Richard E Grant

About:

Born Richard Grant Esterhuysen in Mbabane, Swaziland in 1957, to the last Minister for Education before Swazi independence, Richard E Grant was brought up in the African state and went to University in Cape Town, where he read Drama and started a multi-racial theatre company. He is still very much a Swazi at heart with fluent Xhosa and one of his two wrist watches permanently set to Swazi time.

Shortly after the death of his father he moved to London in 1982. He worked in the British theatre winning acclaim and award nominations, most notably for his performance in the Lyric Theatre’s production of Tramway Road in 1984. But it was his casting in the seminal 1987 film Withnail & I that fired him into public recognition and Hollywood desirability. He has since appeared in many roles in film and on television, including How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), L.A. Story (1991), Prêt-a-Porter (1994), Jack and Sarah (1995), Gosford Park (2001), and Wah-Wah (2005) which he wrote and directed.

He married the voice coach Joan Washington in 1986 and they live in London with their two children, Tom and Olivia.

Selected Filmography:

Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties
Corpse Bride
Bright Young Things
Gosford Park
Jack and Sarah