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95-1131: Micki is a given name. Notable people with the name include: Micki Dickoff , American film director and producer Micki DuPont (born 1980), Canadian ice hockey player Micki Free (born 1955), American musician Micki Grant (1929–2021), American singer, actress, writer and composer Addie "Micki" Harris (1941–1982), member of the all-girl singing group The Shirelles Micki Hirschl (1906–1991), Austrian wrestler Micki King (born 1944), American diver and diving coach Micki Marlo (1928–2016), American model and singer Micki McElya (born 1972), American author and historian Micki Meuser , German musician Micki Nielsen (born 1993), Danish boxer Micki Pistorius (born 1961), South African forensic psychologist Micki Schillig (born 1960), American tennis player Michael Steele (musician) (born 1955), bassist, guitarist, songwriter, and singer, known as Micki Steele while with The Runaways See also [ edit ] Micky / Mickie [REDACTED] Name list This page or section lists people that share

190-693: A 2.1 grade . Then viewing acting as nothing more than a creative outlet, he joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and played Fabian in a production of Twelfth Night . He also starred in his first film, Privileged (1982), produced by the Oxford University Film Foundation . He turned down an offer from the Courtauld Institute of Art , University of London , to pursue a PhD in art history because he failed to secure

285-515: A Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards . He received an Honorary César in 2006. As of 2018 , his films had grossed a total of nearly US$ 3 billion worldwide. In 2022, Time Out magazine listed Grant as one of Britain's 50 greatest actors of all time. Grant made his feature film acting debut in Privileged (1982), followed by the romantic drama Maurice (1987) for which he gained acclaim as well as

380-676: A Satellite Award and a European Film Award . Several critics put his work among the best acting performances of the year. Most award pundits predicted Grant would receive his first Academy Award nomination for his performance, but he was not nominated. His next appearance was as Phoenix Buchanan, the main antagonist of Paddington 2 , which was a commercial and critical success. The Guardian described his performance as "scene-stealing", while IGN commented "Grant continues to make an astonishing comeback in his career, once again by playing into his expert comedic abilities as Phoenix Buchanan, who dons each of his ridiculous disguises with

475-514: A Screen Actors Guild Award , Golden Globe Award and Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for his performance. In 2023, Grant reunited with Guy Ritchie for the action Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre alongside Jason Statham and Aubrey Plaza . The movie was originally planned to be released on early 2022 but had several delays. While the film was a box office flop with mixed reviews, Grant's performance still received mostly positive response. The A.V. Club said Grant "delivers

570-471: A character actor but became predominantly a comedy (especially a romantic comedy ) actor from his rise to stardom in mid-1990s until the 2010s. He said he moved away from romantic comedies after the failure of Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009). In a 2020 interview with The Sydney Morning Herald , he said: "I got old and ugly and I'm not appropriate for romantic comedy films anymore, which has been

665-491: A child psychiatrist reacting unfavourably to his girlfriend's unexpected pregnancy, for his "insufferable muggings". Grant himself has been highly critical of his performance in Nine Months , stating in a 2016 interview that "I really ruined it. And it was entirely my fault. I panicked, it was such a big jump up from what I'd been paid before to what they were offering me. And the scale was inhuman to my standards, you know

760-587: A sketch-comedy group called The Jockeys of Norfolk, a name taken from Shakespeare's Richard III , with friends Chris Lang and Andy Taylor. The group toured London's pub comedy circuit with stops at The George IV in Chiswick , Canal Cafe Theatre in Little Venice and The King's Head in Islington . The Jockeys of Norfolk proved a hit at the 1985 Edinburgh Festival Fringe after their sketch on

855-610: A Boy (2002), Two Weeks Notice (2002), Love Actually (2003) and Music and Lyrics (2007). Grant began to take against-type parts earning nominations for two BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his roles as St. Clair Bayfield in Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) and a haughty actor in Paddington 2 (2017). He has also acted in the science fiction film Cloud Atlas (2012), several Guy Ritchie action films including The Gentlemen (2019),

950-519: A Boy and dreads the possibility of becoming a parody of himself. Nonetheless, Grant has occasionally acted in dramas. He played a sleazy, snide community theatre director with a penchant for young actors in the drama film An Awfully Big Adventure , which received critical praise, and for "a very quiet, dignified" performance as Frédéric Chopin in James Lapine 's biopic film Impromptu . In 2012, he played six "incredibly evil" characters in

1045-500: A Funeral , Grant had reunited with its director Mike Newell for the tragicomedy An Awfully Big Adventure (1995), which was labelled a "determinedly off-beat film" by The New York Times . He portrayed the supercilious director of a repertory company in post-World War II Liverpool . Critic Roger Ebert wrote, "It shows that he has range as an actor" but the San Francisco Chronicle disapproved on grounds that

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1140-571: A Scottish accent; the film explores the life of a Scottish miner (Neeson) who becomes unemployed during a union strike. In 1991 he played Julie Andrews ' gay son in the ABC made-for-television film Our Sons . In 1991 he also starred as Frederic Chopin in Impromptu , opposite Judy Davis as his lover George Sand . In 1992 he appeared in Roman Polanski 's film Bitter Moon , portraying

1235-510: A charming but womanising book publisher Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones's Diary was proclaimed by Variety to be "as sly an overthrow of a star's polished posh – and nice – poster image as any comic turn in memory". The film, adapted from Helen Fielding 's novel of the same name, was an international hit, earning $ 281 million worldwide. He was, according to The Washington Post , fitting as "a cruel, manipulative cad, hiding behind

1330-521: A concentration camp just to get good reviews. I genuinely believe that comedy acting, light comedy acting, is as hard as, if not harder than serious acting, and it genuinely doesn't bother me that all the prizes and the good reviews automatically by knee-jerk reaction go to the deepest, darkest, most serious performances and parts. It makes me laugh." —Grant explaining his propensity for comedic roles, 2010 Remarking upon his romantic comedy star era, some film critics, such as Roger Ebert , have defended

1425-474: A fantastic character performance" and "is so committed that he throws off the balance of the ensemble because no one else is as good as he is." He next appeared as an ambitious rogue and con artist Forge in the fantasy adventure film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves . Jonah Nink of Chicago Reader praised his performance by saying "None of the cast holds a fireball to Hugh Grant, however, who owns every second of his goofball performance as one of

1520-523: A fastidious and proper British tourist who is married but finds himself enticed by the sexual hedonism of a seductive French woman and her embittered, paraplegic American husband. The film was called an "anti-romantic opus of sexual obsession and cruelty" by The Washington Post . In 1993 he had a supporting role in the Merchant-Ivory drama The Remains of the Day . Grant later jokingly called many of

1615-594: A fish-out-of-water mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes , that year. It was dismissed by critics, performed modestly at the box office and garnered its actor-producer mixed reviews for his starring role. Roger Ebert thought, "Hugh Grant is wrong for the role [and] strikes one wrong note and then another", whereas Kenneth Turan , writing in the Los Angeles Times , said, "If he'd been on the Titanic , fewer lives would have been lost. If he'd accompanied Robert Scott to

1710-555: A grant. After making his debut in the Oxford-financed film Privileged (1982), Grant dabbled in a variety of jobs, such as working as an assistant groundsman at Fulham Football Club , tutoring, writing comedy sketches for TV shows and working for Talkback Productions to write and produce radio commercials for products such as Mighty White bread and Red Stripe lager. At a screening of Privileged at BAFTA in London, he

1805-461: A great blessing". Even though his recent credits include political dramas like A Very English Scandal and crime films like The Gentlemen , Grant is still often associated with his Richard Curtis -scripted romantic comedy films. In the British press, it is common to compare young romantic comedy actors to him. I've never been tempted to do the part where I cry or get AIDS or save some people from

1900-603: A guest appearance in Stephen Frears -directed, Kate Winslet -starring HBO limited series The Regime . The same year he played a fictional version of Thurl Ravenscroft who voiced Tony the Tiger in the Jerry Seinfeld comedy film Unfrosted . Grant's performance was praised with Matt Schimkowitz of The A.V. Club describing him as the film's "MVP" and William Bibbiani of TheWrap writing that he "had

1995-577: A kind of egotistical obliviousness that Grant is perfect at pulling off." Grant went on to win London Film Critics' Circle Award for Supporting Actor of the Year and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance. Grant's performance was ranked as the 22nd greatest movie performance of the decade by IndieWire in 2019. In 2018, Grant returned to television screens after 25 years, as Jeremy Thorpe in

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2090-530: A leading role in Ken Russell 's horror film, The Lair of the White Worm . He was Lord Byron in a Goya Award -winning Spanish production called Remando al viento (1988) and portrayed legendary champagne merchant Charles Heidsieck in the television film Champagne Charlie (1989). In 1990 he had a small role in the sport/crime drama The Big Man , opposite Liam Neeson , in which Grant assumed

2185-439: A man with a "professionally misanthropic mystique". He has expressed distaste for focus groups , market research , and emphasis on opening weekend box-office numbers, saying: "It's so destructive to the filmmaking process. What was wrong with the way they used to release films, more slowly, let them build?" The director Mike Newell has said: "There is at least as much of Hugh that is charismatic, intellectual, and whose tongue

2280-554: A news feature for British television about the wrongful execution of Gary Graham (Shaka Sankofa) and presidential politics. Dickoff produced Life After Manson: The Untold Story of Patricia Krenwinkel , about what led Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel to participate in the murders. The short documentary premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. Dickoff heads Pro Bono Productions where she continues to develop and produce documentary and narrative films. She

2375-403: A notable change in his boyish look. Now 41, he had lost weight and also abandoned his trademark floppy hair. Entertainment Weekly ' s Owen Gleiberman took note of Grant's maturation in his review, saying he looked noticeably older and that it "looked good on him". He added that Grant's "pillowy cheeks are flatter and a bit drawn, and the eyes that used to peer with 'love me' cuteness now betray

2470-561: A refreshing standout." After a three-year hiatus, in 1999 he paired with Julia Roberts in Notting Hill , which was written by Richard Curtis and produced by much of the same team that was responsible for Four Weddings and a Funeral . This new Working Title production displaced Four Weddings and a Funeral as the biggest British hit in the history of cinema, with earnings equalling $ 363 million worldwide. As it became exemplary of modern romantic comedies in mainstream culture,

2565-420: A shark's casual cunning. Everything about him is leaner and spikier (including his hair, which has been shorn and moussed into a Eurochic bed-head mess), but it's not just his surface that's more virile; the nervousness is gone, too. Hugh Grant has grown up, holding on to his lightness and witty cynicism but losing the stuttering sherry-club mannerisms that were once his signature. In doing so, he has blossomed into

2660-598: A sister of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval . Grant's father was an officer in the Seaforth Highlanders for eight years in Malaya and Germany . He ran a carpet business and pursued hobbies such as golf and watercolour painting ; he raised his family in Chiswick , West London, where the Grants lived next to Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane. In September 2006, a collection of Capt. Grant's paintings

2755-504: A television movie Dickoff co-produced about AIDS and families starring Julie Andrews , Ann-Margret and Hugh Grant ; the film won a Peabody Award . Dickoff produced and directed, In the Blink of an Eye , a television movie about the death penalty and the power of friendship, starring Mimi Rogers , Veronica Hamel , Polly Bergen, Piper Laurie, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Denise Richards . She directed and produced Bush's Deadly Ambition ,

2850-494: A truly international star whose image was endlessly promoted in tabloid newspaper articles, television chat shows and magazine profiles, especially in mass circulation women's magazines. Grant was careful to play up to the affable and self-deprecating English gent. His interviewers commented frequently on his romantic attractiveness, a modern matinée idol, blue eyed, very good looking in a classically English way, with his floppy hair and charming smile, his impeccable manners leavened by

2945-455: A very sort of cynical, sarcastic, cruel, funny, but wicked voice, I went, 'Oh... That's sort of a bit like Hugh! ' " Despite initial backlash from the dwarfism community over his casting, Grant ultimately received praise for his performance, with Nick Levine of NME writing "A scene-stealing Grant provides the comic highlights as Lofty, a supercilious Oompa Loompa with a grudge against Chalamet's title character, Willy Wonka." In 2024, Grant had

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3040-520: Is "having a fine and liberating time playing a supercilious court portrait painter", and Kevin Thomas of Los Angeles Times said he has "some delicious moments" in the film. He made his debut as a film producer with the 1996 thriller Extreme Measures . Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel each gave the film three out of four stars, with Siskel writing "Hugh Grant's work in Extreme Measures is

3135-467: Is Thorpe, and everything about his performance is exactly so. It's the role of Grant's life, and he performs it even more brilliantly than he did Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2 ." The Sunday Times stated, "It's become tediously predictable to praise this drama but, as Thorpe, Hugh Grant really has proved he's getting better as he's getting older". Grant was nominated for several awards, including

3230-584: Is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Independent Documentary Association (IDA). Hugh Grant Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as a charming and vulnerable romantic leading man, and has since transitioned into a character actor . He has received several accolades including a British Academy Film Award and

3325-478: Is maybe too clever for its own good as there is of him that's gorgeous and kind of woolly and flubsy." Filmmaker Paul Weitz said that Grant is funny and that "he perceives flaws in himself and other people, and then he cares about their humanity nonetheless". British newspapers regularly refer to him as "grumpy" . Grant is a self-confessed "committed and passionate" perfectionist on a film set. The American film critic Dave Kehr has written that Grant "is known in

3420-413: Is one of the sleaziest and most unsympathetic characters Mr. Allen has ever created". In a role devoid of his comic attributes, The New York Times wrote: "Mr. Grant deftly imbues his character with exactly a perfect blend of charm and nasty calculation." In 2000, Grant also joined the supervisory board of IM Internationalmedia AG , the powerful Munich -based film and media company. In 2001, his turn as

3515-528: Is that he just never cuts the crap. He's become one of those actors who's all shambling self-caricature, from his twinkly crow's feet to the time-lapsed half century it takes him to actually get one of his lines out." The film provided both its stars a chance to satirise the woes of international notoriety, most noted of which was Grant's turn as a faux-journalist who sits through a dull press junket with what The New York Times called "a delightfully funny deadpan". Grant also released his second production output,

3610-591: The BBC One miniseries A Very English Scandal , which marked his second collaboration with director Stephen Frears . The miniseries, and in particular Grant, were widely and highly praised. Digital Spy ' s review stated that "There's always been a bit of the devil in Grant's best turns, and in Thorpe, a man with a fully-realised dark side, he's found his richest part in years". The New Statesman wrote, "Hugh Grant

3705-484: The London Film Critics Circle named Grant its Best British Actor and GQ honoured him as one of the magazine's men of the year 2002. "His performance can only be described as revelatory", wrote critic Ann Hornaday, adding that "Grant lends the shoals layer upon layer of desire, terror, ambivalence and self-awareness." The New York Observer concluded: "[The film] gets most of its laughs from

3800-985: The Nativity , told as an Ealing comedy , gained them a spot on Russell Harty 's BBC2 TV show Harty Goes to   ... . In 1986 he played Eric Birling in a production of An Inspector Calls at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester , directed by Richard Wilson , giving a performance that Grevel Lindop , writing in the Times Literary Supplement , described as "outstanding". In 1985 and 1986, Grant had minor roles in eight television productions, including TV films, historical miniseries and single episodes of series. His first leading film role came in Merchant-Ivory 's Edwardian drama film Maurice (1987), adapted from E. M. Forster 's novel. He and co-star James Wilby shared

3895-686: The Primetime Emmy Award , Screen Actors Guild Award , Golden Globe Award , BAFTA Award for Best Actor. In 2019, Grant played another against-type role, in Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen , his second collaboration with the director following The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Grant plays Fletcher, a seedy and unscrupulous private investigator, which he called "a fun bit of casting" referring to his Hacked Off campaigning. He has stated he based his character on tabloid reporters who "used to be my enemies and now they're my friends". Even though

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3990-485: The South Pole , the explorer would have lived to be 100. That's how good Hugh Grant is at rescuing doomed ventures." While promoting Woody Allen 's Small Time Crooks (2000) on NBC's The Today Show in 2000, Grant told host Matt Lauer , "It's my millennium of bastards". Small Time Crooks starred Grant, in the words of film critic Andrew Sarris , as "a petty, petulant, faux-Pygmalion art dealer, David, [who]

4085-709: The Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for their portrayals of lovers Clive Durham and Maurice Hall, respectively. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he balanced small roles on television with film work, which included playing Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere in the BAFTA Award -nominated White Mischief (1987) and a supporting role in The Dawning (1988) opposite Anthony Hopkins and Jean Simmons . In 1988 he had

4180-561: The Volpi Cup for Best Actor . He then acted in a string of successful period dramas such as The Remains of the Day (1993), Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Restoration (1995). Grant emerged as a star with Richard Curtis 's romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), for which he won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Actor . He starred in further romantic comedies such as Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and its 2004 sequel , About

4275-569: The 2000s gradually developed into a cynical, self-loathing cad. Claudia Puig of USA Today celebrated this transformation with the observation that finally "gone [were] the self-conscious 'Aren't I adorable' mannerisms that seemed endearing at the start of his film career but have grown cloying in more recent movies". According to Carina Chocano, amongst film critics, the two tropes most commonly associated with Grant are that he reinvented his screen persona in Bridget Jones's Diary and About

4370-473: The 55-year-old actor has just sealed his first-ever Oscar nomination." Carrie Rickey of Yahoo! Movies commented that Grant "deserves the Globe, an Oscar nomination, and the recognition — finally — that he is unique and irreplaceable among modern actors". He was nominated for his first individual Screen Actors Guild Award and also earned nominations for a BAFTA , a Golden Globe , a Critics' Choice Award ,

4465-499: The Boy , which is scheduled for release in 2025. Grant has stated that his role is brief and the film has more dramatic depth than previous parts, claiming the script has made him cry. Over his career Grant has received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award , a Golden Globe Award , and a Volpi Cup for Best Actor as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards . Grant began his career as

4560-564: The UK-based Simian Films Limited. He appointed his then-girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley , as the head of development to look for prospective projects. Simian Films produced two Grant vehicles in the 1990s and lost a bid to produce About a Boy to Robert De Niro 's TriBeCa Productions . The company closed its US office in 2002 and Grant resigned as director in December 2005. Before the release of Four Weddings and

4655-500: The acerbic host of an American Idol -like reality show where, according to Caryn James of The New York Times , "nothing is real ... except the black hole at the centre of the host's heart, as Mr. Grant takes Mr. Cowell's villainous act to its limit". American Dreamz failed financially but Grant was generously praised. He played his self-aggrandising character, an amalgam of Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest , with smarmy self-loathing. The Boston Globe proposed that this "just may be

4750-448: The best work he's done on screen." In 2020, Grant starred in HBO miniseries The Undoing , opposite Nicole Kidman and Donald Sutherland . The miniseries was premiered on 25 October 2020 to mixed reviews, though Grant's performance was widely acclaimed. Film critic Caryn James said Grant has the "richest part" and added, "He sharply defines Jonathan as a slippery character, and walks

4845-478: The celebrity in the press and is known in the media for his guarded privacy. On probing of his personal life, he has remained steadfast in "offering a dead bat to any question he feels is not general enough". He has described himself as a reluctant actor, has called being a successful actor a mistake and has repeatedly talked of his hope that film stardom would just be "a phase" in his life, lasting no more than ten years. A 2007 Vogue profile referred to him as

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4940-545: The dramedy The Rewrite (2014), where "romantic comedy is only a small part of it." Grant is known as a meticulous performer who approaches his roles like a character actor , working hard to make his acting appear spontaneous. In a career spanning more than 35 years, Grant has repeatedly claimed that acting was not his true calling, but rather a career that developed by happenstance. However, in 2020, after moving on to more character roles, he has stated that he "enjoys acting now". Grant has expressed boredom with playing

5035-484: The epic drama film Cloud Atlas , an experience he has talked about positively, saying: I thought before I read it that I'd turn it down, which I normally do, but I was interested in meeting [ Cloud Atlas co-directors] the Wachowskis because I have always admired them enormously. And they are so charming and fascinating.... I slightly called my own bluff. In one of the parts I am a cannibal , about 2,000 years in

5130-412: The evolved expertise of Hugh Grant in playing characters that audiences enjoy seeing taken down a peg or two as a punishment for philandering and womanising and simply being too handsome for words-and with an English accent besides. In the end, the film comes over as a messy delight, thanks to the skill, generosity and good-sport, punching-bag panache of Mr. Grant's performance." About a Boy also marked

5225-412: The film "plays like a vanity production for Grant". Janet Maslin , praising Grant as "superb" and "a dashing cad under any circumstances", commented, "For him this film represents the road not taken. Made before Four Weddings and a Funeral was released, it captures Mr. Grant as the clever, versatile character actor he was then becoming, rather than the international dreamboat he is today." His next role

5320-625: The film [and he] gives this pleasing heartbreaker the touch of gravity it needs", while Roger Ebert observed that "the Cary Grant department is understaffed, and Hugh Grant shows here that he is more than a star, he is a resource". Released a day after the blockbuster Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones , About a Boy was a more modest box office grosser than other successful Grant films, making all of $ 129 million globally. The film earned Grant his third Golden-Globe nomination, while

5415-653: The film industry as a meticulous performer who takes his time to prepare a role – someone who works hard to make it look easy – though that isn't a trait he admires in himself". He is noted by co-workers for demanding endless takes until he achieves the desired shot according to his own standard. He dropped his agent in 2006, ending a 10-year relationship with CAA . He has proclaimed in interviews that he does not listen to external views on his career: "They've known for years that I have total control. I've never taken any advice on anything." In 1996, Grant won substantial damages from News (UK) Ltd over what his lawyers called

5510-466: The film received mostly mixed reviews, Grant's performance was praised. Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter called Grant "a beating comic heart" of the film, adding that "he weighs up every wry line with relish, and Ritchie makes strong use of his deadpan comic talents." Joe Morgenstern of Wall Street Journal also highly praised his work, writing, "[I]n a word, Mr. Grant is sensational. In two more words, he's absolutely hilarious; it's some of

5605-405: The film was also received well by critics. CNN reviewer Paul Clinton said, " Notting Hill stands alone as another funny and heartwarming story about love against all odds." Reactions to his Golden Globe-nominated performance were varied, with Salon.com 's Stephanie Zacharek criticising that, "Grant's performance stands as an emblem of what's wrong with Notting Hill . What's maddening about Grant

5700-559: The film's only consistently funny subplot.". Grant next starred in the A24 horror film Heretic (2024). The film received mostly positive reviews, with Variety saying it's yet another "wildly against-type" role in his career. Bilge Ebiri of New York Magazine said it was a "riveting turn" for Grant. Grant will return to the romantic comedy genre, reprising his role as Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones: Mad About

5795-646: The film's villains." Also in 2023, Grant appeared as an Oompa-Loompa in Wonka , a film which serves as a prequel to the Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , exploring Willy Wonka 's origins. In selecting Grant for the role, Wonka director Paul King told Empire magazine, "Going back to the book, and reading all those poems, and hearing [the Oompa Loompas'] voice as

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5890-492: The foremost objections raised against his acting style. Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post once stated that, to be effective as a comic performer, Grant must get "his jiving and shucking under control". Film historian David Thomson opined in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film that the actor equated merely "itchy mannerisms" with screen acting. Grant's screen persona in his films of

5985-454: The future, and I thought, "I can do that. It's easy." And then I am suddenly standing in a cannibal skirt on a mountaintop in Germany and they are saying, "You know, hungry! We must have that flesh-eating, like a leopard who is so hungry", and I am thinking, "I can't do that! Just give me a witty line!" After Cloud Atlas , Grant has never starred in a romantic comedy film with an exception of

6080-530: The great comic role that has always eluded Hugh Grant", and critic Carina Chocano said, "He is twice as enjoyable as the preening bad guy as he was as the bumbling good guy." In 2007, he starred opposite Drew Barrymore in a parody of pop culture and the music industry called Music and Lyrics . The Associated Press described it as "a weird little hybrid of a romantic comedy that's simultaneously too fluffy and not whimsical enough". Though he neither listens to music nor owns any CDs, Grant learned to sing, play

6175-574: The last half-hour, after a plot-seeding-walk-on earlier in the movie, peps things up considerably". In 2016, Grant played St. Clair Bayfield , partner of the title character , in the film Florence Foster Jenkins , directed by Stephen Frears and starring Meryl Streep . His performance drew raves from film critics as "career-best" ( Screen International ), "one of his best performances in years" ( Indiewire ), "best work of his career" ( Variety ) where he "goes deeper, darker and riskier" ( Rolling Stone ). Rafer Guzman of Newsday said "Surely

6270-472: The limited variety of his performances, while some others have dismissed Grant as a " one-trick pony ". Eric Fellner , co-owner of Working Title Films and a longtime collaborator, said, "His range hasn't been fully tested, but each performance is unique." Many of Grant's films of the 1990s followed a similar plot that captured an optimistic bachelor experiencing a series of embarrassing incidents to find true love, often with an American woman. In earlier films, he

6365-414: The line expertly to keep us off guard. How much should we trust Jonathan? When he starts confessing some secrets, is all or any of it true? With this role and that in the recent A Very English Scandal , Grant has become expert at bringing his charm to darker characters." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com was less impressed with the series but called Grant's performance as the "series-best". Grant received

6460-619: The male god's countenance that he knows all too well". In 2002, Grant starred as the trust-funded womaniser, Will Freeman, in the film adaptation of Nick Hornby 's best-selling novel About a Boy . The BBC thought Grant delivered an "immaculate comic performance", and with an Academy Award-nominated screenplay, About a Boy was determined by The Washington Post to be "that rare romantic comedy that dares to choose messiness over closure, prickly independence over fetishised coupledom, and honesty over typical Hollywood endings". Rolling Stone wrote, "The acid comedy of Grant's performance carries

6555-477: The musical fantasy Wonka (2023), and the horror film Heretic (2024). He earned two Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series or Movie nominations for his television roles as Jeremy Thorpe in the BBC miniseries A Very English Scandal (2018) and a husband accused of infidelity and murder in the HBO miniseries The Undoing (2020). Grant has been outspoken about his antipathy towards

6650-408: The occasional expletive". The film was nominated for two Academy Awards and, among numerous awards won by its cast and crew, it earned Grant a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role . It also temporarily typecast him as the lead character, Charles, a bohemian and debonair bachelor. Grant saw it as an inside joke that

6745-439: The piano, dance (a few mannered steps) and studied the mannerisms of prominent musicians to prepare for his role as a has-been pop singer, based loosely on Andrew Ridgeley , member of 1980s pop duo Wham! . The film, with its revenues totalling $ 145 million, allowed him to mock disposable pop stardom and fleeting celebrity through its washed-up lead character. According to the San Francisco Chronicle , "Grant strikes precisely

6840-413: The productions of his early career " Europuddings , where you would have a French script, a Spanish director and English actors. The script would usually be written by a foreigner, badly translated into English. And then they'd get English actors in, because they thought that was the way to sell it to America." At 32, Grant claimed to be on the brink of giving up the acting profession but was surprised by

6935-668: The profession of acting, his disdain towards the culture of celebrity, and his hostility towards the media. He emerged as a prominent critic of the conduct of Rupert Murdoch 's News Corporation during the News International phone hacking scandal . Grant was born on September 9, 1960 in Hammersmith Hospital , the second son of Fynvola Susan MacLean (1933–2001) and Captain James Murray Grant. His grandfather, Colonel James Murray Grant, DSO ,

7030-475: The rare actor who can play a silver-tongued sleaze with a hidden inner decency." He was paired with Sandra Bullock in Warner Bros. 's Two Weeks Notice (2002), which made $ 199 million internationally but received poor reviews. The Village Voice concluded that Grant's creation of a spoiled billionaire fronting a real estate business was "little more than a Britishism machine". Two Weeks Notice

7125-560: The right note with regard to Alex's career: He's too intelligent not to be a little embarrassed, but he's far too brazen to feel anything like shame." In 2009, he starred opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the Marc Lawrence 's romantic comedy Did You Hear About the Morgans? , which was a critical failure and box office disappointment. Grant was featured in the Wachowskis ' and Tom Tykwer 's epic science fiction film Cloud Atlas in 2012, playing six different dark characters. In

7220-801: The role because he did not yet have an Equity card, which could only be earned through acting in regional theatre. To obtain his Equity card, he joined the Nottingham Playhouse and lived for a year at Park Terrace in The Park Estate in Nottingham . Richard Digby Day directed him in small roles at the Nottingham Playhouse in Lady Windermere's Fan , an avant-garde production of Hamlet and Coriolanus . Bored with small acting parts, Grant created

7315-435: The role to make his character more authoritative and less haplessly charming than earlier Curtis incarnations. Roger Ebert claimed that "Grant has flowered into an absolutely splendid romantic comedian" and has "so much self-confidence that he plays the British prime minister as if he took the role to be a good sport". Film critic Rex Reed , on the contrary, called his performance "an oversexed bachelor spin on Tony Blair" as

7410-470: The same given name . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change that link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Micki&oldid=1243695467 " Categories : Given names Unisex given names Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata All set index articles Micki Dickoff Dickoff

7505-513: The same year, Grant lent his voice to the Aardman stop motion animation The Pirates! Band of Misfits . He reunited with Lawrence again for a dramedy film The Rewrite (2014), starring opposite Marisa Tomei . The film received mixed-to-positive reviews, while Grant's performance was praised by many critics; director Quentin Tarantino has stated that the film is one of his favourites of

7600-517: The scale of the production, 20th Century Fox , the whole thing. And I just tried much too hard, and you know I forgot to do basic acting things, like mean it. So I pulled faces and overacted, it was a shocker". Next in 1995, he starred as Emma Thompson 's suitor in her Academy Award -winning adaptation of Jane Austen 's Sense and Sensibility , directed by Ang Lee . In 1995 he also performed in Restoration ; Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote that Grant

7695-672: The script of Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). "If you read as many bad scripts as I did, you'd know how grateful you are when you come across one where the guy actually is funny," he later recalled. Released in 1994 with Grant as the protagonist, Four Weddings and a Funeral became the highest-grossing British film to date with a worldwide box office in excess of $ 244 million, making him an overnight international star. His entry in The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema states " Four Weddings made him

7790-514: The star "flirted with himself in the paroxysm of self-love that has become his acting style". In 2004, he reprised his role as Daniel Cleaver for a small part in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason , which, like its predecessor, made more than $ 262 million commercially. Gone from the screen for two years, Grant next re-teamed with Paul Weitz ( About a Boy ) for the black comedy American Dreamz (2006). Grant starred as

7885-421: The star, due to the parts he played, was assumed to have the personality of the screenwriter ( Richard Curtis ), who is known for writing about himself and his own life. Grant later expressed "Although I owe whatever success I've had to Four Weddings and a Funeral , it did become frustrating after a bit that people made two assumptions: One was that I was that character – when in fact nothing could be further from

7980-524: The time a direct grant grammar school . He was educated on a scholarship and played 1st XV rugby , cricket , and football . He also represented Latymer Upper on the quiz show Top of the Form , an academic competition between two teams of four secondary school students each. In 1979, he won the Galsworthy scholarship to New College, Oxford , where he studied English literature and graduated with

8075-404: The truth, as I'm sure Richard would tell you – and the other frustrating thing was that they thought that's all I could do. I suppose, because those films happened to be successful, no one, perhaps understandably, ... bothered to rent all the other films I'd done". In July 1994, he signed a two-year production deal with Castle Rock Entertainment and, by October, he became founder and director of

8170-489: The year and called Grant a "perfect leading man". In 2015, he had a supporting role as Alexander Waverly in Guy Ritchie 's crime thriller The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ; Entertainment Weekly described his performance as "the only bit of fun" in the film, and Glenn Kenny of Rogerebert.com gave the film a mixed review but stated that "while it can't be said that Hugh Grant saves the movie, his return to prominence in

8265-570: Was adept at plugging into the stereotype of a repressed Englishman for humorous effects, allowing him to gently satirise his characters as he summed them up and played against the type simultaneously. These performances were sometimes deemed excessive, in the words of The Washington Post ' s Rita Kempley, due to Grant's "comic overreactions—the mugging , the stuttering, the fluttering eyelids". She added: "He's got more tics than Benny Hill." His penchant for conveying his characters' feelings with mannerisms, rather than direct emotions, has been one of

8360-536: Was approached by a talent agent offering to represent him. Still intending to begin his MPhil at the Courtauld Institute, Grant declined, but then later reconsidered, thinking that acting for a year would be a good way to save some money for his studies. Soon afterwards he was offered a supporting role in The Bounty (1984) starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins , but was prevented from playing

8455-566: Was as a cartographer in 1917 Wales in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995). Grant's first studio-financed Hollywood project was opposite Julianne Moore in Chris Columbus 's comedy Nine Months (1995). Though a hit at the box office, it was almost universally panned by critics. The Washington Post called it a "grotesquely pandering caper" and singled out Grant's performance, as

8550-457: Was decorated for bravery and leadership at Saint-Valery-en-Caux during World War II. Genealogist Anthony Adolph has described Grant's family history as "a colourful Anglo-Scottish tapestry of warriors, empire-builders, and aristocracy." His ancestors include Sir Walter Raleigh ; William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan ; James Stewart ; John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl ; Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham ; Sir Evan Nepean; and

8645-494: Was followed by the 2003 ensemble comedy, Love Actually , headlined by Grant as the British Prime Minister . A Christmas release by Working Title Films, the film was promoted as "the ultimate romantic comedy" and accumulated $ 246 million at the international box office. It marked the directorial debut of Richard Curtis , who told The New York Times that Grant adamantly tempered the characterisation of

8740-666: Was hosted by The John Martin Gallery in a charity exhibition, organised by his son, called "James Grant: 30 Years of Watercolours". Hugh's mother worked as a schoolteacher and taught Latin , French , and music for more than 30 years in the state schools of West London. She died at 67 of pancreatic cancer . On Inside the Actors Studio in 2002, Grant credited his mother with "any acting genes that [he] might have." Both his parents were children of military families, but despite that background, he has said, his family

8835-747: Was not always affluent as he grew up. He spent many of his childhood summers hunting and fishing with his grandfather in Scotland. Grant has an older brother, James "Jamie" Grant, a New York-based investment banker. Grant started his education at Hogarth Primary School in Chiswick , then moved to St Peter's Primary School in Hammersmith , followed by Wetherby School , an independent preparatory school in Notting Hill . From 1969 to 1978, he attended Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, at

8930-589: Was raised and educated in New York and Florida and received her master's degree from the University of Florida where she was named an alumna of distinction in 1993. After graduate school, she moved to Boston and taught filmmaking at Grahm Junior College and Emerson College for more than a decade. After winning an Emmy Award for her AIDS documentary Too Little, Too Late , she went to Los Angeles to make films about AIDS and other social issues. Dickoff

9025-558: Was selected for the Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute where she developed her multi-award-winning AIDS drama, Mother, Mother . The film was funded in part by actors Bess Armstrong , Polly Bergen , Piper Laurie and John Dye , and composer Henry Mancini . Singer-songwriter Cris Williamson wrote the title song. Too Little, Too Late and Mother, Mother inspired Our Sons ,

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