Richard E. Grant

Richard E. Grant (born Richard Grant Esterhuysen;[2][3] 5 May 1957) is a Swazi-British actor and presenter.[1] 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).

Not to be confused with Richard Gant.

For the American paleontologist, see Richard E. Grant (paleontologist).

Richard E. Grant
Grant in 2018
Born	Richard Grant Esterhuysen (1957-05-05) 5 May 1957 Mbabane, Protectorate of Swaziland
Nationality	Eswatini, British[1]
Other names	Richard Grant
Occupation	Actor and presenter
Years active	1980–present
Spouse(s)	Joan Washington ( m. 1986)
Children	2
Website	www.richardegrant.com

In 2018, 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, Protectorate of Swaziland (now 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.[4][5][6] He has English, Dutch/Afrikaner, and German ancestry.[7] He has a younger brother, Stuart, a tour guide in Johannesburg, from whom he is estranged; Grant has stated that they 'never had any relationship'.[6][8]

As a boy, Grant went to primary school at St Mark's, a local government school in Mbabane that only recently had become racially integrated. When Grant was 10, he witnessed his mother commit adultery in a car with his father's best friend, which subsequently led to his parents' divorce.[9] This event inspired Grant to keep a daily diary, which he has continued to do ever since.[8]

Grant attended secondary school at Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa, an independent school near Mbabane. He then studied English and drama at the University of Cape Town.[10] He adopted his stage name when he moved to Britain as an adult and registered with Equity.[11]

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'."[12]

Grant at the 2007 BAFTA Awards

Grant's first film role was the perpetually inebriated title character in the cult classic Withnail and I (1987). 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. Martin wrote: "I kept these faxes, which grew to a stack more than 2 inches 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."[13]

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.

In 2003 Grant costarred in Posh Nosh, a spoof of cooking shows on BBC.

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".

Grant as The Voice for 2+2+2 at Heavy Entertainment, London.

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.[14][15]

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,[16] and presented the 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards.[17]

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.[18]

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 at the premiere of Can You Ever Forgive Me?, October 2018

Grant was a mentor on the British Airways Great Britons Programme.[19] 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.[20] In 2014, Grant was cast on the HBO series Girls because Lena Dunham saw him in Spice World.[21]

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.[22]

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: The Rise of Skywalker.[23] That same year, Grant's critically lauded performance as Jack Hock in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), earned him Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. The part also won Grant a New York Film Critics Circle Award and several other critics awards.[24][25][26] In March 2020, Grant joined the cast of Loki series on Disney+, though his role is yet to be revealed.[27]

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,[28] 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.[29][30][31]

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]."[28][32] 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 Eswatini to seek clemency.[33] 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.[34]

Personal life

Grant in London, 2014

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.[35] If he does drink alcohol, he can keep it down for 10 minutes and is then violently sick for 24 hours afterward.[36] 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 experienced the sensation of being drunk.[34] At age 12 he "developed a rhapsodic crush" on Barbra Streisand and remains a fan. He has done a tour of Streisand's New York, visiting her early home, her high school, and the Village Vanguard, among other places.[37]

Grant is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).[1] He used to wear a watch on each wrist, one given to him by his dying father, permanently set on Swaziland time.[6][9]

In October 2008, Grant told The Times that he is an atheist.[38] He is an avid supporter 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.[39] Grant runs the perfume business in collaboration with his daughter.[40]

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
1992	The Player	Tom Oakley
1992	Bram Stoker's Dracula	Dr. 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
1995	Jack and Sarah	Jack
1996	The Cold Light of Day	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
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
2018	The Nutcracker and the Four Realms	Shiver
2019	Palm Beach	Billy
2019	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker	Allegiant General Enric Pryde
2020	Ben Platt: Live from Radio City Music Hall	Himself	Concert film; cameo
2021	Everybody's Talking About Jamie	Hugo Battersby	Post-production
2021	The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard	Seifert	Post-production

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: Suddenly Last Summer	George Holly	Special
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
1997–1998	Captain Star	Captain Jim Star	Voice; 14 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	Have I Got News For You	Himself	series 31 episode 6
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
2007	Roald Dahl's Revolting Rule Book	Himself	Television special
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[41]	Host; 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
2013	The Riviera: A History in Pictures	Himself	Host; 2 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	Main cast
2021	Loki	TBA	Filming

Other

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka	The Doctor
2007	George's Marvellous Medicine	Narrator	Audiobook
2007	The Pillars of the Earth	Narrator	Audiobook
2007	World Without End	Narrator	Audiobook
2008	My Fair Lady	Henry Higgins	Theatre Royal, Sydney
2010	"This City"	Human cyborg	The Chemists music video
2011	Conqueror	Narrator	Audiobook
2013	Fuck: An Irreverent History of the F-Word	Narrator	Audiobook
2017	My Fair Lady	Henry Higgins	Lyric Opera of Chicago

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Richard E. Grant

Bibliography

• The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making of a Film. 2006. ISBN 0-330-44196-5 (hardcover).
• With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant. ISBN 0-87951-828-6 (hardcover). ISBN 0-87951-935-5 (paperback).
• By Design: A Hollywood Novel. Picador, 1999. ISBN 0-330-36829-X (10). ISBN 978-0-330-36829-2 (13).

References

1. "Busy Making Other Plans: Richard E. Grant". Stop Smiling. No. 26. 21 June 2006. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
2. "Star Profile: Richard E Grant". Evening Times. 5 June 2003. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
3. "The World According To Grant". The Evening Standard magazine. 17 January 2003. Retrieved 7 March 2019 – via richard-e-grant.com.
4. "Richard E. Grant Biography (1957-)". FilmReference.com. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
5. "Richard E. Grant Biography". Yahoo! Movies. Archived from the original on 17 May 2011.
6. "Richard E Grant: At 11 I caught my mother cheating with dad's best friend". Evening Standard. 20 September 2007. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
7. Didcock, Barry (30 April 2006). "A life in pictures: Richard E Grant not only made a film of his diaries, he kept a diary during filming". Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
8. Gilbert, Gerard (29 May 2006). "Richard E Grant: Welcome to my family". The Independent. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
9. "Richard E. Grant". Enough Rope with Andrew Denton. 19 June 2006. Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2006.
10. Lacey, Hester (4 May 2016). "The Inventory: Richard E Grant". Financial Times. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
11. Vincent, Sally (5 August 2005). "Memories of mischief". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
12. Lawson, Valerie (4 June 2008). "Interview with Richard E Grant". The Sydney Morning Herald.
13. Martin, Steve (26 September 2015). "'A slag-fest collusion': Steve Martin on his friend Richard E Grant". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
14. Jones, Meirion (1 December 2006). "Swazi 'Aids cure' scam uncovered". BBC News. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
15. "Goat serum touted as Aids cure". BBC News. 1 December 2006. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
16. Miles, Helena. "Richard E Grant visit..." North London Collegiate School. Archived from the original on 11 May 2008.
17. Nathan, John (6 February 2008). "London Hairspray Breaks Record With 11 Olivier Award Nominations". Playbill. Archived from the original on 10 February 2008. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
18. "Richard Chats About God of Carnage". richard-e-grant.com. 14 February 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
19. "The Dove.. and BA Great Britons projects take flight". British Airways Media Centre. 3 April 2012. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
20. Reynolds, Gillian (6 March 2013). "Drones Dossiers And How Iraq Changed The World". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
21. Blistein, Jon (15 November 2018). "Richard E. Grant Talks Gifts 'Spice World' Role Keeps Giving on 'Corden'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
22. @WatchersOTWall (7 September 2015). "Richard E. Grant joining the cast of Game of Thrones!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
23. "Star Wars: Episode IX Cast Announced". StarWars.com. 27 July 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
24. "Winners & Nominees 2019". GoldenGlobes.com. Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
25. "2018 Awards". New York Film Critics Circle. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
26. "Nominations Announced for the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®". Screen Actors Guild. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
27. "Marvel's Loki Series Casts Richard E. Grant". Comicbook.com. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
28. "Wah-Wah Interview – "I've had seven birthdays..."". richardegrant.com. Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
29. Grant, Richard E. (21 April 2006). The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making of a Film. London, UK: Picador. ISBN 978-0-33044-196-4.
30. Ecott, Tim (5 May 2006). "Review: The Wah-Wah Diaries by Richard E Grant". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
31. Boncza-Tomaszewski, Tom (17 September 2006). "Paperbacks: The Wah-Wah Diaries: The making of a film". The Independent. Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
32. Didcock, Barry (30 April 2006). "A Life In Pictures". Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2008 – via richard-e-grant.com.
33. "Error 404 : Not Found". BBC Media. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
34. Network Ten (21 October 2007). "Richard E. Grant Interview". Retrieved 8 January 2018.
35. Gross, Terry; Grant, Richard E. (13 December 2018). "Richard E. Grant Barely Survived Childhood. Now He's Thriving As An Actor". National Public Radio. United States. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
36. "Five Minutes With: Richard E Grant". BBC News. 11 December 2010. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
37. Syme, Rachel (11 February 2019). "Richard E. Grant Hearts Barbra Streisand". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
38. "Coming Out as Atheist: Richard E. Grant". Secularism.org.uk. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
39. "Jack by Richard E Grant". Big Fish.co.uk. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
40. Stadlen, Matthew (17 December 2015). "Richard E. Grant: Why my father's alcoholism has made me love Christmas". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
41. "Richard E Grant's Hotel Secrets". Sky UK. Retrieved 3 January 2012.

External links

• Richard E. Grant – official site
• Richard E. Grant on IMDb
• Vincent, Sally (6 August 2005). "Memories of mischief". The Guardian. (Interview and profile pertaining to the release of his film Wah-Wah.)
• Parry, Daniel (30 March 2016). "Jack of All Trades". The Foxley Docket. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. (Interview and profile regarding his career and fragrance brand Jack Covent Garden.)