Stephen Fry's IMDB profile
Sunday, August 31, 2008

Date of Birth
24 August 1957, Hampstead, London, England, UK

Birth Name
Stephen John Fry

Height
6' 4½" (1.94 m)

Mini Biography

Writer, actor, comedian, doer of good works, excellent good friend to the famous and not, Fry lives in his London SW1 flat and his Norfolk house when not traveling. Famous for his public declaration of celibacy in the "Tatler" back in the 1980s, Emma Thompson has characterised her friend as "90 percent gay, 10 percent other." He grew up in Norfolk (where his parents still reside) and attended Uppingham School and Stout's Hill. After his notorious three months in Pucklechurch prison for credit card fraud, he attended Queens College, Cambridge in 1979, finishing with a 2:1 in English in 1981/2. While at Cambridge, he was a member of the Cherubs drinking club, and Footlights with Thompson, Tony Slattery, Martin Bergmann, and Hugh Laurie (to whom he was introduced by E.T.). His prolific writing partnership with Laurie began in 1981 with resulting Footlights revues for (among others) Mayweek, Edinburgh Festival, and a three month tour of Australia. In 1984, Fry was engaged to do the rewrite of the Noel Gay musical "Me and My Girl," which made him a millionaire before the age of 30. It also earned him a nomination for a Tony award in 1987. (Sidenote: It was upon SF's suggestion that Emma Thompson landed a leading role in the London cast of this show.) Throughout the 1980s, Fry did a huge amount of television and radio work, as well as writing for newspapers (e.g. a weekly column in the "Daily Telegraph") and magazines (e.g. articles for "Arena"). He is probably best known for his television roles in "Blackadder II" (1986) and "Jeeves and Wooster" (1990).

His support of the Terence Higgins Trust through events such as the first "Hysteria" benefit, as well as numerous other charity efforts, are probably those works of which he is most proud. Fry's acting career has not been limited to films and television. He had successful runs in Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On," Simon Gray's "The Common Pursuit" with John Sessions, Rik Mayall, John Gordon Sinclair, and others. Michael Frayn's "Look Look" and Gray's "Cell Mates" were less successful for both Fry and their playwrights, the latter not helped by his walking out of the play after only a couple of weeks. Fry has published four novels as well as a collection of his radio and journalistic miscellanea. He has recorded audiotapes of his novels (an unabridged version of "The Liar" was released in 1995), as well as many other works for both adults and children.


Trade Mark

His tall stature.

Often works with Hugh Laurie.

Trivia

• Son of Marianne Fry and physicist/inventor Alan Fry.
• Older brother, Roger, and 7-year younger sister, Jo Foster (his agent).
• MAC fanatic, Usenet lurker, Internet/WWW enthusiast.
• Cricket fan, Sherlockian, charter member Groucho Club (Soho).
• Rector of Dundee University and hon. doctorate from that institution (July 1995).
• Flies his own classic biplane.
• Claims the UK record for saying 'fuck' on television most times in one live broadcast.
• He's regarded in the UK as 'Britain's Favourite Teddy Bear' and is a keen teddy bear collector himself.
• He hosted the 2001 and 2002 British Academy Awards (BAFTAS), which have been their 2 most successful years.
• A regular guest on the BBC quiz "Have I Got News for You" (1990) for many years, he now allegedly refuses to appear on the show as a protest against the sacking of former host, Angus Deayton.
• Narrates the audiobook versions (British releases) of the wildly popular Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
• Was nominated for Broadway's 1987 Tony Award as one of several writers, including the deceased L. Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber as well as collaborator Mike Ockrent, as Best Book (Musical) for "Me and My Girl."
• He was one of the guests at Prince Charles' and Camilla Parker-Bowles' wedding.
• Smokes a pipe.
• With Nick Green, co-founded the Bear Rescue Foundation, a charitable trust to rescue and nurture distressed bears.
• Godfather of Hugh Laurie and Jo Green's three children.
• A book has recently been published in the U.K. entitled 'Tish and Pish: How to Be of a Speakingness Like Stephen Fry' (author: Stewart Ferris). It's a humorous tribute to Stephen's wonderful use of the English language.
• Is a fan of Jethro Tull.
• Took part in a special celebrity edition of Blankety Blank on The Prince's Trust 30th Birthday: Live. He won against contestant Chantelle Houghton.
• In the Independent on Sunday 2006 Pink List -- a list of the most influential gay men and women -- he came no. 23, down from 21.
• He was a member of the Cambridge Footlights and in 1981, along with Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery, Emma Thompson, Penny Dwyer, and Paul Shearer, became the first winner of The Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh fringe festival.
• He was a good friend of author Douglas Adams.
• Suffers from bipolar disorder.
• Is a big fan of the iconic 60s British comedy rock band, the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, and participated in their 40th anniversary reunion show at the Astoria in London on January 28, 2006 along with 'Adrian Edmondson', Paul Merton and Phill Jupitus.
• He has a very wide taste in music, with particular favorites being Richard Wagner, Led Zeppelin and Abba.
• Very fond of vintage British TV themes.
• In the 1980s he shared a house in London with Hugh Laurie. They needed some plastering doing. The plasterers turned out to be Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson who were inspired by Fry and Laurie to have a go at comedy.
• Won the 1998 Sidewise Award for Alternate History for his novel Making History.
• He has been described as "deeply dippy for all things digital", claims to have owned the second Macintosh sold in the UK and to have never encountered a smartphone that he has not bought.
• When in London, Fry drives his own black cab for ease of transportation.
• Ranked #44 in the 2008 Telegraph's list "the 100 most powerful people in British culture".
• Is related to English sportsman, politician and all-round polymath C. B. Fry.

Personal Quotes

• The e-mail of the species is more deadly than the mail
• How can one not be fond of something that the "Daily Mail" despises?
• It is quite difficult to feel that I am placed somewhere between Alan Bennett and the Queen Mother, a sort of public kitten.
• On being gay: "My first words, as I was being born... I looked up at my mother and said, 'that's the last time I'm going up one of those.'"
• It only takes a room of Americans for the English and Australians to realise how much we have in common.
• "Comedy always goes up and down but this year's been great. Comedy is immensely strong right now, with the "Green Wing" (2004) and "Nighty Night" (2004)." (Speaking in 2005)
• "Complete loose-stool-water. Arse-gravy of the very worst kind." (Speaking about Dan Brown's novel, "The Da Vinci Code.")
• My father was all brain and little heart.
• As someone who worked hard for a Labour victory in the Nineties, do I regret it? Not really. It was bound to happen. And it'll happen with the next government, and the one after it. Because all governments serve us. They serve the filth.
• I sometimes wonder if you Americans aren't often fooled by our accent into detecting a brilliance that may not really be there.
• When American TV and movies call for a twist of limey in their cocktail, it's usually a character they're after - supervillain, emotionally constipated academic, effete eccentric, that kind of thing.
• Generally, we admire the thing we are not. On the set of "Bones" (2005) I have been amazed and impressed by the naturalness of the cast, and berate myself for sounding as if I'm speechifying instead of talking.
• I've always believed Americans have one huge, ready-made gift when it comes to acting in front of a camera - the ability to relax. Take the supreme relaxed authenticity of a James Stewart or a George Clooney compared with the brittle contrivances of a Laurence Olivier or a Kenneth Branagh, marvelous as they are.
• Of course, it would be unfair for me to comment. Douglas (Douglas Adams) told me in the strictest confidence exactly why 42. The answer is fascinating, extraordinary and, when you think hard about it, completely obvious. Nonetheless amazing for that. Remarkable really. But sadly I cannot share it with anyone and the secret must go with me to the grave. Pity, because it explains so much beyond the books. It really does explain the secret of life, the universe, and everything. (On the meaning of 42 in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005))
• Digital devices rock my world.
• It is true that I have a great admiration, sometimes only just short of reverence, for the elegances and brilliances that have emerged from my favourite address in the world: 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, the home of Apple Computers.
• The BBC enriches the country in ways we will only discover when it has gone and it is too late to build it back up again. We actually can afford the BBC, because we can't afford not to. I genuinely cannot see that the nation would benefit from a diminution of any part of the BBC's great whole. It should be as closely scrutinized as possible of course, value for money, due humility and all that, but to reduce its economies of scale, its artistic social and national reach for misbegotten reasons of ideology or thrift would be a tragedy.

Where Are They Now

• (January 2002) Still continues to do a lot of acting and make regular TV appearances.
• (December 2006) Host of BBC quiz show, "QI", and continues to make regular TV and movie appearances.
• (February 2008) Began providing Stephen Fry's Podgrams: free podcasts about his adventures, available via his official website.

Posted by Geraco C 2:46 PM 0 comments  

TV Show Stephen Fry on IMDB

Stephen fry's podcasts

Episode 1, BROKEN ARM
Category: Comedy
Language: English
Duration: 24.59
Size: 24.2 MB
Format: Audio & visual podcast
Release date: 20th February 2008

Podcast One description

Stephen Fry discloses his work for the past two years including his performances for ITV's series "Kingdom", script writing for director Peter Jackson's forthcoming film "The Dam Busters" and the pitfalls of filming in the Amazon jungle and breaking his arm whilst preventing his not inconsiderable weight from plunging into the murky depths of the Amazon River.

Subscribe Via (Audio and Visual) (Free)
Subscribe Via (Audio only) (Free)

Episode 2, BORED OF THE DANCE
Category: Comedy
Language: English
Duration: 26.08
Size: 34.8 MB
Format: Audio & visual podcast
Release date: 7th March 2008

Podcast Two description:
Stephen Fry has a problem with dancing. In this second Podgram episode Stephen reveals his long held feelings on this universal human activity and confesses to a litany of reasons why he hates it.

For the past six months, Stephen has been filming a new series in America for the BBC. The idea is to visit every one of the fifty states that make up that great union. The series examines the individuality of each state and also delights in getting to know Americans, whom are so much more than wearisome clichés.

You can't travel extensively across that nation without wanting to sample some of the great musical roots of many genres starting with Blue Grass, Jazz, Cajun, Blues, Rock n' Roll, House, Motown, Gospel and Seattle Grunge to name but a few. With all that music around him, you might expect Stephen to have a dance.

But...he has a problem.

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Subscribe Via (Audio only) (Free)

Episode 3, WALLPAPER
Category: Comedy
Language: English
Duration: 25.32
Size: 34.6 MB
Format: Audio & visual podcast
Release date: 9th April 2008


Podcast Three description:
Stephen Fry is filming a series for the BBC in the United States of American and its beauty and wonder continues to inspire him.

In this third episode, he discusses the merits of Oscar Wilde's view on American violence and good wallpaper.

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Episode 4, BROADCASTING
Category: Comedy
Language: English
Duration: 42.03
Size: 36.9 MB
Format: Audio & visual podcast
Release date: 25th June 2008

Podcast Four description:

Stephen reads a speech he delivered on the Future of the BBC.

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Posted by Geraco C 2:26 PM 0 comments  

TV Show Stephen Fry Podcasts

Stephen Fry on his Heroes

Stephen Fry: Heroes

Who are your heroes?

I think all the people I admire, are themselves, people who admire others. I have very little time for people who don't have heroes. I once heard someone-quite well known, I won't tell you who it is- say "no I don't have any heroes,". I said, that's naff, having heroes. I'm unafraid of worship of others, I mean not unconditional worship; very often, they're faults. My heroes are quite obvious, they're very common to people of my age and culture and generation. People like, Winston Churchill, and Oscar Wilde, if you like, they're hard to avoid. The more surprising ones, I suppose would be, I've always admired enormously, and I met her once and it sent me into a slight shiver; Martina Navratilova. I'm not quite sure why, it's certainly not sexual, I can assure you. It's not because I'm an avid tennis fan, it's something to do with her mixture of competitiveness... I'll tell you what it is, I'll tell you that my heroes are human beings who are a hundred percent themselves all the time. My heroes don't have that self conscious look about them where you think they know someone's watching them, and they're, in that sense more like an animal. A tree frog spends all its time being a tree frog, it doesn't wake up in the morning saying "am I a good tree frog, or a bad tree frog? Do I do well? Gosh, I wish I were a walrus." They just get on with being a tree frog. And Martina Navratilova is a supreme example of just someone who is herself at all times. She brings herself to the party.
What qualities do your heroes have?

I like heroes who are generous. It always saddens me when you find a great artist who is also a son of a..., because it seems naive to say so, but you always expect a hero who's capable of great art or great achievement to have the insight to know how to deal with other people properly and be generous. You read of Dickens beating his wife, you think, "how could someone who exposes the folly, vanity, wickedness and weakness of others so brilliantly, not be more generous and behave better? How bizarre. If he was a character in his own book he would hate himself. How can that be? Why can Wagner be such a great artist? He produced the most perfect art of the nineteenth century, but he was a pig". It's really annoying to me, that.
Where does your inspiration come from?

I suppose because I was not, physically very adept at school, and because I was not musically very adept, the one thing that I felt was my domain was language, and I drew inspiration from it. I loved words, not necessarily the power or the knowledge or even the reason that one could employ them to impart and to generate, but actually the physical texture of words, and the dance words led on the tongue, the way words could be used to seduce, to amuse, to entertain, I'm naturally talking of Wilde- I remember seeing a film of the Importance of Being Earnest, and the character of Algernon saying "Would you be in any way offended if I said that you seem to me to be the visible personification of absolute perfection?". I was about ten; I remember thinking 'Good God! I did not know that language could do that. That you could do that with words. You could make something so beautiful.' That it was like a dance coming out of the tongue. It was just the most seductive and beautiful thing. So I set myself to the pleasure of language; poetry and reading, and being amused by the sheer rhythms, just the sound of words hitting the tip of the tongue. And so my greatest influences and inspirations were people who used language magisterially and brilliantly, sometimes lightly, like P.G Woodhouse, but with exceptional skill and caused great wonder.

How do you make big decisions?

I would always say that when I make decisions, and this sometimes surprises people, because they think of me, if not as an intellectual, certainly as some sort of poncy person who uses long words a lot, and possibly therefore analytical, I think feelings is always held primacy in making decisions, they always do. So it's really that problem I've mentioned before on one that you run up against all the time in life, is identifying your own feelings to make decisions. It's so odd you'd think you'd be able to more easily than identify what you know, but its a lot easier to know what you know than it is to know what you feel. Am I happy at this moment? Would I be happy doing that? Do I feel ashamed of this? Or is it embarrassment? Is it guilt? There are different things, different feelings. What am I really feeling? Am I really angry with this person, or do just think I ought to be angry and therefore I'm puffed up in this faux anger? Very hard to say. Do I love this person? Hell, that's the hardest one of all. Do I want to be loved, more than I want to love? All these questions. Absolute, they're the ones, the only ones really, that matter to one.
How do you live up to your responsibilites?

My responsibilities are the many things that I have to do every day that I don't want to do, and very often I look at my diary and I see I'm doing some afternoon speech, or I've got to go, and I would desperately love to hear the phone go, and someone say it's been cancelled. I get very close to thinking, 'can I pretend I've got flu, can I say I'm ill?' And then think, 'No I can't'. Duty, obligation, responsibility, these are all words that I've fought against all my life, because I'm not sure how true they are. If you feel you're doing something out of responsibility then don't do it. But do project how you'll feel if you don't do it, and then realize that actually, the responsibility is something you want to do. So, me cancelling things, me not doing the things I've agreed to do, me reneging on my word, would make me deeply unhappy. It's the point, I suppose. Even unhappier than having to turn up and do it. And I think drugs and alcohol are things that overcome a sense of responsibility, you no longer care so much about whether or not you let people down. And so I think that's one of their dangers, is that it stops you having a sense of responsibility, really. We used to say it degenerates the moral self-- the Victorians used to say of alcohol, or of drug users. It's not quite that, I think it's sadder; you don't care. And ultimately not caring about yourself is not caring about other people. When you're not caring about letting other people down, it means you don't care living with yourself, having let people down. Cause we all know that any purpose of virtue is to be happy, I mean that's the earliest philosophy of Plato, exactly that. Noticing that virtue of itself is not the end; happiness is the end. And its very hard to be happy if you're not good, facing responsibilities, and its very easy to be good if you're happy.


Taken from the text as displayed on Videojug

Posted by Geraco C 2:12 PM 0 comments  

TV Show Text of interviews

Life As An Author
Monday, August 11, 2008

Life As An Author


VideoJug: Life As An Author

Posted by Geraco C 12:25 PM 0 comments  

TV Show Life As An Author

Stephen Fry: Heroes

Stephen Fry: Heroes

Questions asked:
Who are your Heroes?
What qualities do heroes have?
Where does your inspiration come from?
How do you make bid decisions?
How do you Live up to your responsibilities?


VideoJug: Stephen Fry: Heroes

Posted by Geraco C 12:23 PM 0 comments  

TV Show Stephen Fry: Heroes

Stephen Fry: Learning

Stephen Fry answers questions about Learning:

Questions asked:

How Big is your brain?
Can everybody learn something new?
What if you are too Busy to Learn?
How do we know what to believe?
Is out attitude to learning changing?


VideoJug: Stephen Fry: Learning

Posted by Geraco C 12:20 PM 0 comments  

TV Show Stephen Fry: Learning

Stephen Fry: Technology

More questions from Videojug:

Questions asked:
* Would you describe yourself as a geek?
* Are you an early adopter of new technology?
* What's your favourite piece of kit at the moment?




VideoJug: Stephen Fry: Technology

Posted by Geraco C 12:17 PM 0 comments  

TV Show Stephen Fry: Technology

Stephen Fry: Web 2.0

Stephen Fry: Web 2.0
Stephen talking about and answering questions asked of him by Videojug...learn with pleasure...


VideoJug: Stephen Fry: Web 2.0

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TV Show Stephen Fry: Web 2.0

Stephen Fry: The Internet
Sunday, August 10, 2008

Stephen Fry talks about why the Internet should be free..

Posted by Geraco C 12:18 PM 1 comments  

TV Show Stephen Fry: The Internet

Stephen Fry on Craig Ferguson

I have no Idea who Craig Ferguson is but this is Stephen on his chat show:

It is in 2 parts:

Stephen Fry on Craig Ferguson part 1 of 2



Stephen Fry on Craig Ferguson part 2 of 2

Posted by Geraco C 12:15 PM 0 comments  

TV Show Stephen Fry on Craig Ferguson

Guilty with Stephen Fry

Guilty is a show in BBC that asks Famous people to identify their own Guilty pleasures. Stephen Fry talks about Abba, Led Zeppelin and Gibberish..

This is a show taken from youtube in three parts:

Guilty with Stephen Fry part 1 of 3



Guilty with Stephen Fry part 2 of 3



Guilty with Stephen Fry part 3 of 3

Posted by Geraco C 12:11 PM 0 comments  

TV Show Guilty with Stephen Fry

Room 101 with Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry appeared on Room 101, a BBC show devoted to getting rid of all of Life's unpleasant things into Orwell's notorious Room 101.

This is the episode in three parts from 2001:

Room 101 with Stephen Fry part 1 of 3




Room 101 with Stephen Fry part 2 of 3



Room 101 with Stephen Fry part 3 of 3

Posted by Geraco C 12:06 PM 0 comments  

TV Show Room 101 with Stephen Fry

Clive James talking in the Library: Stephen Fry

Clive James talking in the Library: Stephen Fry



Clive James talking in the Library: Stephen Fry part 1 of 3




Clive James talking in the Library: Stephen Fry part 2 of 3




Clive James talking in the Library: Stephen Fry part 3 of 3

Posted by Geraco C 11:33 AM 0 comments  

TV Show Clive James talking in the Library: Stephen Fry

Mark Lawson Talks to Stephen Fry

Mark Lawson Talks to Stephen Fry

A special edition of the in-depth interview programme to mark Fry's 50th birthday.

Mark Lawson Talks to Stephen Fry Part 1 of 5



Mark Lawson Talks to Stephen Fry Part 2 of 5



Mark Lawson Talks to Stephen Fry Part 3 of 5



Mark Lawson Talks to Stephen Fry Part 4 of 5



Mark Lawson Talks to Stephen Fry Part 5 of 5

Posted by Geraco C 11:29 AM 0 comments  

TV Show Mark Lawson Talks to Stephen Fry

HIV and Me

From Stephen Fry:

In the early 1980s, AIDS was like a whirlwind... it was a death sentence, nothing short of it. The disease inspired complete terror like the bubonic plague.

Twenty-five years on, people are confident AIDS has been replaced by HIV

Twenty-five years on, people are confident AIDS has been replaced by HIV - a chronic condition like diabetes. You can even survive on one pill a day, I’m told.

I’d love to find out if this has caused complacency - whether it’s that simple and AIDS no longer really exists and HIV doesn’t matter anymore?

It seems that today you can live a normal life and have safe sex, with all the terror and hysteria of the early years having been replaced by an easygoing lifestyle once more.

What’s happened to this extraordinary disease that captured the public imagination? Is it really something you can now live with, or is there still a stigma that makes it a social disease of intense privation? There’s so much to discover. For example, which are today’s high-risk groups?

Although I’ve worked with AIDS charities, I haven’t really connected with the people who know about it either first-hand because they live with it, or through working, as it were, at the coal-face of the disease.

The show HIV is below in 6 parts from Youtube:

HIV and Me Part 1 of 6


HIV and Me Part 2 of 6


HIV and Me Part 3 of 6


HIV and Me Part 4 of 6



HIV and Me Part 5 of 6


HIV and Me Part 6 of 6

Posted by Geraco C 11:25 AM 0 comments  

TV Show HIV and Me

The Machine That Made Us

In this revealing documentary, Stephen Fry investigates the story of one of the most important machines ever invented - the Gutenberg Press.

The printing press was the world's first mass-production machine. Its invention in the 1450s changed the world as dramatically as splitting the atom or sending men into space, sparking a cultural revolution that shaped the modern age. It is the machine that made us who we are today.

Stephen's investigation combines historical detective work and a hands-on challenge. He travels to France and Germany on the trail of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press and early media entrepreneur. Along the way he discovers the lengths Gutenberg went to keep his project secret, explores the role of avaricious investors and unscrupulous competitors, and discovers why printing mattered so much in medieval Europe.

But to really understand the man and his machine, Stephen gets his hands dirty - assembling a team of craftsmen and helping them build a working replica of Gutenberg's original press. He learns how to make paper the 15th-century way and works as an apprentice in a metal foundry in preparation for the experiment to put the replica press through its paces. Can Stephen's modern-day team match the achievement of Gutenberg's medieval craftsmen?

Below is the full show from Youtube in 5 parts

The Machine That Made Us Part 1 of 5:



The Machine That Made Us Part 2 of 5:



The Machine That Made Us Part 3 of 5:



The Machine That Made Us Part 4 of 5:



The Machine That Made Us Part 5 of 5:

Posted by Geraco C 11:20 AM 0 comments  

TV Show The Machine That Made Us

Stephen Fry: 50 not out.

Stephen Fry turned 50 in 2007, and BBC Four celebrated with a weekend devoted to the much-loved actor, writer and national treasure.

Again From youtube from the great channel run by the Lerjse this is the show in seven parts. If you love Stephen Fry enjoy this tribute to him from his peers and from the BBC..

Stephen Fry: 50 not out. Part 1 of 7.



Stephen Fry: 50 not out. Part 2 of 7.


Stephen Fry: 50 not out. Part 3 of 7.



Stephen Fry: 50 not out. Part 4 of 7.



Stephen Fry: 50 not out. Part 5 of 7.



Stephen Fry: 50 not out. Part 6 of 7.



Stephen Fry: 50 not out. Part 7 of 7.

Posted by Geraco C 11:14 AM 0 comments  

TV Show Stephen Fry: 50 not out.

So Who Do You Think You are? (BBC)

Season Two of the very popular So Who Do You Think You Are? Show on BBC sees Stephen Fry discover his family tree. From Yourtube and cut into 6 parts this hour long show is a must see.

Read below the videos for more information:

Who Do You Think You Are - Part 1 of 7




Who Do You Think You Are - Part 2 of 7




Who Do You Think You Are - Part 3 of 7




Who Do You Think You Are - Part 4 of 7



Who Do You Think You Are - Part 5 of 7




Who Do You Think You Are - Part 6 of 7





Who Do You Think You Are - Part 7 of 7




Websites with more information on this Programme:
BBC Press Office
BBC History Site
TV Rage

From the BBC site:

Stephen Fry seems as English as tweed, silver toast racks and the London black cab he can be seen driving around the streets of the capital.

One might expect his family history to reflect this: a quintessentially English story of a comfortable middle or upper-middle class family. Yet the reality was somewhat different.

The story that pricked Stephen's interest the most was that of his beloved maternal grandfather, Martin Newman. Martin's actual name was Neumann, and he was a Jew of eastern European descent. By the time of his death, when Stephen was just eleven years old, his flamboyance had made an indelible mark on his grandson.

Martin had left Surany, a small town in what is now Slovakia, in 1927, with his wife, Rosa, and their daughter Gertrude. They settled in Bury St Edmunds, England. During the 1920s, Britain was keen to develop its sugar beet industry and Bury St Edmunds was chosen as the best place to situate a factory.

In Surany, Martin was working as an agricultural advisor in the largest sugar beet factory in Europe, and was hired to teach the British a thing or two about the cultivation of sugar beet.

Stephen was interested in discovering more about Martin and his family's life prior to their move to East Anglia. And what of the other branches of the Neumann family?

By the late 1920s, with the spectre of Nazism beginning to loom in Germany, widespread anti-Semitism was already affecting the lives of millions of Jews across mainland Europe. What had been the fate of those Neumanns who had stayed behind when Martin came to England?

Martin served in the Austro-Hungarian army in World War One. Despite being just eighteen years old when he volunteered, he won a medal on the Eastern Front - where millions of men lost their lives - in the battle for Romania. He worked his way from the rank of private to corporal.

When the war was over, he visited some distant cousins, the Brauns, in Vienna. A member of the Braun family, Rosa, would eventually become his wife.

The Brauns were members of Vienna's 200,000-strong Jewish community. Stephen paid an emotional visit to the house in which they lived, and was startled to see a plaque commemorating the house's inhabitants, among them Rosa's parents - Stephen's great-grandfather and great-grandmother - Berta and Samuel.

They had remained there until 1942, at the height of the Nazi terror, when they were deported to a ghetto in Riga, Latvia, along with 65,000 other Viennese Jews. Only a small number of those sent to Riga survived. The others, Berta and Samuel among them, were killed.

Stephen's next stop was Surany. Martin and Rosa had moved there in 1924, along with the whole of Martin's extended family, including parents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces and nephews.

Martin's father, Leopold, died in 1929, but what became of the other Neumanns who remained in Surany? The answer is as tragic as it was inevitable.

Located in what was then Hungary, there was no resistance in Surany to the Nazi's anti-Semitic policies. The lives of the town's Jews were ruined, their property ransacked or burgled, the people deported or murdered. In all, more than 600 Jews from Surany were killed in the Holocaust.

Martin's sister, Reska, was one of those who chose to stay, marrying a man called Tobias Lamm. The couple had children, but during World War Two the whole family was sent to Auschwitz. Some disappeared en route. The others died or were murdered in the camp itself.

Had fate not intervened, in the form of a humble sugar beet factory in Bury St Edmonds, that awful destiny may also have befallen Martin Neumann and his family.

Posted by Geraco C 10:40 AM 0 comments  

TV Show Who Do You Think You Are?

About Stephen Fry

Straight from Wikipedia (here until I finish writing my own version of a bio about the Great Stephen Fry).:

Early life

Fry was born in Hampstead, London, the son of Marianne Eve (née Newman) and Alan John Fry, who was an English physicist and inventor.[1][2] His maternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Central Europe,[3] and his mother's aunt and cousins were killed in Auschwitz concentration camp.[2] Fry grew up in the village of Booton near Reepham, Norfolk, having moved from Chesham, Buckinghamshire when very young.

Fry briefly attended Cawston Primary School, Cawston, Norfolk, described later in his 1997 book Moab Is My Washpot[4] before going on to Stouts Hill Preparatory School, and then to Uppingham School, Rutland, where he joined Fircroft house. He was expelled from Uppingham when he was fifteen, and subsequently from the Paston School. At seventeen, after leaving Norfolk College of Arts and Technology, Fry absconded with a credit card stolen from a family friend, and as a result spent three months in Pucklechurch Prison for fraud.[5] Following his release he resumed education at Norwich City College, promising administrators that he would study rigorously to sit the Cambridge entrance exams. He passed well enough to gain a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, Fry gained a degree in English literature, joined the Cambridge Footlights, and appeared on University Challenge.[6] As a member of the Footlights, he also met his future comedy collaborator, Hugh Laurie.

[edit] Career

[edit] Television

Fry's career in television began with the 1982 broadcasting of The Cellar Tapes, the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue written by Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Tony Slattery. The revue caught the attention of Granada Television, who, keen to replicate the success of the BBC's Not the Nine O'Clock News, hired Fry, Laurie and Thompson to star alongside Ben Elton in There's Nothing To Worry About! A second series, re-titled Alfresco, was broadcast in 1983 and a third in 1984; it established Fry and Laurie's reputation as a comedy double act. In 1983, the BBC offered them their own show, which became The Crystal Cube, a mixture of science fiction and mock documentary that was axed after the first episode. Undeterred, Fry and Laurie appeared in an episode of The Young Ones in 1984, and Fry in Ben Elton's 1985 series, Happy Families.

Forgiving Fry and Laurie for The Crystal Cube, the BBC commissioned a sketch show in 1986 that was to become A Bit of Fry and Laurie. The programme ran for 26 episodes spanning four series between 1986 and 1995, and was very successful. During this time Fry starred in Blackadder II as Lord Melchett, Blackadder the Third as the Duke of Wellington, and notably in Blackadder Goes Forth as General Melchett. In 1988, he became a regular contestant on the popular improvisational comedy radio show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. However, when it moved to television, he only appeared three times: twice in the first series and once in the ninth.

Between 1990 and 1993, Fry starred as Jeeves (alongside Hugh Laurie's Bertie Wooster) in Jeeves and Wooster, 23 hour-long adaptations of P.G. Wodehouse's novels and short stories.

In 2003, he began hosting QI, an intellectual panel game that has become one of the most-watched entertainment programmes on British television.[7] In 2006, he won the Rose d'Or award for Best Game Show Host for his work on the series.[8]

A foray into documentary-making has seen Fry fronting the Emmy Award-winning The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive in 2006, and in 2007 a documentary on the subject of HIV and AIDS, HIV and Me. Also in 2006, he appeared in the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing his family tree to discover his Slovak Jewish ancestry. He has filmed a six-part travel series entitled Stephen Fry in America for broadcast in 2008.[9] A five-part companion series, More Fry in America, has been commissioned for BBC Four; it will feature in-depth essays that Fry couldn't include in the former documentary because of time constraints.[10]

As of 2008, Fry is appearing in, and is executive producer for, the second series of legal drama Kingdom. He has also taken up a recurring guest role as psychiatrist Dr. Gordon Wyatt in the popular American drama Bones. While filming in Brazil for the series Last Chance to See, Fry broke his right arm.[11]

On 7 May 2008, Fry gave a speech as part of a series of BBC lectures on the future of public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom,[12] which he later recorded for a podcast.[13]

[edit] Film

Having made his film debut in the 1985 movie The Good Father, Fry had a brief appearance in A Fish Called Wanda (in which he is knocked out by Kevin Kline who is posing as an airport security man) and then appeared in the lead role for Kenneth Branagh's Peter's Friends in 1992. Portraying Oscar Wilde (a man of whom he had been a fan since the age of 13) in the 1997 film Wilde, he fulfilled to critical acclaim a role that he has said he was "born to play". In 2001, he played the detective in Robert Altman's period costume drama, Gosford Park.

In 2003, Fry made his directorial debut with Bright Young Things, adapted by himself from Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies. In 2001, he began hosting the BAFTA Film Awards, a role from which he stepped down in 2006.[14] Later that same year, he wrote the English libretto and dialogue for Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of The Magic Flute.

Fry continues to make regular film appearances, notably in treatments of literary cult classics. He served as narrator in a film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and in 2005 he appeared in both A Cock and Bull Story, based on Tristram Shandy, and V for Vendetta.[15] In 2006, he played the role of gadget-master Smithers in Stormbreaker, and in 2007 he appeared as himself hosting a quiz in St Trinian's. In 2007, Fry wrote a script for a remake of The Dam Busters for director Peter Jackson.[16]

[edit] Radio

Fry became famous to radio listeners with the creation of his supposed alter-ego, Donald Trefusis, whose "wireless essays" were broadcast on the Radio 4 programme Loose Ends. In 1988, Fry wrote and presented a renowned six-part comedy series entitled Saturday Night Fry; frequent radio appearances have ensued (notably on panel games Just a Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue). In 2000, he began starring as Charles Prentiss in the Radio 4 comedy Absolute Power, reprising the role for three further series on radio and two on television.

In 2007, he hosted Current Puns, an exploration into wordplay, and Radio 4: This Is Your Life, to celebrate the radio station's 40th anniversary. He also interviewed Tony Blair as part of a series of podcasts released by 10 Downing Street.[17]

In February 2008, Fry began presenting podcasts entitled Stephen Fry's Podgrams, in which he recounts his life and recent experiences.[13] In July 2008, Fry appeared as himself in I Love Stephen Fry, an Afternoon Play for Radio 4 written by former Fry and Laurie script editor Jon Canter.[18]

[edit] Theatre

Fry wrote a play entitled Latin! (or Tobacco and Boys) for the 1980 Edinburgh Festival, where it won the "Fringe First" prize. The Cellar Tapes, the Footlights Revue of the following year, won the Perrier Comedy Award. In 1984, Fry adapted the hugely successful 1930s musical, Me and My Girl, for the West End, where it ran for eight years. He also famously starred in Simon Gray's 1995 play, Cell Mates, from which he left three days into the West End run, pleading stage fright. He later recalled the incident as a hypomanic episode in his documentary on bipolar disorder. In 2007, Fry wrote a Christmas pantomime, Cinderella, which ran at London's Old Vic Theatre.[19]

[edit] Literature

Since the publication of his first novel, The Liar, Fry has written three additional novels, several non-fiction works and an autobiography, all of which have been much acclaimed by critics. Making History is arguably Fry's most controversial book[citation needed]: set in an alternative universe inspired by Daniel Goldhagen's theses, it advances the argument that the Holocaust, or rather something with similar effects, would have occurred regardless of Hitler's existence.

Fry's most recent book, The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within, is a guide to writing poetry. In the United Kingdom, he is a well-known narrator of audiobooks, notably the Harry Potter series.[20] He has recorded audio versions of works by Roald Dahl, Michael Bond, A. A. Milne, Anthony Buckeridge and Douglas Adams, as well as several of his own books.

When writing a book review for Tatler, Fry wrote under an alias, Williver Hendry, editor of A Most Peculiar Friendship: The Correspondence of Lord Alfred Douglas and Jack Dempsey, a field close to Fry's heart as an Oscar Wilde enthusiast. Once a columnist in The Listener and The Daily Telegraph, he now writes a weekly technology column in the Saturday edition of The Guardian. His blog attracted over 300,000 visitors in its first two weeks of existence.[9]

[edit] Acclaim

* In 1995, Fry was presented with an honorary doctorate from the University of Dundee, which named their main Students' Association bar after one of his novels (The Liar Bar). Fry is patron of its Lip Theatre Company.[21] He served two consecutive terms (1992–1995 and 1995–1998) as the student-elected Rector of the University (only the second rector of the university to be elected twice, the first being Clement Freud); coincidentally, this post is currently held by his secondary school classmate, controversial former diplomat Craig Murray.
* Fry was also awarded an honourary degree from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge in 2005.[22][23]
* In 2005, Fry was made honorary president of the Cambridge University Quiz Society and honorary fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge.
* In a 2005 poll to find The Comedians' Comedian, Fry was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and business insiders, and, in September 2006, number 9 in a poll of TV's Greatest Stars as voted for by the general public.
* In December 2006 he was ranked 6th for the BBC's Top Living Icon Award,[24] was featured on The Culture Show, and was voted most intelligent man on television by readers of Radio Times.
* 23rd on the previous year's list, the Independent on Sunday Pink List named Fry the second most influential gay person in Britain in May 2007.[25]
* Later the same month he was announced as the 2007 BT Mind Champion of the Year[26] in recognition of the awareness raised by his documentary on bipolar disorder, and was also nominated for Best Entertainment Performance (QI) and Best Factual Series (Secret Life of the Manic Depressive) at the 2007 British Academy Television Awards.
* BBC Four dedicated two nights of programming to Fry on the 17th and 18th August 2007, in celebration of his 50th birthday. The first night, comprising programmes featuring Fry, began with a 60-minute documentary entitled Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out. The second night was composed of programmes selected by Fry, as well as a 60-minute interview with Mark Lawson and half-hour special, Stephen Fry: Guilty Pleasures. Stephen Fry Weekend proved such a ratings hit for BBC Four that it was repeated on BBC Two for the 16th and 17th September.
* He currently holds the UK record for saying "fuck" the most times on a live television broadcast.[citation needed]
* Fry was the last person to be named Pipe Smoker of the Year before the award was discontinued for legal reasons.
* He is a Patron of the Norwich Playhouse theatre and a Vice President of The Noël Coward Society.[27]
* He was granted a lifetime achievement award at the British Comedy Awards on December 5, 2007.[28]
* In 2007 Broadcast magazine listed Fry at #4 in its "Hot 100" list of influential on-screen performers, describing him as a polymath and a "national treasure".[29]

[edit] Personal life

Fry struggled to keep his homosexuality secret during his teenage years at public school, and was celibate for 16 years from 1979 until 1995.[30][31] When asked about when he knew he was homosexual he quotes an old friend and says, "I suppose it all began when I came out of the womb. I looked back up at my mother and thought to myself, 'That's the last time I'm coming out of one of those.' " Fry currently lives in London with his partner, Daniel Cohen, whom he met in 1995. He famously drives a former 1988 London black cab. He also has a second home in West Bilney, near King's Lynn, Norfolk.

Fry has been diagnosed with cyclothymia.[32] He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1995 while appearing in a West End play called Cell Mates and subsequently walked out of the production, prompting its early closure and incurring the displeasure of co-star Rik Mayall and playwright Simon Gray. Mayall's comedy partner, Adrian Edmondson, made light of the subject in his and Mayall's second Bottom live show. After walking out of the production, Fry went missing for several days while contemplating suicide. He abandoned the idea and left the United Kingdom by ferry, eventually resurfacing in Belgium.[33]

Fry has spoken publicly about his experience with bipolar disorder, which was also depicted in the documentary Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic-Depressive.[34] In the programme, he interviewed other sufferers of the illness including celebrities Carrie Fisher, Richard Dreyfuss and Tony Slattery. Also featured were chef Rick Stein, whose father committed suicide, Robbie Williams, who talks of his experience with major depression, and comedienne/former mental health nurse Jo Brand.

Fry was an active supporter of the British Labour Party for many years, and appeared in a party political broadcast on its behalf with Hugh Laurie and Michelle Collins in November, 1993. Despite this, he did not vote in the 2005 General Election because of the stance of both the Labour and Conservative parties with regard to the Iraq War. Despite his praising of the current government for social reform, Fry has been critical of the Labour Party's "Third Way" concept. He is on cordial terms with Prince Charles (despite a mild parody Fry performed in his role of King Charles I in the comedy programme Blackadder: The Cavalier Years), through his work with the Prince's Trust. He attended the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker-Bowles in 2005.

Fry is a friend of British comedian and actor (and Blackadder co-star) Rowan Atkinson and was best man at Atkinson's wedding to Sunetra Sastry at the Russian Tea Room in New York City. He was also a friend of British actor John Mills.[35] He was best man at the wedding of Hugh Laurie and is godfather to all three of Laurie's children.

A fan of cricket, Fry is related to former England cricketer C.B. Fry,[36] and was recently interviewed for the Ashes Fever DVD, reporting on England's victory against Australia in the 2005 Ashes series. Regarding football, he is a supporter of Norwich City (as mentioned in Ashes Fever), and is a regular visitor to Carrow Road.

He has been described as "deeply dippy for all things digital", claims to have owned the second Macintosh sold in the UK (the first going to Douglas Adams) and to have never encountered a smartphone that he has not bought.[37] He counts Wikipedia among his favourite websites "because I like to find out that I died, and that I'm currently in a ballet in China, and all the other very accurate and important things that the Wikipedia site brings us all."[38]

Fry has a long interest in internet production, including his own website since 1997. His current site, The Adventures of Mr Stephen Fry, has existed since 2002 and has attracted many visitors following his first blog in September 2007, which comprised a 6,500 word "blessay" on smartphones. In February 2008 Fry launched his private podcast series, Stephen Fry's Podgrams, and a forum, including discussions on depression and activities in which Fry is involved. The website content is created by Stephen Fry and produced by Andrew Sampson.

On 30 April 2008, Fry signed an open letter, published in The Guardian newspaper by some well known Jewish personalities, stating their opposition to celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel.[39]

[edit] Health

* In Episode C.10 of QI he revealed he is allergic to champagne.[40]
* In January 2008, Fry broke his arm while filming in Brazil.[11] He later explained in a podcast how the accident happened. While climbing onboard a boat, he slipped between it and the dock and while stopping himself from falling into the water, his body weight caused his right humerus to snap. The damage was more severe than first thought: the resulting vulnerability to his radial nerve — which meant he was at risk of losing the use of his arm — was not diagnosed until he saw a consultant in the UK.[41]
* He has a deviated septum due to falling and breaking his nose when he was six.

[edit] List of works

[edit] Written works

* Films and screenplays
o Bright Young Things (2003)
o The Magic Flute (libretto, forthcoming[42])
o Dambusters (2008)

* Musicals
o Me and My Girl (adapted Lupino Lane's script) (1984)

* Novels
o The Liar (1992) (in which Donald Trefusis is a character)
o The Hippopotamus (1994)
o Making History (an example of alternate history) (1997) Winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History
o The Stars' Tennis Balls (as Revenge: A Novel in the United States) (Fry's take on The Count of Monte Cristo story (2000))

* Other books
o Paperweight (collection of articles) (1992), including, among others, some of the "wireless essays" supposedly by professor Donald Trefusis.
o Moab is My Washpot (autobiography) (1997)
o Rescuing the Spectacled Bear: A Peruvian Diary (2002)
o Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music (2004)
o The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within (2005)

* Plays
o Latin! (or Tobacco and Boys.) (1979, included in Paperweight). Winner of the Fringe First at the 1980 Edinburgh Festival.
o A pantomime version of Cinderella slated to open at the Old Vic for Christmas 2007.[43]

* Published television scripts
o A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1990)
o A Bit More Fry & Laurie (1991)
o 3 Bits of Fry & Laurie (1992)
o Fry & Laurie Bit No. 4 (1995)

[edit] Performances

* Films
o The Good Father (1985)
o A Fish Called Wanda (1988, cameo)
o Peter's Friends (1992)
o Stalag Luft as James Forrester (1993)
o IQ as James Moreland (1994)
o Wind in the Willows as The Judge (1996)
o Wilde as Oscar Wilde (1997)
o Spiceworld as Judge (1997)
o A Civil Action (1998)
o Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (1999)
o Relative Values (2000)
o Gosford Park (2001)
o The Discovery of Heaven (2001)
o Thunderpants (2002)
o Le Divorce (2003)
o The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)
o Tom Brown's Schooldays(2005)
o The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (voice) (2005)
o MirrorMask (2005)
o A Cock and Bull Story (2006)
o V for Vendetta (2006)
o Stormbreaker (2006)
o St Trinian's (2007)
o Valkyrie (2009)

* Plays
o The Common Pursuit (1988)
o Cell Mates, (1995)

* Radio shows
o Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Quandary Phase: Murray Bost Henson, BBC Radio 4
o Saturday Night Fry (1988, BBC Radio 4, six episodes)
o A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1994, BBC Radio Four, two half-hour programmes compiled from selected previously-seen sketches from the TV series)
o Absolute Power, BBC Radio Four
o Occasional guest panellist on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, BBC Radio Four
o Regular guest panellist on Just a Minute, BBC Radio Four
o Has a regular slot, The Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music on Classic FM
o Played the lead, David Lander, on Radio 4 series Delve Special
o A series of "wireless essays", supposedly by his alter ego, the elderly Cambridge philology professor Donald Trefusis, were featured in the BBC Radio 4 programme Loose Ends, hosted by Ned Sherrin
o Fry contributed regular parodies of BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat to the same station's arts programme Studio B15
o Afternoon Play: I Love Stephen Fry (2008, BBC Radio Four)

* Television programmes
o The Crystal Cube (one-off BBC2 sketch show) (1983)
o Alfresco (1983–84)
o The Young Ones (1984)
o Happy Families (1985)
o Filthy Rich & Catflap (1986)
o The Blackadder Series: Blackadder II (1986), Blackadder the Third (1987), Blackadder: The Cavalier Years and Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988), Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), and Blackadder: Back & Forth (1999)
o Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988, 1997)
o A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1987 pilot, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1995)
o This Is David Lander (1988)
o The New Statesman (1989)
o Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993)
o Common Pursuit (1992)
o The Thin Blue Line (1995)
o Cold Comfort Farm (1995)
o In the Red (1998)
o Watership Down (1999)
o Gormenghast (2000)
o QI (2003–present)
o A Bear Named Winnie (2004)
o Absolute Power (2003, 2005)
o Tom Brown's Schooldays (2005)
o Pocoyo (2005) — an animated children's television programme, which he narrated
o Extras (2006)
o The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive (2006)
o Bones (2007)
o Kingdom (2007)
o Shrink Rap (2007) — a quasi-therapeutic interview conducted by Pamela Stephenson
o Stephen Fry: HIV and Me (2007)
o Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press (2008)
o Stephen Fry in America (2008, forthcoming)
o More Fry in America (announced)

* Audiobooks
o Moab Is My Washpot (1997) ISBN 1-85686-268-2
o The Hippopotamus (2000) ISBN 1-84197-129-4
o Paperweight Volume 1 (1998) ISBN 978-1856862967
o Harry Potter series, UK versions (1999–2007)
o The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) ISBN 1-4050-5397-6
o Higher Ground Project (2005) ISBN 1-84458-643-X
o The Ode Less Travelled (2006) ISBN 1-85686-842-7
o Montmorency (2004) ISBN 978-1844400256
o Paperweight Volume 2 (2007) ISBN 978-1856865012

* Video Games
o LittleBigPlanet - which he narrates.
o Fable II
* Miscellaneous
o Guest appearance in a webcast of Doctor Who called Death Comes to Time, as Time Lord, the Minister of Chance
o Fry introduced the television show Wildlife SOS
o He narrated the non-playable sections of the Playstation game Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
o He provided voiceovers for Argos' Christmas adverts in 2007
o He is the character in the Twinings Earl Grey tea adverts on British TV
o He performs the voice of "Jeeves" for Voco Clocks' Clocks That Talk
o He performs on the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's 2007 album, Pour l'Amour des Chiens

[edit] Directorial filmography

* Films
o Bright Young Things (director, 2003)

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