Biography
A household name across both Britain and America owing to three decades in comedy plus his more recent portrayal of the title physician in the medical series House, the multifaceted Hugh Laurie remains less widely recognized for his self-taught prowess on multiple instruments. James Hugh Calum Laurie entered the world in Oxford in 1959, grew up within the Scottish Presbyterian tradition, and went on to Eton College before earning a degree in archaeology and social anthropology at Cambridge University. While there he served as president of the Footlights dramatic society and met his future collaborator Stephen Fry. The pair first gained attention with the Perrier Award-winning revue The Cellar Tapes, then shared screens on The Young Ones, Alfresco, and Blackadder; their partnership continued for nearly ten years through A Bit of Fry & Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. Laurie moved into feature films in the mid-1990s with roles in 101 Dalmatians, the Stuart Little trilogy, and the Flight of the Phoenix remake, yet global fame arrived only in 2004 when he assumed the part of the irascible Dr. Gregory House on the Fox drama House, collecting multiple Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards along with the distinction of highest-paid performer in a television drama. Music had nevertheless remained a constant thread: Laurie regularly performed on guitar, drums, harmonica, piano, and saxophone, demonstrated these abilities during House episodes and his Saturday Night Live hosting appearances, contributed keyboards to the Los Angeles charity ensemble Band from TV, and played piano on the track “If I Can’t Have You” from Meat Loaf’s 2010 album Hang Cool Teddy Bear. That same year he entered a recording agreement with Warner Bros. and cut a New Orleans-flavored blues collection that featured Tom Jones, Irma Thomas, and Dr. John; produced by Joe Henry, whose prior credits include Elvis Costello, the album Let Them Talk appeared in 2011, topped the Billboard blues chart in the United States, earned gold certification in the United Kingdom, and registered strongly across numerous European and South American territories. Laurie rejoined Henry two years afterward for the follow-up release Didn’t It Rain.
Albums
Singles
