Stephen Fry

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Stephen Fry (2016)Stephen Fry signature.svg
Stephen Fry's voice (English)

Stephen John Fry (born August 24, 1957 in Hampstead , London ) is a British writer , screenwriter , actor , director , journalist , poet , comedian and television presenter .

life and work

Fry was born the son of the physicist and inventor Alan John Fry and his wife Marianne Neumann (later Anglicised: Newman), the daughter of Austrian-Jewish refugees . At the age of six he broke his nose in a playground and it has been crooked ever since.

He attended several private boarding schools : first the Cawston Primary School in Norfolk , then the Stouts Hill Preparatory School in the Cotswolds and the Uppingham School in Rutland . After Fry had to leave Uppingham School due to expulsion from school , he moved to Paston College in Norfolk. There, too, he was expelled from school. He continued his A-level education at a public school, Norfolk College of Arts and Technology at King's Lynn . He failed the final exam. At the age of 18, Fry became a criminal offender for credit card fraud : he had taken and used a family friend's credit card. Fry was sentenced to three months in prison, which he in prison of Pucklechurch dismounted. He then completed his A-Level degree from Norwich City College . At the same time he was preparing for the Cambridge Entrance Exam , which he passed so well that he received a scholarship to attend Queens' College in Cambridge . There he earned a degree in English literature .

During his time in Cambridge he came to the Cambridge Footlights , where he met Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson, among others . After studying, a career as an actor and comedian followed, with Fry working several times with his friend Hugh Laurie for British television. From 1986 to 1995, Laurie and Fry formed a duo in the BBC sketch series A Bit of Fry & Laurie . From 1986 to 1989, both also appeared regularly on Rowan Atkinson's comedy series Blackadder . Fry and Laurie played the leading roles in the BBC series Jeeves and Wooster from 1990 to 1993, based on the stories of the writer PG Wodehouse .

Fry is a fan of Wodehouse, whose humor and language therefore influence Fry's own work as a writer. 1991 Fry's first novel The Liar (German: The Liar ), in which it processes its own experiences from his boarding school and university days.

Until the mid-1990s, Fry called himself an “openly celibate British”. In 1996 he met the man know who was his partner, and outed himself as gay . In 2010 the couple separated. On January 17, 2015, Fry married his new partner, comedian Elliott Spencer.

Stephen Fry read the UK audiobook versions of Joanne K. Rowling's Harry Potter books and Douglas Adams ' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . He also performed the role of Pooh the Pooh in the 1997 English radio play of the children's book by Alan Alexander Milne .

In 2003, Fry was named one of the 50 Funniest Acts in British Comedy by the Observer and was Lord Rector of the University of Dundee , whose student union club was named after his first novel, The Liar Bar , for one term . Fry has been Honorary President of the Cambridge University Quiz Society since 2005 and has hosted the British Academy Film Awards for many years . From August 2010 to January 2016 he was a member of the board of directors ( English director ) at the English football club Norwich City .

He is also present in public as a representative of atheism and as a critic of organized religions. In doing so, he repeatedly emphasizes that he does not want to deny anyone his faith and that it is far from him to take away other people's consolation or joy that they may seek and find in their individual faith. At the same time, he positions himself clearly against any form of institutionalized belief when he argues dogmatically or supports hurtful statements and actions. On this basis he turns against the Catholic, but also other Christian churches, accusing them of having strayed so far from their original doctrine through lust for power and delusion that the rebellious and at the same time so consistently humble carpenter from Nazareth called Jesus never got one Could set a foot in today's church without being ostracized, excommunicated and ostracized. Even if he personally cannot believe in a God, he pays great respect to the historical and biblical Jesus of Nazareth as a role model for mankind then and now. In 2017 criminal proceedings against him for blasphemy were opened in Ireland , but were discontinued a little later. Fry had stated in a television interview that if there was a god, given the non-man-made suffering in the world, one had to find that he was obviously either “evil”, “selfish” or “crazy”.

From 2003 to March 2016 Fry hosted the BBC panel show QI (“Quite Interesting”), which is about answering the questions posed as interestingly as possible. In addition, he had frequent guest appearances as a member of advice teams on other quiz programs. In Peter Jackson's film adaptation of the Tolkien novel The Hobbit , he played the mayor of Esgaroth .

In 2006 he made a documentary for the BBC about manic depression , which affects him himself. In 2012 he survived a suicide attempt because his producer found him unconscious but still in time. In February 2018, Fry announced that he had prostate cancer .

Fry drove a London taxi privately . After it was demolished by strangers, he switched to another car model.

The German voice actors for Fry's roles include Hubertus Bengsch , Peter Kirchberger , Dennis Brandau and Frank-Otto Schenk .

Works (selection)

  • The liar. Novel . Haffmans, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-251-00240-6 (British English: The Liar . Translated by Ulrich Blumenbach ).
  • The hippopotamus. Novel . Haffmans, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-251-00243-0 (British English: The Hippopotamus . Translated by Ulrich Blumenbach).
  • Paperweight . Haffmans, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-251-00309-7 (British English: Paperweight . Translated by Ulrich Blumenbach).
  • Make history . Haffmans, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-251-00365-8 (British English: Making History . Translated by Ulrich Blumenbach).
  • Columbus was an Englishman. Story of a youth . Haffmans, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-251-00407-7 (British English: Moab Is My Washpot . Translated by Georg Deggerich).
  • Wild mimes or playing an Oscar . Haffmans, Zurich 1999, DNB  958 315 116 .
  • The stars tennis balls . Novel. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-351-02929-2 (British English: The Stars' Tennis Balls . Translated by Ulrich Blumenbach).
  • Figs that fluff. Unleash the poet in you . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-351-03232-6 (British English: The Ode Less Traveled . Translated by Birke Bossmann).
  • I am so fry. My golden years . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-351-02733-9 (British English: The Fry Chronicles . Translated by Teja Schwaner).
  • Darling, do you ever tie the kids up? Edna Fry's secret diary . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-351-03388-0 (British English: Mrs Fry's Diary . Translated by Ulrike Blumenbach).
  • Myth. What the gods are telling us today . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-351-03731-4 (British English: Mythos. A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece . Translated by Matthias Frings ).

Scripts and plays

more books

  • Rescuing the Spectacled Bear. 2002.
  • Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music. 2005.

Filmography (selection)

Movies

TV Shows

Documentaries

  • 2006: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive
  • 2007: HIV & Me
  • 2008: Stephen Fry in America
  • 2008: The Gutenberg Press: The Machine That Made Us (BBC)
  • 2009: Last Chance To See
  • 2010: Last Chance To See - Return of the Rhino
  • 2010: Stephen Fry and the Great American Oil Spill (BBC)
  • 2010: Fry And Laurie: Reunited (GOLD, UK)
  • 2010: Wagner & Me (BBC)
  • 2011: Fry's Planet Word (BBC)
  • 2012: Stephen Fry: Gadget Man
  • 2013: Stephen Fry: Out There
  • 2017: The Not So Secret Life of the Manic Depressive: Ten Years On

Radio (selection)

Audiobooks (selection)

Own audio books

  • 2010: The Hippopotamus
  • 2010: The Fry Chronicles
  • 2013: Stephen Fry in His Own Words
  • 2014: More Fool Me
  • 2017: Myth
  • 2018: Heroes

Awards

Web links

Commons : Stephen Fry  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stephen Fry doesn't want to play straight, queer.de, January 9, 2008.
  2. ↑ Stephen Fry and Elliott Spencer marry . In: Hello! . Retrieved January 17, 2015.
  3. ^ Stephen Fry steps down from the Norwich City board. In: BBC News . BBC , January 19, 2016, accessed January 17, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Intelligence² - The World of Debate - Chair Zeinab Badawi introduces the motion ›The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world.‹ Arguing in favor of the motion are Archbishop John Onaiyekan and the Rt Hon. Ann Widdecombe MP. Arguing against the motion are Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry. Initial Vote: 678 For, 1102 Against, Undecided 346; Final Vote: 268 For, 1876 Against, Undecided 34 ( Memento from March 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), October 19, 2009.
  5. ^ Peter Jackson : Casting News for THE HOBBIT. Facebook , May 19, 2011, accessed December 3, 2011 .
  6. ^ British Red Cross to honor Stephen Fry with fundraising event in aid of Somalia. (No longer available online.) British Red Cross website, September 26, 2011, archived from the original on January 5, 2018 ; accessed on January 4, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.redcross.org.uk
personal data
SURNAME Fry, Stephen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fry, Stephen John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British television presenter, writer, screenwriter, actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Hampstead , London