Rupert Everett

Rupert James Hector Everett (; born 29 May 1959) is an English actor. He first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film '' Another Country'' (1984) as a gay pupil at an English public school in the 1930s; the role earned him his first BAFTA Award nomination. He received a second BAFTA nomination and his first Golden Globe Award nomination for his role in '' My Best Friend's Wedding'' (1997), followed by a second Golden Globe nomination for '' An Ideal Husband'' (1999). He voiced Prince Charming in the animated films '' Shrek 2'' (2004) and '' Shrek the Third'' (2007). He also played John Lamont/Mr. Barron in '' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children'' (2016).

Early life and education

Rupert James Hector Everett was born on 29 May 1959, to wealthy parents. His father was in the British Army, Major Anthony Michael Everett. His maternal grandfather, Vice Admiral Sir Hector Charles Donald MacLean DSO, was a nephew of Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, Hector Lachlan Stewart MacLean. His maternal grandmother, Opre Vyvyan, was a descendant of the baronets Vyvyan of Trelowarren and the German (Baron) von Schmiedern. Everett is of English, Irish, Scottish, and more distant German and Dutch ancestry. He was raised a Roman Catholic.

From age seven, Everett was educated at Farleigh School in Andover, Hampshire, and later educated by Benedictine monks at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire. When he was 16, his parents agreed that he could leave school and move to London to train as an actor at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. In an interview with ''US'' magazine in 1997, he said that he supported himself during this period by doing sex work for drugs and money.

Career

1980s

Everett's break came in 1981 at the Greenwich Theatre and later West End production of '' Another Country'', playing a gay schoolboy opposite Kenneth Branagh.

His first film was the Academy Award-winning short '' A Shocking Accident'' (1982), directed by James Scott and based on a Graham Greene story. This was followed by a film version of ''Another Country'' in 1984 with Cary Elwes and Colin Firth. Following on with '' Dance With a Stranger'' (1985), Everett began to develop a promising film career until he co-starred with Bob Dylan in the unsuccessful '' Hearts of Fire'' (1987). Around the same time, Everett recorded and released an album of pop songs entitled ''Generation of Loneliness''.

Despite being managed by Simon Napier-Bell (who had steered Wham! to prominence), the public didn't take to his change in direction. The shift was short-lived, and he only returned to pop indirectly by providing backing vocals for Madonna many years later, on her cover of " American Pie" and on the track " They Can't Take That Away from Me" on Robbie Williams' '' Swing When You're Winning'' in 2001.

1990s

In 1989, Everett moved to Paris, writing a novel, ''Hello, Darling, Are You Working?'', and coming out as gay, a disclosure which he has said may well have damaged his career. Returning to the public eye in '' The Comfort of Strangers'' (1990), several films of variable success followed. The Italian comics character Dylan Dog, created by Tiziano Sclavi in 1986, is graphically inspired by him. Everett, in turn, appeared in '' Cemetery Man'' (1994), an adaptation of Sclavi's novel ''Dellamorte Dellamore''. In 1995 Everett published a second novel, ''The Hairdressers of St. Tropez''.

His career was revitalised by his award-winning performance in '' My Best Friend's Wedding'' (1997), playing Julia Roberts's character's gay friend, followed by a role as Madonna's character's gay best friend in '' The Next Best Thing'' (2000). (Everett was a backup vocalist on her cover of " American Pie", which is on the film's soundtrack.) Around the same time, he starred as the sadistic Sanford Scolex/Dr. Claw in Disney's ''Inspector Gadget'' (also 1999) with Matthew Broderick.

2000s

For the 21st century, Everett decided to write again. He has been a '' Vanity Fair'' contributing editor, written for ''The Guardian'', and he wrote a film screenplay on playwright Oscar Wilde's final years, for which he sought funding.

In 2006, Everett published a memoir, ''Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins'', in which he reveals his six-year affair with British television presenter Paula Yates. Although he is sometimes described as bisexual, as opposed to gay, during a radio show with Jonathan Ross, he described his heterosexual affairs as the result of adventurousness: "I was basically adventurous, I think I wanted to try everything".

Since the revelation of his sexuality, Everett has participated in public activities (leading the 2007 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras), played a double role in the film '' St. Trinian's'', and has appeared on TV several times (as a contestant in the special '' Comic Relief Does The Apprentice''; as a presenter for Live Earth; and as a guest host on the Channel 4 show '' The Friday Night Project'', among others). He has also garnered media attention for his vitriolic quips and forthright opinions during interviews that have caused public outrage.

In May 2007, he delivered one of the eulogies at the funeral of fashion director Isabella Blow, his friend since they were teenagers, who had died by suicide. He asked as part of his speech: "Have you gotten what you wanted, Issie? Life was a relationship that you rejected." During this time he also voiced the nefarious, but handsome villain Prince Charming in the first two ''Shrek'' sequels.

Everett's documentary entitled ''The Victorian Sex Explorer'' on Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) in which he retraces the travels of Burton through countries such as India and Egypt, aired on the BBC in 2008. In 2009, Everett suggested, in an interview with the British newspaper ''The Observer'', that coming out was not the best career move for a young actor.

Also in 2009, Everett presented two Channel 4 documentaries: one on the travels of Lord Byron, the Romantic poet, broadcast in July 2009, and another on British explorer Sir Richard Burton.

Everett then returned to his acting roots, appearing in several theatre productions: his Broadway debut in 2009 at the Shubert Theatre received positive critical reviews; he performed in a Noël Coward play '' Blithe Spirit'', starring alongside Angela Lansbury, Christine Ebersole and Jayne Atkinson, under the direction of Michael Blakemore. and he was expected to tour several Italian cities during the 2008–09 winter season in another Coward play '' Private Lives'' (performed in Italian, which he speaks fluently)—playing Elyot to Italian actress Asia Argento's Amanda—but the production was cancelled.

2010s

During the summer of 2010, Everett performed as Professor Henry Higgins, with English actress Honeysuckle Weeks and Stephanie Cole, in a revival of '' Pygmalion'' at the Chichester Festival Theatre. He reprised the role in May 2011 at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End, starring alongside Diana Rigg and Kara Tointon.

In July 2010, Everett was featured in the family history programme '' Who Do You Think You Are?'' Released in late 2010, the comedy film '' Wild Target'' features Everett as an art-loving gangster, and also starred Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt.

In 2012, Everett starred in the television adaptation of ''Parade's End'' with Benedict Cumberbatch. The five-part drama was adapted by Sir Tom Stoppard from the novels of Ford Madox Ford, and Everett appears as the brother of protagonist Christopher Tietjens.

Everett then starred as Oscar Wilde in '' The Judas Kiss'', a stage play which was revived at London's Hampstead Theatre beginning 6 September 2012, co-starring Freddie Fox as Bosie, and directed by Neil Armfield. It ran at the Hampstead through 13 October 2012, toured the UK and Dublin, then transferred to the West End at the Duke of York's Theatre on 9 January 2013, in a limited run through 6 April 2013.

Everett won the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Play, and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actor. In 2016 the production, still starring Everett and with Charlie Rowe as Bosie, ran in North America for seven weeks in Toronto and five weeks at BAM in New York City.

In early 2013, Everett began working on a film portraying the final period of Wilde's life, stating in the media that he has had a fascination with the playwright since he was a child, as his mother read him Wilde's children's story '' The Happy Prince'' before he slept. The subsequent film '' The Happy Prince'', written and directed by Everett, was released in 2018.

In 2015, it was announced that he would play the part of Philippe Achille, Marquis de Feron, the corrupt Governor of Paris, Head of the Red Guard and illegitimate brother to Louis XIII in the third series of the BBC One drama '' The Musketeers''.

In 2017, Everett appeared as a recurring character in the BBC 2 comedy '' Quacks''. He plays Dr Hendricks, the neurotic principal of the medical school.

Personal life

Between 2006 and 2010, Everett lived in New York City, but returned to London because of his father's poor health. In 2008, he bought a home in the Central London district of Belgravia.

In the 1990s, Everett had a six-year-long affair with television presenter and writer Paula Yates, who was married to Bob Geldof at the time.

, Everett lives with his partner Henrique, a Brazilian accountant. They married in 2024.

Political views

Everett was a patron of the British Monarchist Society and Foundation.

In 2006, as a homeowner in the central London area of Bloomsbury, he supported a campaign to prevent the establishment of a local Starbucks branch and referred to the global chain as a "cancer". He protested with 1,000 other residents, and the group compiled a petition.

In 2013, Everett worked on the production of a documentary on sex work for Channel 4 that included the issue of criminalisation. During and after its filming, he contributed to the discourse on prostitution legislation in the UK. In October 2013, he signed an open letter from the English Collective of Prostitutes and Queer Strike—alongside groups such as the Association of Trade Union Councils, Sex Worker Open University, Left Front Art – Radical Progressive Queers, Queer Resistance, and Queers Against the Cuts—to oppose the adoption of the "Swedish model", whereby the clients of sex workers (though not the workers themselves) are criminalised.

Everett continued his participation in the sex-work legislation debate in 2014, writing a long-form piece for ''The Guardian'' and appearing on the BBC One programme ''This Week''. He also joined protesters in a demonstration outside the offices of Soho Estates, a major property company that owns properties on Soho's Walkers Court, where many sex workers are based.

In 2012, Everett said in an interview regarding same-sex marriage: "But why do we want to get married in churches? I don't understand that, myself, personally. I ''loathe'' heterosexual weddings; I would never go to a wedding in my life. I loathe the flowers, I loathe the fucking wedding dress, the little bridal tiara. It's grotesque. It's just hideous. The wedding cake, the party, the champagne, the inevitable divorce two years later. It's just a waste of time in the heterosexual world, and in the homosexual world I find it personally beyond tragic that we want to ape this institution that is so clearly a disaster." A few days after the release of the interview, he was criticised for the following remark: "I can't think of anything worse than being brought up by two gay dads". He went on to explain that " r me, being gay was about wanting to do the opposite of the straight world, so I think that's where my problems in this particular area come from. ..But that's me, just me. I'm not having a go at gay couples who do. I think if Elton and David want to have babies, that's wonderful. I think we should all do what we want."

Everett has also disclosed that he identified as transgender during his childhood and dressed as a girl from age 6 to 14. When he turned 15, he ceased to identify as female and embraced his identity as a gay man. He has expressed opposition to the use of hormones on children, saying that parents who offered the possibility of such a transition to their children were "scary".

Everett expressed his opposition to cancel culture in a 2020 interview with '' The Advocate.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Awards and nominations

Bibliography

* 1992: ''Hello, Darling, Are You Working?'' (novel)
* 1995: ''The Hairdressers of St. Tropez'' (novel)
* 2006: ''Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins'' (memoir)
* 2012: ''Vanished Years'' (memoir)
* 2019: ''To the End of the World: Travels with Oscar Wilde''

References

Further reading

* Martin Poll Papers 1967–1984 (40.0 linear feet) are housed at the New York University Libraries. Includes materials on Rupert Everett.

External links

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