When Grant was in the beginning of his acting career (after graduating from Oxford College) he struggled with roles as small time crooks. His acting was convincing so he got stuck with that type of roles for quite some time. He actually made a statement right before "Four Weddings and a Funeral" opened that if the movie flopped he would retire from acting. It isn't hard to understand that he kept using the winning formula, the shy British man, once he discovered it.

Hugh John Mungo Grant

(I know what you're thinking....yes, "Mungo")

British actor. Born September 9, 1960, in London, England.

Grant had a background in the theater and on television, when he had his first major film rôle in James Ivory's period piece, Maurice (1987).

In Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon (1992), he developed the character that he was later to be type cast as - the shy and confused, but essentially nobleminded Briton. In 1994, he acted out this part once again, in the comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, a film that was to be his great breakthrough.

Although his career might have been momentarily checked by his well-publicised arrest in 1995 for lewd conduct (he was found with a prostitute, Divine Brown, in his car - he pleaded no contest and was fined and given two years' probation), he soon recovered.

Excerpted from a Tonight Show interview, after the incident:

   Jay Leno: "I have to ask... What the Hell were you thinking?"
   Hugh Grant: "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

Chosen by the readership of Empire magazine in 1995 as one of the "100 sexiest stars in film history", his popularity with the distaff audience appears unwaning.


Filmography:

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