Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. Grant has received a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and an Honorary Cesar for his work. As of 2018, his films have grossed a total of nearly $3 billion worldwide from 29 theatrical releases. Take a look below for 40 more awesome and interesting facts about Hugh Grant.
1. Grant was born on September 9, 1960, at Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith, London, the second son of Fynvola Susan MacLean and Captain James Murray Grant.
2. His grandfather, Colonel James Murray Grant, DSO was decorated for bravery and leadership at Saint-Valery-en-Caux during World War II.
3. Genealogist Antony Adolph has described Grant’s family history as “a colorful Anglo-Scottish tapestry of warriors, empire-builders and aristocracy”.
4. His ancestors include William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan, James Stewart, John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl, Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, Sir Evan Nepean, and a sister of former Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.
5. Grant’s father was an officer in the Seaforth Highlanders for eight years in Malaya and Germany.
6. He ran a carpet firm, pursued hobbies such as golf and painting watercolours, and raised his family in Chiswick, west London, where the Grants lived next to Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane.
7. In September 2006, a collection of Capt. Grant’s paintings was hosted by the John Martin Gallery in a charity exhibition, organised by his son, called “James Grant: 30 Years of Watercolours”.
8. His mother worked as a schoolteacher and taught Latin, French and music for more than 30 years in the state schools of west London.
9. She died at the age of 67, 18 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
10. On Inside the Actors Studio in 2002, he credited his mother with “any acting genes that [he] might have”.
11. Both his parents were children of military families, but, despite his parents’ backgrounds, he has stated that his family was not always affluent while he was growing up.
12. He spent his childhood summers shooting and hunting with his grandfather in Scotland.
13. Grant has an older brother, James, living in Portugal.
14. Grant started his education at Hogarth Primary School in Chiswick but then moved to St Peter’s Primary School in Hammersmith; he was then educated at an independent preparatory school, Wetherby School.
15. From 1969 to 1978, he attended the independent Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith on a scholarship and played 1st XV rugby, cricket and football for the school.
16. He also represented Latymer on the quiz show, Top of the Form, an academic competition between two teams of four secondary school students each.
17. In 1979, he won the Galsworthy scholarship to New College, Oxford, where he starred in his first film, Privileged, produced by the Oxford University Film Foundation.
18. He read English and graduated with 2:1 honors.
19. Actress Anna Chancellor, who met Grant while she was still at university, has recalled, “I first met Hugh at a party at Oxford. There was something magical about him. He was a star even then, without having done anything.”
20. He received an offer from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London to pursue a PhD in the history of art, but decided not to take the offer because he failed to secure a grant.
21. Viewing acting as nothing more than a creative outlet, he joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and starred in a successful touring production of Twelfth Night.
22. In 1987, while playing Lord Byron in the Spanish production Remando Al Viento (1988), Grant met actress Elizabeth Hurley, who was cast in a supporting role as Byron’s former lover Claire Clairmont.
23. He began dating Hurley during filming, and their relationship was subsequently the subject of much media attention.
24. After 13 years together, they separated in May 2000.
25. He is godfather to her son Damian, born in 2002.
26. Grant has had five children with two women. In September 2011, he had a daughter, Tabitha, with Tinglan Hong, who was sometimes misreported in the press as a receptionist at a Chinese restaurant in London.
27. His daughter’s Chinese name is Xiao Xi, meaning “happy surprise”.
28. Grant and Hong had a “fleeting affair”, according to his publicist.
29. He has said that Hong has been “badly treated” by the media; the press intrusion prevented him from attending the birth of his daughter, with Hong obtaining an injunction to allow him to visit them in peace.
30. In September 2012, Grant had his second child, a son, with Swedish television producer Anna Eberstein.
31. Hong gave birth to Grant’s third child, a son, in December 2012, after they reunited briefly.
32. In December 2015 he and Eberstein had a second child together, Grant’s fourth, a daughter.
33. In early 2018, their third child together, Grant’s fifth child, was born, and Grant and Eberstein married on 25 May 2018.
34. In 2011, Grant appeared at the Liberal Democrats’ conference on the News International phone-hacking scandal, where he briefly met then-party leader Nick Clegg.
35. In the 2015 UK general election, Grant expressed support for Liberal Democrat MP Danny Alexander and later hosted a dinner for the Liberal Democrats, in which he met the winner of a draw of donors to the Liberal Democrats.
36. In the 2015 election, he also endorsed two Labour candidates: Tom Watson (saying “I wish he could be our next Prime Minister to be honest”), and his former agent, Michael Foster.
37. He is a fan of Fulham and is also a supporter of Scottish football club Rangers.
38. In 2011, the BBC apologized after Grant made an offhand joke about homosexuality and rugby when he was invited into the commentary box during coverage of an England vs Scotland game at Twickenham Stadium.
39. Grant is a patron of the DIPEx Charity, which operates the website Healthtalkonline.
40. Since the death of his mother in 2001, Grant has worked as a fundraiser and ambassador for Marie Curie Cancer Care, promoting the charity’s annual Great Daffodil Appeal on several occasions.
