What do you think?
Rate this book
Hugh Laurie: The Biography
From Blackadder to A Bit of Fry and Laurie , Jeeves and Wooster to House , Hugh Laurie has entertained millions in a career spanning three decades. Hugh was born in Oxford, and his father, WGRM "Ran" Laurie, was a doctor who won a gold medal in the coxless pairs at the 1948 Olympics. Hugh followed in his father's footsteps as a rower at Cambridge, but when he was forced to hang up his oars through illness, he joined the famous Cambridge Footlights and there began a career in comedy. It was at university that he met Stephen Fry, and the pair forged a hilarious partnership that continued through the 1980s and 1990s, as they appeared together in the Blackadder series, sketch show A Bit of Fry and Laurie , and PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster . Hugh has also enjoyed great success on the big screen, starring in Sense and Sensibility , 101 Dalmatians , Monsters vs Aliens , and the three Stuart Little films. But it is the character of irascible doctor Gregory House, in the US TV drama House , that has brought Hugh Laurie global fame. He has won two Golden Globes for the role and received a prestigious Emmy nomination in 2005, and continues to receive critical acclaim for his performances in the show—especially for his near-perfect American accent. With worldwide stardom and an OBE to his name, Hugh Laurie is undoubtedly one of Britain's best-loved actors. This is the incredible story of his rise to stardom.
- GenresNonfictionBiography
272 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2010
8 people are currently reading
125 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 21, 2015
What a waste. What a terrible, terrible waste. How do you write about someone as interesting as Hugh Laurie and manage to make the book so horribly dull and lifeless? I don't know, but Anthony Bunko did it--give the man an award! Do yourself a favor--skip this book. Instead, go to YouTube and type in 'hugh laurie interview' and hit enter. That's where literally every single quote from Mr Laurie came from anyway--interviews that are widely available on YouTube. I'd seen many of them and therefore recognized the vast majority of the quotes. And as for the rest? The details you may not get from hearing Mr Laurie himself speak? Go to Wikipedia and read the article about him. It will be equally informative as this worthless book.
Honestly, did anyone even bother proofreading this thing? There are a ridiculous amount of typos and errors in here. Considering they had a lot of time to get the book ready (as far as I know, there are no other Hugh Laurie biographies to compete with), they ought to be ashamed of themselves. It's like Bunko typed this up in a Word document in an hour and printed it off without even running a grammar/spellcheck. I understand that nobody's perfect and that typos are going to happen even in professional publications (as this one supposedly is), but this was just ridiculous, beyond insulting. A fourth-grader could have done better, and a fourth-grader would've proofread it, because in fourth grade your teacher makes you. The editors ought to be fired immediately, because they clearly didn't even glance at this piece of trash.
I honestly shouldn't be quite this furious, but I just hate wasting my time on books where it's pretty clear the author didn't even care about it. Grr.
But I've decided that Mr Laurie's next and only biographer from now on should be Mr Fry, who's already written his own autobiography and made it pretty interesting, touching, and occasionally amusing. Mr Laurie could interject comments now and then, arguing with what Mr Fry has said, and then the regular text could continue. It would epic. Even if they totally made up every detail, completely fictionalized his life, it would still be awesome and hugely epic. Dang, I want to read that book now....
So yeah. Don't bother with this one.
Honestly, did anyone even bother proofreading this thing? There are a ridiculous amount of typos and errors in here. Considering they had a lot of time to get the book ready (as far as I know, there are no other Hugh Laurie biographies to compete with), they ought to be ashamed of themselves. It's like Bunko typed this up in a Word document in an hour and printed it off without even running a grammar/spellcheck. I understand that nobody's perfect and that typos are going to happen even in professional publications (as this one supposedly is), but this was just ridiculous, beyond insulting. A fourth-grader could have done better, and a fourth-grader would've proofread it, because in fourth grade your teacher makes you. The editors ought to be fired immediately, because they clearly didn't even glance at this piece of trash.
I honestly shouldn't be quite this furious, but I just hate wasting my time on books where it's pretty clear the author didn't even care about it. Grr.
But I've decided that Mr Laurie's next and only biographer from now on should be Mr Fry, who's already written his own autobiography and made it pretty interesting, touching, and occasionally amusing. Mr Laurie could interject comments now and then, arguing with what Mr Fry has said, and then the regular text could continue. It would epic. Even if they totally made up every detail, completely fictionalized his life, it would still be awesome and hugely epic. Dang, I want to read that book now....
So yeah. Don't bother with this one.
January 26, 2011
Oh dear. I absolutely adore Hugh Laurie, i think he's a really lovely, interesting, complex man. But this book was awful. I don't think the author even met Laurie, it just read like a load of information which i could have gathered myself just by a few clicks from google.
It get's 2 starts purely because i love Hugh Laurie and reading about him is always good.. but the writing itself was awful. And the proof-reader needs the sack, so many basic mistakes in there!
It get's 2 starts purely because i love Hugh Laurie and reading about him is always good.. but the writing itself was awful. And the proof-reader needs the sack, so many basic mistakes in there!
November 19, 2010
I could have written this book with Google and four hours to scan every article and video on line that contained an interview with Hugh Laurie. I don't think the author even met the man. Big waste of time and money.
November 26, 2023
Lololol you know when you read a book and think, “Wow, if this is the bar, I should become an author”?! This “book” (more like a yearbook with copy written by a middle schooler who used badly-sourced internet factoids to generate content) was a gag gift from a friend who knows I love Hugh Laurie with my whole heart. If I were him, I’d buy all the remaining copies of this horrific biography to get them off shelves for good. Hugh Laurie is still the best; this book is just the worst!
June 27, 2011
A perfectly serviceable biography; but, being a fan of Hugh Laurie in every incarnation, I hoped for more from this, somehow expecting a book with character and charm. It did begin reasonably well; Laurie’s childhood, schooling and parents were tackled with care, but on arriving at his subject’s launch – well, okay, meander – into stardom, there were great rolling passages of the book that felt more like a fleshed-out magazine article than a first-rate biography.
I have been left wondering what a flat and soulless mess Bunko might make of a biography of someone less engaging than Hugh Laurie. During the second half of the book, every time the author used a quote from the subject himself, or from someone who wasn’t just being used to get another friend’s assessment for padding, it was like a breath of oxygen in an airless room. It wasn’t so dull as to be unreadable, it just lacked a sense that the biographer was there to do anything more than stitch together a well-researched chronology with some opinions tacked on.
Bunko might have chosen the standard title for a celebrity history, but I contend that ‘The’ biography is still waiting to be written; along with the opportunity to channel more of Laurie’s character, more insight, more contextual anecdotes and, while I’m listing grievances, a better quality of writing, an altogether more comprehensive and perceptive insight into Hugh Laurie’s life and career.
I have been left wondering what a flat and soulless mess Bunko might make of a biography of someone less engaging than Hugh Laurie. During the second half of the book, every time the author used a quote from the subject himself, or from someone who wasn’t just being used to get another friend’s assessment for padding, it was like a breath of oxygen in an airless room. It wasn’t so dull as to be unreadable, it just lacked a sense that the biographer was there to do anything more than stitch together a well-researched chronology with some opinions tacked on.
Bunko might have chosen the standard title for a celebrity history, but I contend that ‘The’ biography is still waiting to be written; along with the opportunity to channel more of Laurie’s character, more insight, more contextual anecdotes and, while I’m listing grievances, a better quality of writing, an altogether more comprehensive and perceptive insight into Hugh Laurie’s life and career.
April 12, 2023
I was a big fan of House – it still is one of my all-time favorite shows and back when it was still on, I received this book as a gift. I guess the person who gave it to me assumed that since I liked the show so much, I must be interested in its lead actor’s biography. That was not really the case, so Hugh Laurie: The Biography ended up catching dust on my shelf. At the moment I am purging my bookshelf and since I don’t want to discard any books without having read them, I finally picked up this book and finished it.
As was to be expected Hugh Laurie: The Biography delineates Laurie’s biography, from his upbringing via his education to his career as an actor accentuating his defining role as Gregory House without overly focusing on it. For the most part the account is quite generic and at time reads like a varnished Wikipedia filmography. Of course, this impression at least in part stems from this book having been written without support from Laurie himself. Hence, it is a collection of publicly available information on the actor, pieced together to form a coherent picture and a lack of personal touch or insider knowledge is only natural. In spite of this clear shortcoming, Hugh Laurie: The Biography is a decent read that delivers some facts about the actor I was not aware of. Personally, I had no idea how established Laurie had already been in the UK prior to his big break in the US. Learning about his family, his aspirations as an athlete and the trials and tribulations of his early career was more interesting than I had anticipated (I had no idea he was close friends with Emma Thompson, let alone that they dated at some point). Naturally, for me the most interesting chapters of this book are the ones dealing with House, which make up a smaller portion than I had thought they would. These sections offer some background information on the show’s inception, how Laurie ended up with the lead, as well as insights into its production and reception. However, Laurie’s biography turns out to be so eventful that I did not really mind House not being the defining topic of this book.
Generally, the information conveyed here is rather superficial. Therefore, I presume that for a full-fledged fan there is only very little to take away from this book. While the writing is far from brilliant, it is decent. Yet, there is one stylistic element that bothered me, namely Buko’s tendency of interspersing little quotes from his text on every other page or so (like one might do in lengthy newspaper article). These direct quotations add nothing content-wise and are a distraction that impedes the reading flow. The only exception are the quotes at the end of each chapter, which tend to be actual quotes that do not appear within the text.
Taking everything together, Hugh Laurie: The Biography is as good as can be expected from an unauthorized biography. It offers some interesting insights but is no momentous work.
As was to be expected Hugh Laurie: The Biography delineates Laurie’s biography, from his upbringing via his education to his career as an actor accentuating his defining role as Gregory House without overly focusing on it. For the most part the account is quite generic and at time reads like a varnished Wikipedia filmography. Of course, this impression at least in part stems from this book having been written without support from Laurie himself. Hence, it is a collection of publicly available information on the actor, pieced together to form a coherent picture and a lack of personal touch or insider knowledge is only natural. In spite of this clear shortcoming, Hugh Laurie: The Biography is a decent read that delivers some facts about the actor I was not aware of. Personally, I had no idea how established Laurie had already been in the UK prior to his big break in the US. Learning about his family, his aspirations as an athlete and the trials and tribulations of his early career was more interesting than I had anticipated (I had no idea he was close friends with Emma Thompson, let alone that they dated at some point). Naturally, for me the most interesting chapters of this book are the ones dealing with House, which make up a smaller portion than I had thought they would. These sections offer some background information on the show’s inception, how Laurie ended up with the lead, as well as insights into its production and reception. However, Laurie’s biography turns out to be so eventful that I did not really mind House not being the defining topic of this book.
Generally, the information conveyed here is rather superficial. Therefore, I presume that for a full-fledged fan there is only very little to take away from this book. While the writing is far from brilliant, it is decent. Yet, there is one stylistic element that bothered me, namely Buko’s tendency of interspersing little quotes from his text on every other page or so (like one might do in lengthy newspaper article). These direct quotations add nothing content-wise and are a distraction that impedes the reading flow. The only exception are the quotes at the end of each chapter, which tend to be actual quotes that do not appear within the text.
Taking everything together, Hugh Laurie: The Biography is as good as can be expected from an unauthorized biography. It offers some interesting insights but is no momentous work.
December 21, 2018
This started dreadfully and I wondered whether it was an unauthorised cut and paste job. The author uses generous clods of filler at times giving us extensive biographies of the people Laurie has worked with, however that doesn't deny or overshadow Laurie's achievements. I've no doubt Laurie is a genuinely humble man but, presuming he contributed to this book, a biography is sort of the antithesis of humble. Thou doth protest too much. Laurie's self-deprecation does become a little hard to take. That said, much of his work is the comedic screenplay of my life so the book becomes impossible to put down as actors and comedians and writers I have loved flaunt their genius alongside the co-star who always stole the show. By the end of the book Laurie is the star in 'House' and it is there his depression is lightly explored which left me with the uncomfortable but lingering feeling that Laurie is perhaps a bit of a troubled selfish loner. A well-established multi-millionaire doesn't have to spend his life separated from his family. You sort of get the feeling he prefers it that way.
June 17, 2015
Loved the book, and getting to know more about the fantastic actor behind my favourite TV doctor was a moving ride from beginning to end. I discovered the House series only recently and had been hooked on ever since. The actor is surprisingly down-to-earth and self-deprecating as depicted in the book.
The couple of other Hugh Laurie characters I saw was Jasper in 101 Dalmatians and Mr Fred Little in Stuart Little, which doesn't entertain as much as the brooding Dr House. And getting to know the one man behind these many faces, the choices he made, and his outlook in life despite his "accidental success", is just as fascinating.
The couple of other Hugh Laurie characters I saw was Jasper in 101 Dalmatians and Mr Fred Little in Stuart Little, which doesn't entertain as much as the brooding Dr House. And getting to know the one man behind these many faces, the choices he made, and his outlook in life despite his "accidental success", is just as fascinating.
October 20, 2014
This biography of actor/comedian/writer Hugh Laurie covers his early life and career up to and including his role on "House" (which was still in production at the time this book went to print). If you are interested in Hugh Laurie (as I am), you will find this book entertaining, though if you are REALLY into Hugh Laurie, you may find a lot of the information is no surprise. But there are a few nuggets of material that might be new to some people, even the most diehard fans of Hugh. Regardless, if you are on any level an admirer of Hugh Laurie, it's a definite must-read.
November 16, 2011
Not as much about Hugh as I would have hoped, must be aimed at American audience as it concentrated so much on House, I got the feeling that the writer would much preferred to have been writing about Stephen Fry or about House. Some interesting bits but I'm sure there is a lot more to know about such a great talent!
August 3, 2013
Enjoyed the subject but the writing of this biography was just average. Not Mr. Laurie's fault. Quite a few thoughts and quotes were repeated... Often in the same paragraph. Still, if you are a fan of the actor, it's not a complete waste of time.
April 16, 2011
Great book, Anthony Bunko is an awesome writer. He is on my list of top authors and I enjoy reading all his books!!!
August 11, 2011
It was interesting. I knew many new things about my favorite actor and just my big love - Hugh Laurie!!
June 2, 2012
Editing rapidly deteriorated over the course of the book.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews