Biography for
Rupert Graves (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Height

Mini Biography

Born in a seaside resort town, Britain's Rupert Graves was born a rebel, resisting authority and breaking rules at an early age. In his teens he became a punk rocker and even found work as a circus clown and in traveling comedy troupes. In 1983 he made his professional stage debut in "The Killing of Mr. Toad" and went on to co-star with Harvey Fierstein in the London production of "Torch Song Trilogy." It didn't take long for somebody to take note of Rupert's boyish good looks and offbeat versatility. By the mid-80s he was a presence in quality films and TV, primarily period pieces such as his Freddy Honeychurch in A Room with a View (1985) and the gay drama Maurice (1987).

Rupert moved to the front of the class quickly. His decisions to select classy, obscure arthouse films as opposed to box-office mainstream may have put a dimmer on his star, but earned him a distinct reputation as a daring, controversial artist in the same vein as Johnny Depp. In A Handful of Dust (1988) he essayed the role of a penniless status seeker who beds down a married socialite; in Different for Girls (1996) he was the lover of a male transsexual; in The Innocent Sleep (1996) he played a derelict drunk; and in the award-winning Intimate Relations (1996) he portrayed an aimless boarder who has a relationship with both the mother/landlady and her daughter.

Equally adept at costume and contemporary drama, Rupert more recently earned rave reviews on Broadway with "Closer" in 2000 and "The Elephant Man" in 2002. Rupert is currently married to production coordinator Susie Lewis.

Spouse

Trivia

Best Actor Award, 1996 Montreal Film Festival - "Intimate Relations"

Worked odd jobs including a shoe factory and a fish-and-chips shop prior to 1986.

Left school at the age of 15--he ran away from his hometown of Weston-Super-Mare to join the circus as a clown.

He was nominated for a 1998 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actor of 1997 season for his performance in HurlyBurly at the Queen's Theatre.

He has a son with wife Susie Lewis named Joseph, born 2003.

Son of Richard Harding Graves and Mary Lousilla.

Personal Quotes

Giving interviews is just very dull. Talking about yourself and something that you've got less interest in than you had, because you've already moved on to something else. But you have a contractual obligation. - interview with Emma Brooks, April 22, 2002.

"I'm really pleased with myself. I've not had any training. I came from Weston-super-Mare, the same place as John Cleese, but I didn't have an education. I knew nothing about acting except that early on I knew I wanted to do it, and I've managed for 20 years to do things without doing them just for the money. Very, very occasionally when I've been really strapped for cash I thought I'd better do a job for money maybe about four times in 20 years, every five years or so on average. And the rest of the time I've done pretty much as I've pleased in jobs that have interested me. By those standards, which are the standards that I judge myself by, I feel happy. The amount of work you need to do to become a very successful celebrity is something I'm not prepared to do."

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