Rupert Everett Biography

Rupert James Hector Everett (born May 29, 1959) is an English actor and a former singer.

Biography

Everett was born in Norfolk, England to Major Anthony Michael Everett and Sara Maclean, who was Scottish, and descended from the baronets Vyvyan of Trelowarren and the German Schmiedern barons. He has an older brother, Simon Anthony Cunningham Everett (b. 1956). He's also a grand-nephew of Donald Maclean, the (in)famous spy, with whom he shares a stricking resemblence and are also both bisexual. From the age of 7 he was educated at Farleigh House preparatory school and later was educated by Benedictine monks at Ampleforth College, but dropped out of school at 15 and ran away to London to become an actor. In order to support himself, he worked as a male prostitute, or "rent boy," as he later admitted to US magazine in 1997. After being dismissed from the Central School of Speech and Drama for insubordination, he travelled to Scotland and got a job in the avant-garde Citizens' Theatre of Glasgow.

His break came with the 1982 West End production of Another Country, playing a gay schoolboy opposite Kenneth Branagh, followed by a film version in 1984 with Colin Firth. He began to develop a promising film career, until he co-starred with Bob Dylan in the huge flop Hearts of Fire (1987).

In 1989 he moved to Paris, writing a novel Hello, Darling, Are You Working? and coming out as gay, a move which some at the time perceived as damaging to his career. Returning to the public eye in The Comfort of Strangers (1990), several films of variable success followed. In 1995 he released a second novel, The Hairdresser of St. Tropez.

Everett's career was revitalized by My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), playing Julia Roberts's gay friend. In 1999, he played Madonna's gay best friend in The Next Best Thing (he also sang backup on her cover of American Pie, which is on the film's soundtrack). He has since appeared in a number of high-profile film roles, often playing heterosexual leads. He is also a Vanity Fair contributing editor.

In 2006 Everett published his memoir, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins. In it he revealed he had had a 6-year affair with British television presenter Paula Yates. "I am mystified by my heterosexual affairs " but then I am mystified by most of my relationships," he said, with the article describing him as bisexual as opposed to homosexual.

But in a radio show with Jonathan Ross, Everett described his heterosexual affairs as resulting from adventurousness: "I was basically adventurous, I think I wanted to try everything."

Everett has appeared in the smash hit Shrek 2 (2004) as Prince Charming. He will reprise this role in upcoming film Shrek the Third, to be released May 18, 2007.

In 2007 Everett appeared in the Comic Relief special Comic Relief Does The Apprentice, where he left after a day after being very uncomfortable being in front of cameras without a script and dialogue.

Trivia

• The Italian comics character Dylan Dog, created by Tiziano Sclavi, is graphically inspired by Everett. The English actor, in turn, later appeared in an adaptation of a novel based on Sclavi's novel, Dellamorte Dellamore.
• Everett led the 2007 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Filmography

Cinema (selection)

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1984	Another Country	Guy Bennett	based on the young Guy Burgess
1985	Dance with a Stranger	David Blakeley
1987	Hearts of Fire	James Colt
1992	And Quiet Flows the Don	Grigory	released in 2006 on Channel One aka Tikhiy Don
1994	Prêt-à-Porter	Jack Lowenthal
	The Madness of King George	Prince of Wales
	Dellamorte Dellamore	Francesco Dellamorte	aka Cemetery Man
1996	Dunston Checks In	Lord Routledge
1997	My Best Friend's Wedding	George Downes
1998	Shakespeare in Love	Christopher Marlowe
1999	An Ideal Husband	Lord Goring
	Inspector Gadget	Sanford Scolex/Dr. Claw
	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Oberon
2000	The Next Best Thing	Robert Whittaker
2002	The Importance of Being Earnest	Algernon
2003	Unconditional Love	Dirk S.
2004	Stage Beauty	King Charles II
	Shrek 2	Prince Charming	voice role
2005	Separate Lies	Bill Bule
	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	Fox	voice role
2007	Stardust	Secondus	in post-production
	Shrek the Third	Prince Charming	voice role in post-production

Television (selection)

• The Manhood of Edward Robinson (1981) " guy
• Soft Targets (1982) " actor
• Princess Daisy (1983) " Ram Valenski
• The Far Pavilions (1984) " George Garforth
• Arthur the King (1985) " Lancelot
• Les Liaisons dangereuses (2003) " Vicomte Sébastien de Valmont
• Mr. Ambassador (2003) " ambassador Ronnie Childers
• Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004) " Sherlock Holmes
• The Friday Night Project (2006) " guest host, himself