Richard E. Grant

Richard E. Grant (born Richard Grant Esterhuysen; 5 May 1957) is a Liswati-English actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy Withnail and I (1987) and has had prominent roles in films such as How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), Hudson Hawk (1991), The Player (1992), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), Spice World (1997), Gosford Park (2001), The Iron Lady (2011), Logan (2017), and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), winning the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male as well as receiving Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.
== Early life ==
Grant was born Richard Grant Esterhuysen in Mbabane, Eswatini. He is the son of Leonne and Henrik Esterhuysen, who was head of education for the British government administration in the British Protectorate of Swaziland.[8][9][10] He has English, Dutch/Afrikaner, and German ancestry.[11]
As a boy, Grant went to primary school at St Mark's, a local government school in Mbabane that had only recently become racially integrated. When Grant was 10, he witnessed his mother commit adultery on the back seat of a car with his father's best friend, which subsequently led to his parents' divorce.[12] This event inspired Grant to keep a daily diary, which he has continued to do ever since.[13]Grant wears a watch on each wrist, one given to him by his dying father, permanently set on Swaziland time.[14] He is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Swaziland.[15]
Grant attended secondary school at Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa, an independent school just outside Mbabane, where he was a day scholar. Grant studied English and drama at the University of Cape Town. He adopted his stage name when he moved to Britain as an adult and registered with Equity.
== Career ==
Grant was a member of the Space Theatre Company in Cape Town before moving to London in 1982. He later stated, "I grew up in Swaziland when it was mired in a 1960s sensibility. The kind of English spoken where I grew up was a period English sound and when I came to England people said, 'how strange'. Charles Sturridge, who directed Brideshead Revisited for TV, said, 'you speak English like someone from the 1950s'."[16]
Grant's first film role was the perpetually inebriated title character in Withnail and I (1987), which is considered a classic. Following this film, Grant started appearing in Hollywood films, quickly establishing himself as a powerful character actor in a wide array of films, from blockbuster studio movies to small independent projects. Over the past 20 years, Grant has had strong supporting roles in the films Henry & June, L.A. Story, The Player, The Age of Innocence, The Portrait of a Lady, Spice World, Gosford Park, Bright Young Things, and Penelope.
While filming L.A. Story with Steve Martin, the pair communicated by fax in what became for both a hilarious dialogue: "I kept these faxes, which grew to a stack more than 2in thick, because they entertained me, and because I thought they were valuable aesthetic chunks from a screeching mind, a stream-of-consciousness faucet spewing sentences – sometimes a mile long – none of it rewritten, and bearing just the right amount of acid and alkaline."[17]
In 1995, Grant starred as the titular character in Peter Capaldi's short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life. The film won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. In 1996, he portrayed a hilarious Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Trevor Nunn’s film of Twelfth Night. He released a single and accompanying video "To Be Or Not To Be" with Orpheus in 1997.
Grant has twice portrayed the Doctor from Doctor Who, both outside the main continuity. In the comedy sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, he portrayed a version of the Tenth Doctor, referred to as the Quite Handsome Doctor. He also voiced a version of the Ninth Doctor for the BBC original animated webcast Scream of the Shalka. The latter had intended to be the official Ninth Doctor prior to the revival of the TV series.
Grant made his first official Doctor Who appearance in the 2012 Christmas special, titled "The Snowmen", in which he plays the villain, Walter Simeon. During the episode Simeon is erased from his body and it is taken over by the Great Intelligence, voiced in that episode by Ian McKellen until the takeover. The Great Intelligence is one of the Second Doctor's most infamous villains and, was last seen in The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear. Grant reprises the role in "The Bells of Saint John" and in the series 7 finale, "The Name of the Doctor".
On 1 December 2006, Grant turned real life investigator when, with the help of the BBC’s Newsnight, he exposed a $98 million scam to sell a bogus AIDS cure.[18][19]
Grant appeared as "The Voice" in 2+2+2 at American Nights at The King's Head Theatre, from 3 to 29 July 2007, and in 2008 co-starred in the London-based comedy Filth and Wisdom. On 22 November 2007, he gave a keynote speech at North London Collegiate School in north London as part of their Performing Arts Centre Opening Festival,[20] and presented the 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards.[21]
In 2008, he made his musical theatre debut with Opera Australia, playing the role of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, a role he reprised in 2017 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In 2009, he played Alain Reille in Yasmina Reza's one-act play God of Carnage at the Theatre Royal, Bath: and subsequently at Cheltenham, Canterbury, Richmond, Brighton and Milton Keynes.[22]
In 2010 he made an appearance in a music video, when short lived Bristol band The Chemists hired him to appear in their video for "This City"; the band split the same year. This appearance also followed up his previous involvement with the band the year before, in which he spoke the lyrics to "This City" to background music, as part of the intro and outro tracks on their only album Theories of Dr Lovelock.
Grant was a mentor on the British Airways Great Britons Programme.[23] In March 2013 Grant starred as intelligence analyst Brian Jones in David Morley's drama The Iraq Dossier, with Peter Firth, Anton Lesser, David Caves, and Lindsay Duncan. It recounted the story of how British Ministry of Defence Intelligence expert Jones had tried to warn that his government's September Dossier on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction was inaccurate.[24] In 2014, Grant was cast on the HBO series Girls because Lena Dunham saw him in Spice World.[25]
On 9 May 2015 Grant gave a reading at VE Day 70: A Party to Remember in Horse Guards Parade, London. In 2016 Grant joined the HBO series Game of Thrones in Season 6 as Izembaro.[26] In 2017, he starred as Zander Rice, the main antagonist of Logan, opposite Hugh Jackman, in which he gained positive critical reception for his performance. In July 2018, Lucasfilm announced that Grant would appear in Star Wars: Episode IX.[27] That same year, Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in the film Can You Ever Forgive Me?alongside Melissa McCarthy, receiving an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination.[28]
=== Wah-Wah ===
Grant wrote and directed the 2005 film Wah-Wah, loosely based on his own childhood experiences. A screenwriter recommended he write a screenplay, after reading Grant's memoirs of his Withnail and I experience. The film took him over seven years to complete,[29] and starred Nicholas Hoult in the lead role, with Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson, Julie Walters and Emily Watson. Grant kept a diary of the experience, later published as a book (The Wah-Wah Diaries). The book received positive reviews from critics, many of whom were impressed by the honesty of the tale, especially in regard to his difficult relationship with the "inexperienced" producer Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar.[30][31][32]
Grant stated in subsequent interviews that she was a "control freak out of control", and that he would "never see her again as long as [he] live[s]."[33][34] In a BBC interview, he again mentioned his "disastrous" relationship with Mention-Schaar. He related that he had received only five emails from her in the last two months of pre-production, and that she rarely turned up on the set at all. She failed to obtain clearance firstly for song rights and secondly to film in Swaziland. For the last infraction, Grant was eventually forced to meet with the King of Swaziland to seek clemency.[35] During an interview with an Australian chat show, he mentioned that Wah-Wah was not released in France, and as a result, his producer did not make money out of it.[36]
== Personal life ==
Grant married voice coach Joan Washington in 1986 and has one daughter with her (Olivia) and a stepson (Tom). Grant is a teetotaller. His body has an intolerance of alcohol, having no enzymes in the blood to metabolise it.[37] If he does drink alcohol, he can keep it down for 10 minutes and is then violently sick for 24 hours afterward.[38] After casting him as the alcoholic Withnail, director Bruce Robinson made Grant drink a bottle of champagne and half a bottle of vodka during the course of a night so that he had experience of the sensation.[36]
In October 2008, he told The Times that he is an atheist.[39] He is an avid follower of Premier League football club West Ham United. In April 2014, Grant launched his new unisex perfume, JACK, exclusively at Liberty of Regent Street, London.[40] Grant runs the perfume business in collaboration with his daughter.[41]
== Filmography ==
=== Film ===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1987	Withnail and I 	Withnail 	
1987	Hidden City 	Brewster 	
1989	How to Get Ahead in Advertising 	Denis Dimbleby Bagley 	
1989	Warlock 	Giles Redferne 	
1990	Mountains of the Moon 	Larry Oliphant 	
1990	Killing Dad 	Ali Berg 	
1990	Henry & June 	Hugo Guiler 	
1991	L.A. Story 	Roland Mackey 	
1991	Hudson Hawk 	Darwin Mayflower 	Nominated – Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor
1992	The Player 	Tom Oakley 	
1992	Bram Stoker's Dracula 	Jack Seward 	
1993	The Age of Innocence 	Larry Lefferts 	
1993	Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life	Franz Kafka 	Short film
1994	Prêt-à-Porter 	Cort Romney 	National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble
1995	Jack and Sarah 	Jack 	
1996	The Cold Light of Day (1996) 	Victor Marek 	
1996	The Portrait of a Lady 	Lord Warburton 	
1996	Twelfth Night: Or What You Will 	Sir Andrew Aguecheek 	
1997	The Serpent's Kiss 	James Fitzmaurice 	
1997	Keep the Aspidistra Flying 	Gordon Comstock 	
1997	Food of Love 	Alex Salmon 	
1997	Spice World 	Clifford 	
1998	St. Ives 	Major Farquhar Chevening 	
1999	The Match 	Gorgeous Gus 	
2000	The Miracle Maker 	John the Baptist 	Voice
2000	The Little Vampire 	Frederick Sackville-Bagg 	
2001	Hildegarde 	Wolf 	
2001	Gosford Park 	George 	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best CastOnline Film Critics Society Award for Best CastSatellite Special Achievement Award – Ensemble CastScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion PictureNominated – Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2003	Monsieur N. 	Hudson Lowe 	
2003	Bright Young Things 	Father Rothschild 	
2004	Tooth 	Jarvis Jarvis 	
2004	The Story of an African Farm 	Bonaparte Blenkins 	
2005	Wah-Wah 	 	Writer and director
2005	Corpse Bride 	Lord Barkis Bittern 	Voice
2005	Colour Me Kubrick 	Jasper 	
2006	Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties 	Preston 	Voice
2006	Penelope 	Franklin Wilhern 	
2007	Always Crashing in the Same Car 	James Booth 	
2008	Filth and Wisdom 	Professor Flynn 	
2008	The Garden of Eden 	Colonel Philip Boyle 	
2009	Cuckoo 	Professor Julius Greengrass 	
2009	Love Hurts 	Ben Bingham 	
2010	Jackboots on Whitehall 	Campbell Babbitt 	Voice
2010	1st Night 	Adam Drummond 	
2010	The Nutcracker in 3D 	Father 	
2011	Foster 	Mr Potts 	A.K.A. Angel in the House
2011	Horrid Henry: The Movie 	Vic Van Wrinkle 	
2011	How to Stop Being a Loser 	Ian 	
2011	The Iron Lady 	Michael Heseltine 	
2012	Zambezia 	Cecil 	Voice
2012	Kath & Kimderella 	Alain 	
2013	About Time 	Lawyer in Play 	Uncredited cameo
2013	Khumba 	Bradley 	Voice
2013	Dom Hemingway 	Dickie Black 	
2014	Queen and Country 	Major Cross 	
2016	Jackie 	William Walton 	
2016	Their Finest 	Roger Swain 	
2017	Logan 	Zander Rice 	
2017	The Hitman's Bodyguard 	Seifert 	
2018	Can You Ever Forgive Me? 	Jack Hock 	Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor 
Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Boston Online Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Columbus Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Dorian Award for Film Performance of the Year – Supporting Actor Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor London Film Critics' Circle Award for Supporting Actor of the Year Nevada Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor New York Film Critics Online Award for Best Supporting Actor Online Association of Female Film Critics Award for Best Supporting ActorPhiladelphia Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor Phoenix Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Seattle Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor Runner-up – Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor Runner-up – National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Denver Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Georgia Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated– Hawaii Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Nominated – Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Actor Nominated – Greater Western New York Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actor of the Year Nominated – Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – North Carolina Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Pending – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Pending – AARP Movies for Grownups Award for Best Supporting Actor Pending – Alliance of Women Film Journalists EDA Award for Best Supporting Actor Pending – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Pending – Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male Pending – Music City Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor Pending – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
2018	The Nutcracker and the Four Realms 	Snow Realm King Shiver 	
2019	Palm Beach 	Billy 	
2019	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker 	Allegiant General Enric Pryde	
2021	Everybody's Talking About Jamie 	Hugo Battersby 	Post-production
2021	Hitman's Wife's Bodygaurd 	Seifert 	Post-production
2021	Earwig and the Witch 	The Mandrake 	English dub
2021	The Spine of Night 	The Gaurdian 	Voice
=== Television ===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1983 	Sweet Sixteen 	Anton 	Episode: "Episode Six"
1985–1989	Screen Two 	Moonee Livingstone / David Dunhill 	2 episodes
1988 	Codename: Kyril 	Sculby 	4 episodes
1993 	Great Performances 	George Holly 	Episode: "Suddenly Last Summer"
1993 	The Legends of Treasure Island 	Long John Silver 	Voice
8 episodes
1994 	Absolutely Fabulous 	Justin 	Episode: "Hospital"
1994 	Hard Times 	James Harthouse 	3 episodes
1996 	Karaoke 	Nick Balmer 	4 episodes
1996 	Cold Lazarus 	Nick Balmer 	2 episodes
1997 	A Royal Scandal 	King George IV 	Television film
1997 	Captain Star 	Captain Jim Star 	Voice
4 episodes
1999–2000	The Scarlet Pimpernel 	Sir Percy Blakeney / The Scarlet Pimpernel	6 episodes
1999 	Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death 	The Conceited Doctor 	Television special
1999 	Let Them Eat Cake 	Monsieur Vigée-Lebrun 	Episode: "The Portrait"
1999 	Trial & Retribution III 	Stephen Warrington 	2 episodes
1999 	A Christmas Carol 	Bob Cratchit 	Television film
2002 	Sherlock: Case of Evil 	Mycroft Holmes 	Television film
2002 	The Hound of the Baskervilles 	Jack Stapleton 	Television film
2003 	Posh Nosh 	Simon Marchmont 	8 episodes
2004 	Frasier 	Stephen Moon 	Episode: "Goodnight, Seattle"
2004 	90 Days in Hollywood 	Narrator 	Documentary
2004 	The Story of Bohemian Rhapsody 	Narrator 	Documentary
2005 	Home Farm Twins 	Paul Baker 	Unknown episodes
2006 	Above and Beyond 	Don Bennett 	2 episodes
2006 	That'll Teach 'Em: Boys Versus Girls 	Narrator 	5 episodes
2007 	Agatha Christie's Marple 	Raymond West 	Episode: "Nemesis"
2007 	Dalziel and Pascoe 	Lee Knight 	2 episodes
2008 	Mumbai Calling 	Benedict T. Harlow 	Episode: "Good Sellers"
2009 	Freezing 	Richard 	Episode #1.1
2011 	The Crimson Petal and the White 	Dr Curlew 	4 episodes
2011 	Rab C. Nesbitt 	Chingford Steel 	Episode: "Broke"
2011 	Rev. 	Marcus 	Episode #2.5
2012–2014	Richard E. Grant's Hotel Secrets 	Himself (host)[42][43] 	14 episodes
2012 	Playhouse Presents 	Stephen / Tony 	Episode: "The Other Woman"
2012 	The Fear 	Seb Whiting 	3 episodes
2012 	The History of Safari With Richard E Grant	Himself (host) 	Documentary
2012–2013	Doctor Who 	Dr Simeon / The Great Intelligence 	3 episodes
2014 	Girls 	Jasper 	4 episodes
2014 	Downton Abbey 	Simon Bricker 	4 episodes
2014 	Psychobitches 	Matthew Hopkins 	Episode #2.6
2015 	Dig 	Ian Margrove 	9 episodes
2015 	Wellington: The Iron Duke Unmasked 	Wellington 	Documentary
2015 	Jekyll and Hyde 	Sir Roger Bulstrode 	9 episodes
2016 	Game of Thrones 	Izembaro 	3 episodes
2016 	The Last Dragonslayer 	Dragon 	Voice
Television film
2018 	Hang Ups 	Leonard Conrad 	5 episodes
2019 	A Series of Unfortunate Events 	The Man with a Beard but No Hair 	3 episodes
2019 	Tuca & Bertie 	Holland 	Voice
4 episodes
2020 	Dispatches from Elsewhere 	Octavio Coleman 	10 episodes
2021 	Agatha and Poirot: Partners in Crime 	Presenter 	Television documentary
2021 	Loki 	TBA 	Post-production
2030 	Deathspider 	Sorkhan 	Voice
3 episodes