- Born
- Birth nameRupert James Hector Everett
- Height6′ 4″ (1.93 m)
- Stylish Rupert James Hector Everett was born on May 29, 1959, in Burnham Deepdale, Norfolk, to Sara (Maclean) and Anthony Michael Everett, a Major in the British Army, who later worked in business. Of royal stock, he is of primarily English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry with a dash of German and Dutch thrown in for good measure.
Everett grew up in privileged circumstances, but the wry, sometimes arrogant intellectual was a rebel from the very beginning. At the age of seven, he was placed into the care of Benedictine monks at Ampleforth College where he trained classically on the piano. He was expelled from the Central School of Speech and Drama in London for clashing with his teachers and instead apprenticed himself at the avant-garde Glasgow Citizen's Theatre in Scotland, performing in such productions as "Don Juan" and "Heartbreak House." He moved from stage to British TV in 1982 with sophisticated appearances on such series as "Strangers" "Play for Today" and "The Agatha Christie Hour" and the more visibly seen mini-series Princess Daisy (1983) and The Far Pavilions (1984).
In 1984, Everett filmed a leading gay role in the acclaimed collegiate-themed picture Another Country (1984), which he had performed earlier on stage in 1981. Earning a BAFTA nomination and shooting to international attention, Rupert became one of England's hottest crossover stars. Top patrician roles in quality films came his way such as Dance with a Stranger (1985) opposite Miranda Richardson and Duet for One (1986) starring Julie Andrews and Alan Bates. The rebel went international instead of Hollywood, however, with top-billing in the Aussie feature The Right Hand Man (1987) with Hugo Weaving; the Italian-made Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987) and the French drama Tolérance (1989) opposite Ugo Tognazzi.
Again, however, the wickedly sharp and suave actor doused his own star fire by clashing with the press and even his own fans in the late 1980's. In 1989, Everett openly and proudly declared his homosexuality which put an initial damper on his status as a romantic leading man. Appearing sporadically in such featured roles as the Prince of Wales in the majestic drama The Madness of King George (1994) and Lord Rutledge in the family comedy Dunston Checks In (1996), Rupert's popularity was re-energized after playing Julia Roberts' gay confidante to droll effect in the box-office comedy hit My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), earning him both BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. He continued to impress thereafter, notably in such classical-styled pieces as Shakespeare in Love (1998) (as Christopher Marlowe), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) (as Oberon), and the Oscar Wilde plays An Ideal Husband (1999) (as Lord Goring, Golden Globe nominee) and The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) (as Algy). On the lighter, fun side, his predilection for mischief was demonstrated as the cartoonish villain Dr. Claw, the nemesis of Matthew Broderick's title character, in Inspector Gadget (1999).
Into the millennium, Rupert continued to be a vibrant presence on stage with a tour of "Private Lives" (in Italian) in 2008, a 2009 Broadway revival of "Blithe Spirit" (his New York debut) and as Henry Higgins in Shaw's "Pygmalion" in Munich the following year. He went on to play Oscar Wilde in "The Judas Kiss" in 2013 and was about to play George on Broadway in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" when the play closed before it officially opened due to the COVID pandemic in 2020. On TV, he played the effortlessly suave Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004), the Marquis de Feron in the British series The Musketeers (2014) and Carroll Quinn in a second British series Adult Material (2020).
On film, Everett enhanced the royal dramas To Kill a King (2003) and Stage Beauty (2004) as King Charles I and King Charles II, respectively. Known for his aloof handsomeness and often smug, piss-elegant characters, he engagingly portrayed a jet-setter in the contemporary film People (2004); provided the voice of the unprincely Prince Charming in the animated features Shrek 2 (2004) and Shrek the Third (2007); played a British defector opposite Sharon Stone in the romantic thriller A Different Loyalty (2004); a millionaire playboy involved in a hit-and-run in Separate Lies (2005); an eccentric tycoon in Hysteria (2011); King George VI (father of Queen Elizabeth) opposite Emily Watson's Queen Mum in the romantic dramedy A Royal Night Out (2015); a monsignor in If I Had a Heart (2013); and tortured gay playwright Oscar Wilde during his last days in The Happy Prince (2018), which he wrote and directed.
A novelist on the sly with Hello, Darling, Are You Working? (1989), Rupert has also published two volumes of memoirs: Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins (2006) and Vanished Years (2012), produced documentaries .- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- ParentsSara MacleanAnthony Michael Everett
- Frequently appears in films based on plays by Oscar Wilde
- Towering height and slender frame
- Deep smooth voice
- Speaks English, French and Italian.
- Plays the piano and violin.
- Is a descendant of Charles II Stuart, King of England and Scotland, and through him a distant relative of Rachael Stirling.
- Bought a home in Los Angeles, California for his dog's sake. His Black Lab, Moise, was suffering from painful arthritis, so the actor relocated to the city in order for his beloved pet to heal. Everett even turned down a role on the London stage, because it meant having to have his dog quarantined for six months.
- At his suggestion, Madonna re-recorded Don McLean's classic "American Pie".
- Why would I wear pink trousers? It's hard enough being gay.
- I have nothing to complain about... except maybe people wondering if a queen like me can butch-it-up enough to play a convincing straight man.
- I'm a sex machine to both genders. It's all very exhausting. I need a lot of sleep.
- I don't understand what he's got against her because this is the second time he's stuck into her a bit. That seems really unfair to me. Listen, any singer who dances all the time, you don't have the breath to sing all the time. Everyone knows that. It's unfair to make it a point. If you do a heavy dance routine, at some point you're going to do a bit of lip-synch. But everybody does that. Madonna sings everything she can sing but, if she goes into a dance routine, she's got to dance; you can't breathe and dance and sing at the same time. She doesn't lip-synch her whole performance. I bet Elton has lip-synched moments of his performance, even though he's at a piano all the time. He's very bossy these days, I think. I mean he's lovely but he's a bit bossy and he does seem a bit cranky.
- I think Elton has lost it completely. He loves to tell you how he overcame addictions - drugs, bulimia... He did not overcome addictions. He went from one to another... All these shopping sprees, and not controlling his mouth.
- Unconditional Love (2002) - $4,000,000
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