Even though TV’s most famous doctor was earning $700,000 per episode in the final season, *House* star Hugh Laurie said he still feels like a fraud.
Laurie regrets playing a “fake version” of a doctor instead of becoming a real one, as his father had hoped. He admitted that his “dad would have hated” the easier path he chose by becoming an actor.
Keep reading to find out why Laurie chose acting over medicine.
Dr. William (Ran) Laurie, Hugh’s father, had big dreams for his youngest son, born in June 1959.
Hugh Laurie was on track to follow in his father’s footsteps. His father was not only a respected physician but also a 1948 Olympic gold medalist in rowing and a graduate of a Cambridge college.
When British-born Hugh Laurie was studying at the same college as his father, he was also a member of the rowing team, with plans to train for the Olympics and then go to medical school.
However, Laurie discovered a drama club, the Cambridge Footlights, a sketch comedy group. There, he met actress Emma Thompson (*The Remains of the Day*) and his future comedy partner, Stephen Fry, who later co-starred with him in the 1997 film *Wilde*.
Laurie’s path changed completely.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the now 64-year-old actor appeared in several TV shows, including the BBC sitcom *Blackadder*, where he co-starred with Fry.
Hugh Laurie also appeared in the 1995 film *Sense and Sensibility* with Emma Thompson, with whom he had once been in a relationship. He starred in Disney’s live-action *101 Dalmatians* (1996) and even made a guest appearance on *Friends*.
In 2004, Laurie was offered the chance to play a doctor in a new TV series called *House*, a medical drama that ran for eight seasons.
In his Golden Globe-winning role as Dr. Gregory House, Laurie dropped his British accent and perfectly played the narcissistic genius who led a teaching hospital in New Jersey.
During the show’s run, Laurie became Hollywood’s most popular doctor, gaining a huge global fan base. However, life as a celebrity also brought its own challenges.
“I had some pretty bleak times, dark days when it felt like there was no way out,” Hugh Laurie said in a 2013 interview with *Radio Times* (via *Daily Mail*). “I have a strong work ethic, so I was determined never to be late or miss a single day of filming. You wouldn’t catch me calling in sick, saying, ‘I think I’m getting the flu.’ But there were times when I’d think, ‘If I had a little accident on the way to the studio and got a couple of days off to recover, that would be great.’”
Those days off didn’t come until 2012, with the final season of *House*.
After that, Laurie kept busy, appearing in TV shows like *Veep* and the 2015 science fiction film *Tomorrowland*, which starred another famous TV doctor, George Clooney.
In 2016, Hugh Laurie took on another doctor role, this time as neuropsychiatrist Dr. Eldon Chance in the TV series *Chance*.
The *Maybe Baby* star explained to the *Los Angeles Daily News*, “As a gambler, my instinct is to walk away after even a modest win… Yet I was drawn back to this wonderful project that was simply irresistible.” Comparing *House* to his role in *Chance* (which was canceled after two seasons in 2017), Laurie said, “The characters are very different. Their medical practices and attitudes toward life are completely different.”
Despite his Hollywood fame, Laurie, who also starred in 2018’s *Holmes & Watson*, still feels he let his father down by not becoming a real doctor. His father, who passed away from Parkinson’s disease in 1998, had been a respected physician.
“My father was a real doctor. If it’s true that many men try to become versions of their father and fail, it seemed fitting that I ended up being a fake version of a doctor,” said Laurie, who also played a doctor in the 2005 film *The Big Empty*.
“My father had high hopes for me to follow him into medicine,” Hugh Laurie said. “I would have liked to become a doctor myself, and I still have dreams about being one. We live in a world of shortcuts, don’t we? And I took those shortcuts. Dad would have hated that.”
Laurie calls himself a “cop-out,” adding, “Honestly, this causes me a lot of guilt.”
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A Woman Who Married A Ragdoll Says Life With Kids Is Complicated
There are many ways to find love. And it’s not always easy. This woman found love in a very unusual way. Now she has news that will shock everyone…
Being married to 37-year-old Meirivone Rocha Moraes made news all over the world. She is from Brazil. What made her wedding famous all over the world? The person she picked to marry! She married Marcelo, a life-sized rag doll.
It is said that the pair now has three children. a son named Marcelinho who is 1 year old and twin girls named Marcela and Emilia who are 1 month old.
Meirivone says that her family life is no different from the lives of any other mother and wife. On TikTok, she tells people about her life. They have split up their parenting chores evenly between the two of them, she says. Marcelo, on the other hand, thinks about how to pay the family’s bills.
She also talks about how hard it has been having kids. “It’s not easy but at the same time, I get emotional every moment, every second. In everyday life, Marcelo and I have a lot of tasks with the new babies, as well as looking after our first child. And even when I’m tired, he helps me bathe, eat and sleep.”
Even though Marcelo is stressed out, she says that everything they have is worth it. Meirivone said, “He always dreamed of having a family and children, even though he looked forward to many things.”
These days, the couple wants to own their own house. Adding, “My dream now is to own my own house,” she added. “Since our wedding in 2018, I’ve been scouring the internet every day. I won’t give up,” the determined mom of three explained.
There are some problems with the connection that make it stand out. Their lives haven’t always been smooth. Meirivone told Marcelo he had cheated on her that June 2023. It wasn’t the first time he did it. She punished him by putting him to sleep on the couch and taking out his private parts.
Their child Marcelinho was taken in February 2023, and a $200 ransom was asked for. Since then, he’s been back with his family, and he was also there when they told everyone what kid they were having.
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