (Despite its use in many fictional works, this is not a term used for female superiors, who are addressed as "ma'am"). However, recruits of the United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard address both male commissioned and non-commissioned officers as "sir" in basic training, especially drill instructors (USMC) and company commanders (USCG). Enlisted members of the United States Military always address Commissioned Officers as "sir". During training "sir" is implied and will be replaced by the rank and grade of those addressed after initial indoctrination.

It is worth noting that in the United States Air Force, all individuals may be addressed as "sir" (or ma'am in the case of females) regardless of rank. This includes drill instructors addressing recruits in basic training, a show of mutual respect which runs counter to the typical understanding of military indoctrination.

Possibly the shortness of the word helps explain^{[original research?]} another idiomatic but non-official practice in American English: emphatically saying Sir both before and after an obedient response to the senior, especially during drill, e.g., "Sir, yes, sir!" This is practiced by the US Coast Guard recruits. In both the United States Army and British Armed Forces, addressing an NCO as "Sir" is incorrect. In the British Army, however, an NCO is referred to as "sir" when he is on parade if an officer is present, as the NCO is deemed to be acting under the officer's authority^[3], and warrant officers are addressed as "Sir."

In the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, only commissioned officers are addressed as "sir"; NCOs and constables are addressed by their rank. British police officers of the rank of Inspector or above are addressed as "Sir," the more familiar form of address as "Boss", "Gaffer" or "Guv" (short for "governor") being largely inventions of popular TV and cinema.

Miscellaneous[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2011)

• Until the 17th century it was also a title of priests (the related word monsignor, from French monseigneur, is still used for Catholic prelates). In Icelandic, the cognate word séra is used exclusively to address a priest, together with his first name: a priest called Jón Jónsson will be addressed as séra Jón and referred to as presturinn séra Jón Jónsson ("the priest, séra Jón Jónsson").
• Various persons in authority, e.g. District Judges in the United Kingdom, are also addressed as "sir".
• Sirrah was a 16th century derivative that implied the inferiority of the addressee.
• The informal forms sirree and siree are merely devised for emphasis in speech, mainly after Yes or No.
• Not to be confused with the now exclusively monarchical (i.e. royal) Sire, even though this has the same etymological root.^[4]
• Sir and various Indianized variants such as Sirjee (sir with jee, an Indian honorific) are rather commonly used in Indian English and even vernacular languages. Another Indian extension is using Sir after the name, such as Gandhi Sir.

See also[link]

• Salutation (greeting)

References[link]

External links[link]

• EtymologyOnLine, etymonline.com

Sir Mix-a-Lot
Sir Mix-a-Lot in December 2006
Background information
Birth name	Anthony Ray
Born	(1963-08-12) August 12, 1963 (age 48) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop, West Coast rap, old school hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, songwriter, producer, performer
Years active	1986–2003 2010-present
Labels	Nastymix/Ichiban, American Recordings, Artist Direct/BMG
Website	www.sirmixalot.com

Anthony Ray (born August 12, 1963), better known by his stage name Sir Mix-a-Lot, is an emcee and producer based in Seattle, Washington. The founder of the Nastymix record label, he debuted in 1988 with Swass. Sir Mix-a-Lot is best known for his 1992 album Mack Daddy and its Grammy Award-winning single "Baby Got Back."

Career[link]

In 1986, Sir Mix-a-Lot and his DJ, Nasty Nes founded the Nastymix record label. His first hit, released in 1987, was the single "Posse on Broadway," whose title referred to a street in Seattle's Capitol Hill district.^[1] The Godzilla remix of "Posse on Broadway" contained a sample from David Bowie's 1975 hit "Fame," but neither the album version nor the original seven-inch edit version (which was used for the video) used the Bowie sample. Swass, his debut album, was released in 1988, with two other singles: "Square-Dance Rap" and a hip hop cover of the Black Sabbath song "Iron Man" backed by the band Metal Church.^[1] In 1990, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Swass platinum for selling a million copies.^[2]

Sir Mix-A-Lot debuted on the Def American label, which also bought the rights of his first two albums, with Mack Daddy in 1992. Its single "Baby Got Back" was a number-one hit that went double platinum^[2] and won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance.^[3] MTV aired the video for "Baby Got Back" only during evening hours because of its sexual nature. In 1993, Sir Mix-a-Lot collaborated with Seattle-based grunge group Mudhoney for the song "Freak Momma" on the Judgment Night soundtrack.^[1]

Low label promotion of his 1996 album Return of the Bumpasaurus led Sir Mix-a-Lot to leave the American label. During the three year break, Sir Mix-a-Lot worked closely with another group, The Presidents of the United States of America under the group name "Subset" with a combination of rock and rap music, but nothing was ever officially released. Sir Mix-a-Lot signed with the independent Artist Direct label for his 2003 album Daddy's Home with "Big Johnson" as its lead single.^[1][4] Despite having taken several years off from recording, Sir Mix-a-Lot is still known to mix frequently.

In 2010, Sir Mix-a-Lot announced his next album, Dun 4got About Mix. The lead single "Carz" was released to YouTube on 23 Nov 2010. By June 2011, the video had acquired over a million views, although no release date for the album has been set.

Film and television[link]

In 1995, Sir Mix-a-Lot starred as the titular character of the short-lived TV series The Watcher. The show was one of the first dramas aired on the fledgling broadcast network, UPN. Reminiscent of series such as The Twilight Zone, Sir-Mix-a-Lot functioned as an omniscient narrator who introduced each episode, which would feature a new tale set in the seamy underbelly of Las Vegas.

Mix-a-Lot is more than willing to poke fun at his best-known song, "Baby Got Back": In 2006, Sir Mix-a-Lot appeared as himself in the second season episode of Tom Goes to the Mayor, "My Big Cups", in which he raps the jingle for Tom's latest commercial enterprise, a store that sells big cups.^[5] He also appeared as himself in The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XVII" singing a parody called "Baby Likes Fat." He also made an appearance on the stop-motion animated sketch comedy show Robot Chicken performing another parody, "Table Be Round" about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

Sir Mix-a-Lot provides narration and commentary in Wheedle's Groove, a 2009 documentary about the Seattle 1960s and 70s funk and soul scene.^[6]

Discography[link]

• Swass (1988)
• Seminar (1989)
• Mack Daddy (1992)
• Chief Boot Knocka (1994)
• Return of the Bumpasaurus (1996)
• Daddy's Home (2003)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sir Mix-A-Lot Official site
• Official site at Artist Direct
• Sir Mix-a-Lot at the Internet Movie Database
• Sir Mix-A-Lot at MySpace
• Subset

Hugh Laurie OBE
Hugh Laurie during the House session of the 2009 Fox Winter TCA
Born	James Hugh Calum Laurie (1959-06-11) 11 June 1959 (age 53) Oxford, England, UK
Alma mater	Cambridge University Eton College
Occupation	Actor, comedian, musician, singer, writer, director
Years active	1981–present
Spouse	Jo Green (m. 1989) «start: (1989)»"Marriage: Jo Green to Hugh Laurie" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Hugh_Laurie)
Children	2 sons, 1 daughter
Website
hughlaurieblues.com

James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE (born 11 June 1959), known as Hugh Laurie (/ˈhjuː ˈlɒri/), is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director. He first became known as one half of the Fry and Laurie double act, along with his friend and comedy partner Stephen Fry, whom he joined in the cast of Blackadder and Jeeves and Wooster from 1987 to 1999.

From 2004 to 2012, he played Dr Gregory House, the protagonist of House, for which he received two Golden Globe awards, two Screen Actors Guild awards, and six Emmy nominations. As of August 2010, Laurie is the highest paid actor in a drama series on US television.^[1] He has been listed in the 2011 Guinness Book of World Records as the highest paid actor ever in a TV Drama—earning US$ 700,000^[2] per episode in House—and for being the most watched leading man on television.^[3][4]

Early life and education[link]

Laurie was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England.^[5] The youngest of four children, Laurie has an older brother named Charles and two older sisters named Susan and Janet.^[6] He had a somewhat strained relationship with his mother, Patricia (née Laidlaw).^[5][7] His father, Ran Laurie, was a medical doctor who also won an Olympic gold medal in the coxless pairs (rowing) at the 1948 London Games.^[5][8]

Although Laurie was brought up in the Presbyterian church as a child,^[5][9] he has declared: "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."^[10] He was brought up in Oxford and attended the Dragon School. He later went on to Eton and then to Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he studied for a degree in Archaeology and Social Anthropology. While at Cambridge he was a member of Footlights, the university dramatic club that has produced many well-known actors and comedians, and he was club president in 1981. He was also a member of the Hermes Club and the Hawks' Club.^[5]

Like his father, Laurie was an oarsman at school and university;^[5] in 1977, he was a member of the junior coxed pair that won the British national title before representing Britain's Youth Team at the 1977 Junior World Rowing Championships. In 1980, Laurie and his rowing partner, J. S. Palmer, were runners-up in the Silver Goblets^[11] coxless pairs for Eton Vikings rowing club. Later, he also achieved a Blue while taking part in the 1980 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.^[12] Cambridge lost that year by 5 feet.^[13] During this time Laurie was training for up to 8 hours a day and was on course to become an Olympic standard rower.^[14] Laurie is a member of Leander Club, one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world.

Forced to abandon rowing during a bout of glandular fever (mononucleosis), he joined the Cambridge Footlights, which has been the starting point for many successful British comedians. There he met Emma Thompson, with whom he had a romantic relationship; the two remain good friends.^[5] She introduced him to his future comedy partner, Stephen Fry. Laurie, Fry and Thompson later parodied themselves as the University Challenge representatives of "Footlights College, Oxbridge" in "Bambi", an episode of The Young Ones, with the series' co-writer Ben Elton completing their team. In 1980–81, his final year at university, besides rowing, Laurie was also president of the Footlights, with Thompson as vice-president. They took their annual revue, The Cellar Tapes, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and won the first Perrier Comedy Award. The revue was written principally by Laurie and Fry, and the cast also included Thompson, Tony Slattery, Paul Shearer and Penny Dwyer.

Acting career[link]

The Perrier Award led to a West End transfer for The Cellar Tapes and a television version of the revue, broadcast in May 1982. It resulted in Laurie, Fry and Thompson being selected, along with Ben Elton, Robbie Coltrane and Siobhan Redmond to write and appear in a new sketch comedy show for Granada Television, Alfresco, which ran for two series.

Fry and Laurie went on to work together on various projects throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Among them were the Blackadder series, written by Ben Elton and Richard Curtis, starring Rowan Atkinson, with Laurie in various roles, but most notably Prince George and Lieutenant George.^[5] Other projects followed, of which one was their BBC sketch comedy series A Bit of Fry & Laurie; another project was Jeeves and Wooster,^[5] an adaptation of P. G. Wodehouse’s stories, in which Laurie played Jeeves’s employer, the amiable twit Bertie Wooster. He and Fry worked together at various charity stage events, such as Hysteria! 1, 2 & 3 and Amnesty International’s The Secret Policeman’s Third Ball, Comic Relief TV shows and the variety show Fry and Laurie Host a Christmas Night with the Stars. They collaborated again on the film Peter's Friends and came together for a retrospective show in 2010 titled Fry and Laurie Reunited.

Laurie starred in the Thames Television film "Letters from a Bomber Pilot" (1985) directed by David Hodgson. This was a serious acting role, the film being dramatised from the letters home of Pilot Officer J.R.A. "Bob" Hodgson, a pilot in RAF Bomber Command, who was killed in action in 1943.^[15]

Laurie appeared in the music videos for the 1986 single "Experiment IV" by Kate Bush, and the 1992 single "Walking on Broken Glass" by Annie Lennox, in full Georgian-period costume, a toned-down version of his Prince George character from Blackadder the Third, opposite John Malkovich, similarly reprising his role of the Vicomte Valmont from Dangerous Liaisons.^[16]

Laurie’s later film appearances include Sense and Sensibility (1995), adapted by and starring Emma Thompson; the Disney live-action film 101 Dalmatians (1996), where he played Jasper, one of the bumbling criminals hired to kidnap the puppies; Elton’s adaptation of his novel Inconceivable, Maybe Baby (2000); Girl From Rio; the 2004 remake of The Flight of the Phoenix; and the three Stuart Little films.

In 1996, Laurie’s first novel, The Gun Seller, an intricate thriller laced with Wodehouseian humour, was published and became a best-seller.^[5] He has since been working on the screenplay for a movie version and on a second novel, The Paper Soldier. In 1998, Laurie had a brief guest-starring role on Friends in "The One with Ross's Wedding, Part Two".

Since 2002, Laurie has appeared in a range of British television dramas, guest-starring that year in two episodes of the first season of the spy thriller series Spooks on BBC One. In 2003, he starred in and also directed ITV's comedy-drama series fortysomething (in one episode of which Stephen Fry appears). In 2001, he voiced the character of a bar patron in the Family Guy episode "One If by Clam, Two If by Sea". Laurie voiced the character of Mr. Wolf in the cartoon Preston Pig. He was a panellist on the first episode of QI, alongside Fry as host. In 2004, Laurie guest-starred as a professor in charge of a space probe called Beagle, on The Lenny Henry Show.

Laurie's fame expanded to the American public in 2004, when he first starred as the acerbic physician specialising in diagnostic medicine, Dr Gregory House in the popular Fox medical drama House. For his portrayal, Laurie assumes an American accent.^[5] Laurie was in Namibia filming Flight of the Phoenix and recorded the audition tape for the show in the bathroom of the hotel, the only place he could get enough light.^[17] While working on Flight of the Phoenix, Jacob Vargas operated the camera to shoot Laurie's audition tape for House. Laurie's US accent was so convincing that executive producer Bryan Singer, who was unaware at the time that Laurie is English, pointed to him as an example of just the kind of compelling American actor he had been looking for.^[17] Laurie also adopts the accent between takes on the set of House,^[18] as well as during script read-throughs, although he used his native accent when directing the House episode "Lockdown".^[18]

Laurie was nominated for an Emmy Award^[19] for his role in House in 2005. Although he did not win, he did receive a Golden Globe in both 2006 and 2007 for his work on the series and the Screen Actors Guild award in 2007 and 2009. Laurie was also awarded a large increase in salary, from what was rumoured to be a mid-range five-figure sum to $350,000 per episode.^[20] Laurie was not nominated for the 2006 Emmys, apparently to the outrage of Fox executives,^[21] but he still appeared in a scripted, pre-taped intro, where he parodied his House character by rapidly diagnosing host Conan O'Brien and then proceeded to grope him as the latter asked him for help to get to the Emmys on time. He would later go on to speak in French while presenting an Emmy with Dame Helen Mirren, and has since been nominated in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Laurie's success on the show extends to the financial, earning over $700,000 per episode.^[2]

Laurie was initially cast as Perry White, the editor of the Daily Planet, in Singer's film Superman Returns but had to bow out of the project because of his involvement in House. In July 2006, Laurie appeared on Bravo!'s Inside the Actors Studio, where he also performed one of his own comic songs, "Mystery", accompanying himself on the piano.^[5] He hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live, in which he appeared in drag in a sketch about a man (Kenan Thompson) with a broken leg who accuses his doctor of being dishonest. Laurie played the man’s wife.

In August 2007, Laurie appeared on BBC Four's documentary Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out, filmed in celebration of Fry’s 50th birthday. In 2008, Laurie appeared as Captain James Biggs in Street Kings, opposite Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker, and then in 2009 as the eccentric Dr. Cockroach, PhD in DreamWorks' Monsters vs. Aliens. He also hosted Saturday Night Live for the second time on the Christmas show in which he sang a medley of three-second Christmas songs to close his monologue.

In 2009, Laurie returned to guest star in another Family Guy episode, "Business Guy", parodying Gregory House and himself assuming an American accent. In 2010, Laurie filmed an independent feature called The Oranges. In 2010, Laurie guest starred in The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror XXI" as Roger, a castaway who is planning a murder scheme on a ship during Homer and Marge's second honeymoon.^{[citation needed]} On 8 February 2012, Fox announced that season 8 of House will be the last.

Music career[link]

From the age of six, Laurie took piano lessons with a Mrs. Hare.^[22] He plays the piano, guitar, drums, harmonica and saxophone. He has displayed his musical talents in episodes of several television series, most notably A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, House and when he hosted Saturday Night Live in October 2006. He is a vocalist and keyboard player for the Los Angeles charity rock group Band From TV. Additionally, following Meat Loaf's appearance in the House episode "Simple Explanation", Laurie played piano as a special guest on the song "If I Can't Have You" from Meat Loaf's 2010 album Hang Cool Teddy Bear.

On episodes of House he has played several classic rock 'n roll instruments including Gibson Flying V and Les Paul guitars. His character has a Hammond B-3 organ in his home and on one episode performed the introduction to Procol Harum's classic "Whiter Shade of Pale".^[23] Laurie appears as a scientist/doctor in the pop video to accompany Kate Bush's song Experiment IV. On 1 May 2011, Laurie and a jazz quintet closed the 2011 Cheltenham Jazz Festival to great acclaim.^[24]

On 15 May 2011 Laurie was the subject of the ITV series Perspectives, explaining his love for the music of New Orleans and playing music, from his album Let Them Talk, at studios and live venues in the city itself.^[22] He was the subject of PBS Great Performances Let them Talk, also about New Orleans jazz, first broadcast on 30 September 2011.^[25]

Personal life[link]

Laurie's mother, Patricia (née Laidlaw), died from motor neurone disease in Oxfordshire at the age of 73 in 1989, when Laurie was 30. According to Laurie, it took her two years to die, and she suffered "painful, plodding paralysis" while being cared for by Laurie's father, whom he called "the sweetest man in the whole world".^[6]

Laurie married theatre administrator Jo Green in June 1989 in Camden, London. They live in Belsize Park, London with sons Charlie and Bill and daughter Rebecca.^[26] They had planned to move the whole family to Los Angeles in 2008 due to the strain of being mostly separated for 9 months each year,^[26] but ultimately decided against it.^[27] Charlie had a cameo in A Bit of Fry & Laurie in the last sketch of the episode entitled Special Squad, as baby William (whom Stephen and Hugh begin to "interrogate" about "what he's done with the stuff", calling him a scumbag and telling him that he's been a very naughty boy) during his infancy, while Rebecca had a role in the film Wit as five-year-old Vivian Bearing.

Laurie's best friend is long time comedy partner Stephen Fry, who was best man at his wedding and is godfather to his children.^[28] Laurie is good friends with his House co-star Robert Sean Leonard and continues his friendship with actress Emma Thompson.^[29]

On 23 May 2007 Laurie was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2007 New Year Honours List, for his services to drama, by Queen Elizabeth II.^[30][31][32]

Laurie has struggled with severe clinical depression, and continues to receive regular treatment from a psychotherapist. He stated in an interview that he first concluded he had a problem while driving in a charity demolition derby in 1996, during which he realised that driving around explosive crashes caused him to be neither excited nor frightened, but instead bored.^[5][7] "Boredom," he commented in an interview on Inside the Actors Studio, "is not an appropriate response to exploding cars.".^[5]

Laurie admires the writings of P.G. Wodehouse, explaining in a 27 May 1999 article in The Daily Telegraph how reading Wodehouse novels had saved his life.^[33]

In a further interview in The Daily Telegraph Laurie confirms his atheism.^[34]

Laurie is an avid motorcycle enthusiast. He has two motorcycles, one at his London home and one at his Los Angeles home. His bike in the United States is a Triumph Bonneville, his "feeble attempt to fly the British flag".^[35]

In March 2012 Laurie was made an honorary fellow of his alma mater Selwyn College.^[36][37]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

On 26 July 2010, it was announced that Laurie would be releasing a blues album after signing a contract with Warner Bros. The album, called Let Them Talk, was released in France on 18 April 2011 and in Germany on 29 April. The album features collaborations from well-known artists such as Tom Jones, Irma Thomas, and Dr. John.

Singles[link]

Other charting songs[link]

Appearances[link]

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

All of the following are nominations or wins for Laurie's role on House:

Emmy Awards

• 2005 – Nominated – Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
• 2007 – Nominated – Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
• 2008 – Nominated – Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
• 2009 – Nominated – Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
• 2010 – Nominated – Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
• 2011 – Nominated – Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Golden Globe Awards

• 2005 – Winner – Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama^[54]
• 2006 – Winner – Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama
• 2007 – Nominated – Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama
• 2008 – Nominated – Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama
• 2009 – Nominated – Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama
• 2010 – Nominated – Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama

Satellite Awards

• 2005 – Winner – Outstanding Actor in a Series, Drama
• 2006 – Winner – Outstanding Actor in a Series, Drama
• 2007 – Nominated – Outstanding Actor in a Series, Drama

Screen Actors Guild Awards

• 2006 – Nominated – Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
• 2007 – Winner – Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
• 2008 – Nominated – Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
• 2009 – Winner – Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
• 2010 – Nominated – Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
• 2011 – Nominated – Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

Television Critics Association

• 2005 – Winner – Individual Achievement in Drama
• 2006 – Winner – Individual Achievement in Drama
• 2007 – Nominated – Individual Achievement in Drama^[55]

Teen Choice Award

• 2006 – Nominated – TV Actor: Drama
• 2007 – Winner – TV Actor: Drama

People's Choice Awards

• 2008 – Winner – Favorite Male TV Star
• 2009 – Winner – Favorite Male TV Star^[56]
• 2010 – Winner – Favorite TV Drama Actor
• 2011 – Winner – Favorite TV Drama Actor
• 2011 – Winner – Favorite TV Doctor

Other Awards

• 2011 – Winner – GQ Music Man Of The Year

Writing[link]

Hugh Laurie has written one full-length novel, The Gun Seller, which has undergone multiple printings from several publishers. His second novel, Paper Soldiers (US: The Paper Soldier), was scheduled for September 2009, but has yet to appear.

• The Gun Seller UK (HB) (William Heinemann Ltd (May 1996)) ISBN 0-434-00297-6 (PB) (William Heinemann Ltd (May 1996)) ISBN 0-434-00375-1
  • (PB) (Arrow Books Ltd (November 2000); New Ed (October 2004)) ISBN 0-09-941927-0 & ISBN 0-09-946939-1
• The Gun Seller US (HB) (Soho Press (May 1997)) ISBN 1-56947-087-1 (PB) (Mandarin (March 1997)) ISBN 0-7493-2385-X
  • (PB) (Washington Square Press (November 1998)) ISBN 0-671-02082-X
• Paper Soldiers UK (PB) (Michael Joseph (24 September 2009)) ISBN 0-7181-4391-4
• The Paper Soldier US (HB) (Michael Joseph (27 September 2009)) ISBN 0-7181-4390-6
  • (PB) (Penguin Books (28 September 2009)) ISBN 0-14-028210-6

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Hugh Laurie

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hugh Laurie

• The Official Hugh Laurie Website
• Hugh Laurie at the Internet Movie Database
• Hugh Laurie at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Hugh Laurie interview with the Guardian
• Hugh Laurie Interview with the Daily Telegraph
• Hugh Laurie interview with Time Out
• Hugh "Laurie 'snubbed' after US success" – BBC News
• Hugh Laurie at Emmys.com

Stephen Fry
Fry in Happy Birthday to GNU (2008)
Born	Stephen John Fry (1957-08-24) 24 August 1957 (age 54) Hampstead, London, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Queens' College, Cambridge
Occupation	Actor, comedian, author, journalist, broadcaster, film director
Years active	1981–present
Influenced by	Oscar Wilde, P. G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Douglas Adams, Rowan Atkinson, Christopher Hitchens
Title	President of Mind (2011–present)[1] Honorary Kentucky Colonel[2][3] Patron of the Lip Theatre Company Patron of the Norwich Playhouse theatre Vice President of the Noël Coward Society Honorary fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge Honorary fellow of Cardiff University Honorary president of the Cambridge University Quiz Society Rector of the University of Dundee (1992–1998)
Religion	None (atheist)
Partner	Daniel Cohen (1995–2010)
Parents	Alan John Fry Marianne Eve Fry (née Newman)
Signature
Website
www.stephenfry.com

Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English^[4][5] actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter, film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club.^[6]

After a troubled childhood and adolescence, during which he was expelled from a number of schools and eventually spent three months in prison for credit card fraud, he was able to secure a place at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he studied English Literature.

He first came to public attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also included Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Tony Slattery. With Hugh Laurie, as the comedy double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie, and took the role of Jeeves (with Laurie playing Wooster) in Jeeves and Wooster.

As an actor, Fry played the lead in the film Wilde, was Melchett in the BBC television series Blackadder, starred as the title character Peter Kingdom in the ITV series Kingdom, has a recurring guest role as Dr. Gordon Wyatt on the Fox crime series Bones and appeared as rogue TV host Gordon Deitrich in the dystopian thriller V For Vendetta. He has also written and presented several documentary series including the 2008 television series Stephen Fry in America, which saw him travelling across all 50 US states. Since 2003 he has been the host of the quiz show QI.

As well as his work in television, Fry has contributed columns and articles for newspapers and magazines, and has written four novels and two volumes of autobiography, Moab Is My Washpot and The Fry Chronicles. He also appears frequently on BBC Radio 4, starring in the comedy series Absolute Power, being a frequent guest on panel games such as Just a Minute, and acting as chairman for I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, where he was one of a trio of hosts who succeeded the late Humphrey Lyttelton. Fry is also known in the UK for his audiobook recordings, particularly as reader for all seven Harry Potter novels.