Even though TV\u2019s most famous doctor was making $700,000 an episode in its final season, House star Hugh Laurie said he feels like a fraud.<\/p>\n
Regretting that he played \u201ca fake version\u201d of a doctor instead of a becoming a real one like his father wanted, Laurie admitted that his \u201cdad would have hated\u201d the shortcut that he chose to follow.<\/p>\n
Keep reading to learn more about Laurie\u2019s decision to be an actor instead of a doctor.<\/p>\n
Dr. William (Ran) Laurie had huge hopes for the youngest of his sons, Hugh Laurie who was born in June 1959.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Laurie\u2019s fate was sealed
\nThrough 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.<\/p>\n
He can also be seen in 1995\u2019s Sense and Sensibility with Thompson, who he was earlier involved in a relationship, Disney\u2019s live-action film 101 Dalmatians (1996), and an episode of Friends.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In his Golden Globe winning role as the lead character, Dr. Gregory House, Laurie dropped his signature British accent and swapped it out to convincingly play the narcissistic genius who headed a teaching hospital in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
During the show\u2019s run, Laurie became Hollywood\u2019s most popular doctor and attracted a massive global following. But life as a celebrity comes with its challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had some pretty bleak times, dark days when it seemed like there was no escape,\u201d Laurie said in a 2013 interview with Radio Times (via Daily Mail). \u201cAnd having a very Presbyterian work ethic, I was determined never to be late, not to miss a single day\u2019s filming. You wouldn\u2019t catch me phoning in to say, \u2018I think I may be coming down with the flu\u2019. But there were times when I\u2019d think, \u2018If I were just to have an accident on the way to the studio and win a couple of days off to recover, how brilliant would that be?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple of days off didn\u2019t come until 2012, with the final season of House.<\/p>\n
Laurie again staring making his rounds, appearing in TV shows like Veep and the 2015 science fiction film Tomorrowland, which stars another famous TV doctor, George Clooney.<\/p>\n
\u2018Simply Irresistible\u2019
\nIn 2016, the Maybe Baby star was drawn to a role where he would again star as a doctor, a neuropsychiatrist, Dr. Eldon Chance, in the TV series Chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a gambler, my instinct is to walk away from the table after even a modest win\u2026Yet I find myself coming back, drawn by a wonderful project that was simply irresistible,\u201d Laurie told the Los Angeles Daily News in 2016. Comparing his role as Dr. House to the doctor in Chance, which was canceled after two seasons in 2017, he adds, \u201cThe characters are massively different. Their practices are different. Their attitude to life is different.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Fake version\u2019
\nDespite his massive fame as a Hollywood celebrity, the star of 2018\u2019s Holmes & Watson can\u2019t shake the feeling that by not becoming a medical doctor, he failed his father, who died of Parkinson\u2019s disease in 1998.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father was actually a doctor. And if it\u2019s true that most men are sort of seeking to become versions of their father, and failing, by the way, it seemed appropriate that I wound up being a fake version of a doctor,\u201d said Laurie, who also played a doctor in the 2005 film The Big Empty.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father had high hopes for me following him into medicine.\u201d He continues, \u201cI would have liked to have become a doctor myself and I still have doctor fantasies\u2026We live in a world of shortcuts don\u2019t we? And I took them. Dad would have hated that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calling himself a \u201ccop out,\u201d the Blackadder star adds, \u201cSeriously, this is a source of great guilt to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
What do you think of Hugh Laurie\u2019s surprising admission? Please share your thoughts in the comments below and then share this story so we can hear what others have to say!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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