Regretting that he played “a fake version” of a doctor instead of a

becoming a real one like his father wanted, Laurie admitted that his

“dad would have hated” the shortcut that he chose to follow.

Keep reading to learn more about Laurie’s decision to be an actor

instead of a doctor. Dr. William (Ran) Laurie had huge hopes for

the youngest of his sons, Hugh Laurie who was born in June 1959.

The junior Laurie was following in the footsteps of his esteemed father,

a physician who before starting his career was a 1948 Olympic gold

medalist in coxless pairs (rowing) and a graduate of a college of the

University of Cambridge. When the British-born Laurie was studying

at the same college as his dad, he too was a member of the rowing team

with plans to train for the Olympics, and then go to medical school.

But then, the young man discovered a drama club, a sketch comedy

troupe called the Cambridge Footlights where he met The Remains

of the Day actor Emma Thompson and then his future comedy partner,

Stephen Fry of the 1997 film Wilde. Laurie’s fate was sealed Through

the 1980s and 1990s, the now 64-year-old actor appeared in several TV shows,

like the BBC sitcom Blackadder, that he co-starred with Fry.

He can also be seen in 1995’s Sense and Sensibility with Thompson,

who he was earlier involved in a relationship, Disney’s live-action film

101 Dalmatians (1996), and an episode of Friends. In 2004, he was

offered the opportunity to play a doctor in a new TV series called House,

a medical drama that ran eight seasons. In his Golden Globe winning

role as the lead character, Dr. Gregory House, Laurie dropped his signature