Stephen Fry - Film & Theater Personalities, Birthday and Childhood

Stephen Fry was born in Hampstead, London to Marianne Eve and John Fry, an English physicist and inventor. Brought up in Norfolk, he has an elder brother, Roger and Jo, a younger sister.

He attended Cawston Primary School, Norfolk, Stouts Hill Preparatory School, Gloucestershire and Uppingham School, Rutland. He was expelled from the Uppingham School at the age of 15, and later on from the Paston School too.

At 17, he was jailed for three months for stealing credit card from a family friend. Whilst in Pucklechurch Prison, his mother would pass on cut out crosswords from newspapers which kept him occupied.

He resumed studies at City College, Norwich after his release from the prison and gained a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge. He pursued English literature and graduated with a second class honors.

Fry joined the Cambridge Footlights and met his future comedy collaborator, Hugh Laurie. His television career began in 1982 with ‘The Cellar Tapes’ revue, written with Laurie, Emma Thompson and Tony Slattery.

Granada Television hired him along with Laurie and Thompson to star with Ben Elton in ‘There's Nothing to Worry About!’ He also appeared in many serials such as ‘Alfresco’, ‘The Young Ones’, and ‘Happy Families’.

In the second half of the 1980s, he starred in ‘Blackadder II’, and ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’, as General Melchett. In ‘Blackadder's Christmas Carol’, he played the roles of Lord Melchett and Lord Frondo.

From 1990 to 1993, he starred in ‘Jeeves and Wooster’, adapted from Jeeves stories, aired on ITV network, as Jeeves, with Hugh Laurie (as Bertie Wooster).

In 2003, he starred with John Bird in the BBC 2 television comedy serial, ‘Absolute Power’. The serial is set in the offices of Prentiss McCabe, a fictional public relations company in London.

He began hosting ‘QI (Quite Interesting)’, a comedy panel game television quiz show in 2003. It was conceived and co-produced by John Lloyd and features comedian, Alan Davies as a permanent panelist.

In July 2006, he narrated ‘The Story of Light Entertainment’, a British documentary on BBC consisting of eight episodes, dedicated to facets such as double act, all-round entertainers, chat shows, comics and radio stars.

A six–part series for BBC, ‘Stephen Fry in America’, in 2008, saw him travel mostly in a cab across all the states of the United States of America, except Arkansas.

In 2011, Channel 4 featured ‘Stephen Fry's 100 Greatest Gadgets’, as one of the Hundred Greatest strand. The cigarette lighter described by him as, ‘fire with a flick,’ was his choice for greatest gadget.

‘Fry’s Planet Word’, a documentary series about language was written and presented by him. The five hour-long episodes were broadcast on two BBC channels in September and October, 2011.

He lent his voice to the title role in an operetta, ‘Paul Bunyan’, composed by Benjamin Britten and staged at the Wales Millennium Centre with the Welsh National Youth Opera in August 2013.

‘A Bit of Fry & Laurie’, a comedy television series written by and starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcasted on both BBC1 and BBC2 between 1989 and 1995 ran for four series and earned great popularity.

‘Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive’, a 2006 two-part television documentary explored the effect of living with bipolar disorder based on the experiences of people like him who are suffering from this mood disorder.

Between 1995 and 2011, Stephen Fry has been presented honorary doctorates from the Universities of Dundee and Sussex, an honorary degree from Anglia Ruskin University and has been made honorary fellow of Cardiff University.

In 2007, he was declared ‘Mind Champion of the Year’, and won the British Academy Television Award for Best Factual Series for his documentary, ‘The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive’.

Initially, Stephen Fry tried to keep his homosexuality a secret, but later he became an outspoken supporter of gay rights. His services to humanism and gay rights have been recognized and honored.

His first autobiography, ‘Moab Is My Washpot’ (1997), covers the first 20 years of his life while his second volume published in 2010, ‘The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography’ is a continuation of his first autobiography.

He has shown keen interest in the internet and owns many websites such as ‘The New Adventures of Mr. Stephen Fry’, which has attracted many visitors.

This famous actor is regarded in the UK as 'Britain's Favorite Teddy Bear'. He is a keen teddy bear collector himself and has presented a television documentary on bears.

He has been described as ‘deeply dippy for all things digital’ and he claims to have owned the second Macintosh sold in the UK.