Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He first came to prominence as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1989–1995) and Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993). He also starred in the sketch series Alfresco (1983–1984) alongside Laurie, Emma Thompson, and Robbie Coltrane and in Blackadder (1986–1989) alongside Rowan Atkinson. Since 2011 he has served as president of the mental health charity Mind.[1]
Fry is also a prolific writer, contributing to newspapers and magazines, and has written four novels and three autobiographies. He has lent his voice to numerous projects including the audiobooks for all seven of the Harry Potter novels and Paddington Bear novels.[5]
Stephen John Fry was born on 24 August 1957 in the Hampstead area of London,[6] the son of Marianne Eve Fry (née Neumann) and physicist and inventor Alan John Fry (1930–2019).[7][8][9] He has an older brother, Roger, and a younger sister, Joanna.[10] His paternal grandmother, Ella Fry (née Pring), had roots in Cheshire and Kent.[11][12] The Fry family originates around the Shillingstone and Blandford areas of Dorset; in the early 1800s, Samuel Fry settled in Surrey, with his descendants residing in Middlesex.[13] In his autobiographical writings and elsewhere, Fry has claimed relationship to the Fry family that founded the eponymous chocolate company, John Fry (one of the signatories to the death warrant for Charles I),[14][15][16] and the cricketer C. B. Fry.[17][18] Fry's mother is Jewish, but he was not brought up in a religious family.[19] His maternal grandparents, Martin and Rosa Neumann,[9] were Hungarian Jews who emigrated from Šurany (now in Slovakia) to the UK in 1927. Rosa's parents, who originally lived in Vienna, were deported to a Nazi ghetto in Riga, where they perished.[9][19][20] His mother's aunt and cousins were sent to Auschwitz and Stutthof and never seen again.[9]
Fry grew up in the village of Booton, Norfolk, having moved at an early age from Chesham, Buckinghamshire, where he had attended Chesham Preparatory School. He briefly attended Cawston Primary School in Cawston, Norfolk,[21] before going on to Stouts Hill Preparatory School in Uley, Gloucestershire, at the age of seven, and then to Uppingham School in Rutland, where he joined Fircroft house and was described as a "near-asthmatic genius".[22] He took his O-levels in 1972 at the early age of 14 and passed all except physics,[23] but was expelled from Uppingham half a term into the sixth form.[24] Fry described himself as a "monstrous" child and wrote that he was expelled for "various misdemeanours".[25] He was later dismissed from Paston School, a grant-maintained grammar school that refused to let him progress to study A-Levels.
Fry moved to Norfolk College of Arts and Technology, where, after two years in the sixth form studying English, French, and History of Art,[26] he ultimately failed his A-Levels, not turning up for his English and French papers.[27] Over the summer, Fry absconded with a credit card stolen from a family friend.[28] He had taken a coat when leaving a pub, planning to spend the night sleeping rough, but had then discovered the card in a pocket.[29] He was arrested in Swindon and, as a result, spent three months in Pucklechurch Remand Centre on remand. Following his release, he resumed his education at City College Norwich, promising administrators that he would study rigorously and sit the Cambridge entrance exams. In 1977 he passed two A-levels in English and French, with grades of A and B. He also received a grade A in an alternative O-level in the Study of Art[30] and scored a distinction in an S-level paper in English. Having successfully passed the entrance exams in 1977, Fry was offered a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge, for matriculation in 1978, briefly teaching at Cundall Manor School,[31] a preparatory school in North Yorkshire, before taking his place.[32] At Cambridge, he joined the Footlights, appeared on the University Challenge TV quiz,[33] and read English Literature, graduating with an upper second-class honoursBA degree in 1981 (subsequently promoted automatically to a Cambridge MA degree).[34][35] Fry also met his future comedy collaborator Hugh Laurie (through their mutual friend Emma Thompson) at Cambridge and starred alongside him in the Footlights.[36]
Fry has appeared in numerous advertisements, predominantly on UK television – either on-screen or in voice-over – starting with an appearance as "Count Ivan Skavinsky Skavar" in a 1982 advert for WhitbreadBest Bitter. Fry has said, in his memoirs, that after receiving his payment for this work – £25,000 – he has never subsequently experienced "what one could call serious money troubles".[40] He has since appeared in adverts for products and companies such as Marks & Spencer, Twinings, Kenco, Vauxhall Motors, Honda, Calpol, Heineken, Alliance & Leicester (a series of adverts which also featured Hugh Laurie),[41]After Eight mints, Direct Line insurance (with Paul Merton), Trebor mints, Virgin Media, Walkers potato crisps (fronting a new flavour),[42] and Sainsbury's supermarket.[43] He filmed a 2016 advertisement where he explains the essence of British culture to foreigners arriving at London's Heathrow Airport.[44]
Fry's career in television began with the 1982 broadcasting of The Cellar Tapes, the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue[45] which was written by Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, and Tony Slattery. The revue caught the attention of Granada Television, who, keen to replicate the success of the BBC's Not the Nine O'Clock News, hired Fry, Laurie and Thompson to star alongside Ben Elton in There's Nothing to Worry About! A second series, retitled Alfresco, was broadcast in 1983, and a third in 1984; it established Fry and Laurie's reputation as a comedy double act. In 1983, the BBC offered Fry, Laurie and Thompson their own show, which became The Crystal Cube, a mixture of science fiction and mockumentary that was cancelled after the first episode. Undeterred, Fry, Laurie and Thompson appeared in "Bambi", an episode of The Young Ones from 1984 where they parodied themselves as the University Challenge representatives of "Footlights College, Oxbridge",[46] and Fry also appeared in Ben Elton's 1985 Happy Families series. In April 1986, Fry was among the British comedians who appeared in the first live telethon Comic Relief.[47] In 1986 and 1987, Fry and Laurie performed sketches on the LWT/Channel 4 show Saturday Live.
In 1986, the BBC commissioned a sketch show that was to become A Bit of Fry & Laurie. Following a 1987 pilot, the programme ran for 26 episodes across four series between 1989 and 1995. During this time, Fry starred in Blackadder II as Lord Melchett, made a guest appearance in Blackadder the Third as the Duke of Wellington, then returned to a starring role in Blackadder Goes Forth, as General Melchett. In a 1988 television special, Blackadder's Christmas Carol, he played the roles of Lord Melchett and Lord Frondo. Between 1990 and 1993, Fry starred as Jeeves (alongside Hugh Laurie's Bertie Wooster) in Jeeves and Wooster, 23-hour-long adaptations of P. G. Wodehouse's novels and short stories.[48] Fry has appeared in a number of BBC adaptations of plays and books, including a 1992 adaptation of the Simon Gray play The Common Pursuit (he had previously appeared in the West End stage production).
Having made his film début in the 1985 film The Good Father, Fry had a brief appearance in A Fish Called Wanda (in which he is knocked out by Kevin Kline, who is posing as an airport security man), and then appeared as the eponymous Peter in Kenneth Branagh's Peter's Friends in 1992. Fry came to the attention of radio listeners with the 1986 creation of his alter-ego, Donald Trefusis, whose "wireless essays" were broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 programme Loose Ends. In the 1980s, he starred as David Lander in four series of the BBC Radio 4 show Delve Special, written by Tony Sarchet, which then became the six-part Channel 4 series This is David Lander in 1988. In 1988, Fry wrote and presented a six-part comedy series entitled Saturday Night Fry. Frequent radio appearances have ensued, notably on panel games Just a Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.
When writing a book review for Tatler, Fry wrote under a pen name, Williver Hendry, editor of A Most Peculiar Friendship: The Correspondence of Lord Alfred Douglas and Jack Dempsey, a field close to his heart as an Oscar Wilde enthusiast. Once a columnist in The Listener and The Daily Telegraph, he wrote a weekly technology column in the Saturday edition of The Guardian. His blog attracted more than 300,000 visitors in its first two weeks.[52]
In 2003, Fry began hosting QI (Quite Interesting), a comedy panel game television quiz show. QI was created and co-produced by John Lloyd, and features permanent panellist Alan Davies. QI has the highest viewing figures for any show on BBC Four and Dave (formerly UKTV G2).[57][58] In 2006, Fry won the Rose d'Or award for "Best Game Show Host" for his work on the series. In October 2015, it was announced that Fry would retire as the host of QI after the "M" series, and he was replaced by Sandi Toksvig.[59]
From 2007 to 2009, Fry played the lead role in (and was executive producer for) the legal drama Kingdom, which ran for three series on ITV1.[71] Starting from 2007, he took a recurring guest role as FBI psychiatrist Dr. (later chef) Gordon Wyatt in the popular American drama Bones.
Since August 2008, he has presented Fry's English Delight, a series on BBC Radio 4 about the English language.[81] As of 2021, it has been running for ten series and 37 episodes. In the 2009 series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Fry was one of a trio of hosts replacing Humphrey Lyttelton (the others being Jack Dee and Rob Brydon).[82] Fry was offered a role in Valkyrie, but was unable to participate.[83] In May 2009, Fry unveiled The Dongle of Donald Trefusis, an audiobook series following Donald Trefusis (a fictional character from Fry's novel The Liar and from the BBC Radio 4 series Loose Ends), set over 12 episodes.[84] After its release, it reached No. 1 on the UK Album Chart list. Ultimately however only three episodes were released, the rest with the note 'exact release date pending'. Fry's use of the word "luvvie" (spelled "lovie" by Fry), in The Guardian on 2 April 1988, is given by the Oxford English Dictionary as the earliest recorded use of the word as a humorous synonym for "actor".[85] Fry was, at one time, slated to adapt A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole for the big screen.[86] In 2009, Fry provided the voice of St Peter for Liberace, Live From Heaven by Julian Woolford at London's Leicester Square Theatre. In 2010, having learned some Irish for the role,[87] he filmed a cameo role in Ros na Rún, an Irish-language soap opera broadcast in Ireland, Scotland and the US.[88][89][90]
In 2010, Fry became an investor in Pushnote,[91] a UK tech startup. Similar to Google Sidewiki, Pushnote was a browser add-on that enabled users to leave comments on any site they visit. The following year, Fry announced the Pushnote launch to his then 2 million Twitter followers. Both Pushnote and Sidewiki were discontinued the following year.[92] He also appeared as a shiny New Millennium Bonzo on their post-reunion album, Pour l'Amour des Chiens, on which he recited a recipe for "Salmon Proust", played a butler in "Hawkeye the Gnu", and voiced ads for the fictitious "Fiasco" stores. Following three one-man shows in Australia, Fry announced a 'sort of stand-up' performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London for September 2010.[93]
In 2010, Fry took part in a Christmas series of short films called Little Crackers. His short was based on a story from his childhood at school.[94] He appeared as the Christian God in 2011's Holy Flying Circus. In 2011, Fry portrayed Professor Mildeye in the BBC adaptation of Mary Norton's 1952 novel The Borrowers.[95] In August 2011, Stephen Fry's 100 Greatest Gadgets was shown on Channel 4 as one of the 100 Greatest strand.[96] His choice for the greatest gadget was the cigarette lighter, which he described as "fire with a flick of the fingers".[96] In the same month, the nature documentary series Ocean Giants, narrated by Fry, premiered. In September 2011, Fry's Planet Word, a five-part documentary about language, aired on BBC HD and BBC Two.[97][98] In November 2011, an episode of Living The Life featured Fry in an intimate conversation discussing his life and career with The Rolling Stones' bass player Bill Wyman.[99]
Fry signing one of his books in the Netherlands in 2011
In 2012, he appeared as a guest panellist in the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show Wordaholics.[109] In September 2012, he guest-starred as himself in the audio comedy drama We Are The BBC, produced by the Wireless Theatre Company, written by Susan Casanove.[110] At the 2012 Pride of Britain Awards shown on ITV on 30 October, Fry, along with Michael Caine, Elton John, Richard Branson and Simon Cowell, recited Rudyard Kipling's poem "If—" in tribute to the 2012 British Olympic and Paralympic athletes.[111] In November 2012, Fry hosted a gadgets show called Gadget Man, exploring the usefulness of various gadgets in different daily situations to improve the livelihoods of everyone.[112] In October 2013, Fry presented Stephen Fry: Out There, a two-part documentary in which he explores attitudes to homosexuality and the lives of gay people in different parts of the globe.[113] On Christmas Day 2013, Fry featured with adventurer Bear Grylls in an episode of Channel 4's Bear's Wild Weekends. Over the course of two days, in the Italian Dolomites, Fry travelled on the skids of a helicopter, climbed down a raging 500-foot waterfall, slept in a First World War trench and abseiled down a towering cliff face.[29] In June 2015, Fry was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. His favourite piece was the String Quartet No. 14 by Beethoven. His book choice was Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot and his luxury item was "canvasses, easels, brushes, an instruction manual".[114]
On 17 September 2015, Fry shared the role of the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show which was staged at London's Playhouse Theatre and broadcast as the Rocky Horror Show Live.[119] In June 2015, Fry backed children's fairy tale app GivingTales in aid of UNICEF together with other British celebrities Sir Roger Moore, Ewan McGregor, Joanna Lumley, Michael Caine, David Walliams, Dame Joan Collins, Charlotte Rampling, Paul McKenna and Michael Ball.[120] In 2015, Fry made a live audio recording of the winning short story of the annual RA & Pin Drop Short Story Award, Ms. Featherstone and the Beast by Bethan Roberts, at a ceremony held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.[121] In February 2017, Audible released Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection, a complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, all read by Fry, who also narrated an introduction for each novel or collection of stories. In 2017, Fry also released his own audiobook on Audible, titled Mythos,[122] which he both wrote and narrated. In 2018, Fry released a follow-up to Mythos, titled Heroes.[123] In June 2020, it was announced that Fry would read J. K. Rowling's children's book, The Ickabog.[124] Fry is the patron of the audiobook charity Listening Books.[125] Fry said of his patronage, "I'm proud and delighted to be patron of the first audiobook charity to offer downloads to its members and excited about what this will mean for all print impaired people who can now listen on-the-go."[125]
In January 2016, it was announced that Fry would be appearing as the character "Cuddly Dick" in Series 3 of the Sky One family comedy Yonderland.[126] In 2016, Fry had a lead role in the American sitcom The Great Indoors. He portrayed an outdoor magazine publisher helping to ease his best worldly reporter (Joel McHale) into a desk job.[127] The show was cancelled after one season.[128] In November 2019, it was announced that Fry would guest star in "Spyfall", the two-part opening episode of Doctor Who's twelfth series, which was broadcast on New Year's Day 2020.[129][130] Fry also starred in the 2018 heist comedy film The Con Is On, previously titled The Brits Are Coming.[131] From May to July 2018, Fry appeared in Mythos: A Trilogy, a stage version of his book Mythos, in the Shaw Festival Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. This comprised a set of three one-man shows (titled Gods, Heroes and Men), each two hours in length, which were performed consecutively, multiple times during the show's run.[132] The production received its European premiere in August 2019 at the Edinburgh International Festival.[133] In September 2020, Fry was among the stars to mark the 100th anniversary of Sir Noël Coward's West End debut with a stage celebration titled "A Marvellous Party".[134]
In May 2024, Fry was among the members of the previously all-male Garrick Club who spoke in favour of the admission of women members for the first time in the club's 193-year history. The motion was carried.[140]
He was made honorary president of the Cambridge University Quiz Society and honorary fellow of his alma materQueens' College, Cambridge. On 13 July 2010, he was made an honorary fellow of Cardiff University,[148] and on 28 January 2011, he was made an honorary Doctor of the University (D.Univ. h.c.) by the University of Sussex, in recognition for his work campaigning for people suffering from mental health problems, bipolar disorder and HIV.[149][150] He is a Patron of the Norwich Playhouse theatre and a Vice-President of The Noël Coward Society.[151] In 2003 Fry was the last person to be named Pipe Smoker of the Year before the award was discontinued.[152] In 2017, Fry became the latest patron of the Norwich Film Festival, and said he was "Very proud now to be a patron of a festival that encourages people from Norfolk, Norwich and beyond to be enchanted, beguiled and entranced by all kinds of film that might not otherwise reach them."[153]
In December 2006, he was ranked sixth for the BBC's Top Living Icon Award,[154] was featured on The Culture Show, and was voted Most Intelligent Man on Television by readers of Radio Times. The Independent on Sunday Pink List named Fry the second most influential gay person in Britain in May 2007; he had taken the twenty-third position on the list the previous year.[155] Later the same month, he was announced as the 2007 Mind Champion of the Year,[1] in recognition of the success of his documentary The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive in raising awareness of bipolar disorder. He was also nominated in "Best Entertainment Performance" for QI and "Best Factual Series" for Secret Life of the Manic Depressive at the British Academy Television Awards 2007.[156] That same year, Broadcast magazine listed Fry at number four in its "Hot 100" list of influential on-screen performers, describing him as a polymath and a "national treasure".[157] He was also granted a lifetime achievement award at the British Comedy Awards on 5 December 2007,[158] and the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards on 20 January 2010.[159]
BBC Four dedicated two nights of programming to Fry on 17 and 18 August 2007, in celebration of his 50th birthday. The first night, comprising programmes featuring Fry, began with a sixty-minute documentary entitled Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out. The second night was composed of programmes selected by Fry, as well as a 60-minute interview with Mark Lawson and a half-hour special, Stephen Fry: Guilty.[160][161] The weekend programming proved such a ratings hit for BBC Four that it was repeated on BBC Two on 16 and 17 September 2007. In 2011, he was the subject of Molly Lewis's song An Open Letter to Stephen Fry, in which the singer jokingly offers herself as a surrogate mother for his child.[162] In February 2011, Fry was awarded the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University, the Harvard Secular Society and the American Humanist Association.[163]
In 2012, Fry wrote the foreword to the Union of UEA Students report on the student experience for LGBT+ members.[164] As recognition of his public support for LGBT+ rights and for the Union's report, the Union of UEA Students awarded him, on 18 October 2012, Honorary Life Membership of the Union.[165] In March 2014 Fry beat David Attenborough and Davina McCall to win the Best Presenter award at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards. The award was given for his BBC2 programme Stephen Fry: Out There.[166] In an episode of QI, "M-Merriment", originally broadcast in December 2015, Fry was awarded membership of The Magic Circle.
In 2017, the bird louseSaepocephalum stephenfryii was named after him, in honour of his contributions to the popularization of science as host of QI.[167]
Fry started using cocaine in his twenties, and continued until 2001. He wrote about his drug use in the memoir More Fool Me (2014).[174][175]
A fan of cricket, Fry has stated that he is related to former England cricketer C. B. Fry,[176] and was interviewed for the Ashes Fever DVD, reporting on England's victory over Australia in the 2005 Ashes series. Regarding football, he is a supporter of Norwich City FC, and is a regular visitor to their home ground at Carrow Road. He has been described as "deeply dippy for all things digital" and claims to have bought the third Macintosh computer sold in the UK (his friend Douglas Adams bought the first two). He jokes that he has never encountered a smartphone that he has not purchased.[177] He counts Wikipedia among his favourite websites "because I like to find out that I died, and that I'm currently in a ballet in China, and all the other very accurate and important things that Wikipedia brings us all".[178]
Fry has a long-standing interest in Internet production, including having his own website since 1997. His site The New Adventures of Mr Stephen Fry has existed since 2002 and has attracted many visitors following his first blog in September 2007, which consisted of a 6,500-word "blessay" on smartphones. In February 2008, he launched his private podcast series, Stephen Fry's Podgrams (defunct), and a forum, including discussions on depression and activities in which he is involved. The website content is created by Fry and produced by Andrew Sampson. Fry's weekly gadget column Dork Talk appeared in The Guardian from November 2007 to October 2008.[177] Fry is also a supporter of GNU and the Free Software Foundation.[179] For the 25th anniversary of the GNU operating system, Fry appeared in a video explaining some of the philosophy behind GNU by likening it to the sharing found in science.[180] When in London, he drives a dark green TX4London cab.[181] This vehicle has been featured in Fry's production Stephen Fry in America.[182] On 16 April 2018, Fry released the first episode of a new podcast "Stephen Fry's 7 Deadly Sins" available on his website and other podcasting platforms[183] The first episode of the second series was released on 13 January 2020 and continued to be released over the course of nine weeks.[184] In 2019, he was featured in the filmed poem rendition Love Goes Never Alone, for the online theatre publication First Night Magazine in support of the LGBTQ+ community.[185]
In 2023, during an 'Alternative Christmas message', broadcast on Channel 4, Fry remarked that he was proud of his Jewish heritage. He said: "I've been on lists of British Jews that some ultra-right wing newspapers and sites have published over the years. And I'm frankly damned if I'll let antisemites be the ones who define me, and take ownership of the word 'Jew', injecting it with their own spiteful venom. So I accept and claim the identity with pride, I am Stephen Fry, and I am a Jew."[186]
Enabled by a 2020 change in citizenship legislation in Austria, Fry acquired Austrian citizenship as a descendant of persons persecuted by National Socialism, thus regaining the citizenship his ancestors forcibly lost.[187][188]
Fry struggled to keep his homosexuality secret during his teenage years at public school, and by his own account did not engage in sexual activity for 16 years until the mid-1990s.[189] When asked when he first acknowledged his sexuality, Fry quipped: "I suppose it all began when I came out of the womb. I looked back up at my mother and thought to myself, 'That's the last time I'm going up one of those'."[190] Fry was in a 15-year relationship with Daniel Cohen that ended in 2010.[191] Fry was listed number 2 in 2016 and number 12 in 2017 on the Pride Power list.[192][193]
On 6 January 2015, British tabloid The Sun reported that Fry would marry his partner, comedian Elliott Spencer. Fry wrote on Twitter: "It looks as though a certain cat is out of a certain bag. I'm very very happy of course but had hoped for a private wedding. Fat chance!"[194] Eleven days after the news story, Fry married Spencer on 17 January at Dereham in Norfolk.[195]
On 30 April 2008, Fry signed an open letter, published in The Guardian newspaper by a number of Jewish personalities, stating their opposition to celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel.[197] Furthermore, he is a signatory member of the British Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JJP) organisation, which campaigns for Palestinian rights.[198] Fry was among over 100 signatories to a statement published by Sense about Science on 4 June 2009, condemning British libel laws and their use to "severely curtail the right to free speech on a matter of public interest".[199]
In March 2014, Fry publicly backed "Hacked Off" and its campaign towards press self-regulation by "safeguarding the press from political interference while also giving vital protection to the vulnerable."[205]
On 18 May 2018, Fry participated in the semi-annual Munk Debates in Toronto, Canada, where he argued against political correctness on the Con side of the topic "Be it resolved, what you call political correctness, I call progress..." alongside Jordan Peterson, and in opposition to Pro side represented by Michelle Goldberg and Michael Eric Dyson.[206][207] During the debate, Fry paraphrased a famous sentence from the 1923 essay I Am Afraid, in which Old Bolshevik-turned-Soviet dissidentYevgeny Zamyatin denounced censorship in the Soviet Union. The original sentence reads, "True literature can exist only when it is created, not by diligent and reliable officials, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels and skeptics."[208] Fry's rendering, however, reads, "Progress is not achieved by preachers and guardians of morality, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels, and sceptics."[209]
On 1 February 2021, Fry supported the petition of two Holocaust survivors, Dorit Oliver-Wolff and Ruth Barnett who were asking to meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson regarding the 'genocide amendment' to the trade bill; this amendment would allow an independent parliamentary judicial committee to examine evidence of genocide.[210] In a tweet, Fry highlighted the plight of the Uyghurs.[211]
There has been a history, let's face it, in Poland of a right-wing Catholicism which has been deeply disturbing for those of us who know a little history, and remember which side of the border Auschwitz was on and know the stories, and know much of the anti-semitic, and homophobic and nationalistic elements in countries like Poland.
The remark prompted a complaint from the Polish Embassy in London, an editorial in The Economist and criticism from British Jewish historian David Cesarani.[214][215][216][217] Fry later posted an apology in a six-page post on his personal blog, in which he apologised for his remarks, stating that "I didn't even really at the time notice the import of what I had said, so gave myself no opportunity instantly to retract the statement. It was a rubbishy, cheap and offensive remark that I have been regretting ever since. I take this opportunity to apologise now." and "It detracted from and devalued my argument, such as it was, and it outraged and offended a large group of people for no very good reason."[218]
Health
Fry has cyclothymia, a form of bipolar disorder (considered to be a milder type).[219][220][221] Fry has spoken publicly about his experience with the condition, which was depicted in the documentary Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive.[222] In the programme, he interviewed other people with bipolar disorder including Carrie Fisher, Richard Dreyfuss and Tony Slattery.He also interviewed Robbie Williams who suffers with unipolar depression and they discussed the differences and similarities of their mental health experiences and diagnoses. He is involved with the mental health charity Stand to Reason[223] and is president of Mind.[1] In 2013, he revealed that, in the previous year, he had started taking medication for the first time, in an attempt to control his condition.[29] In 2018, alongside Nadiya Hussain and Olly Alexander, Fry was part of Sport Relief's attempt to raise awareness of mental health.[224]
In 1995, while appearing in the West End play Cell Mates, Fry had a nervous breakdown and walked out of the production, causing its early closure and incurring the displeasure of co-star Rik Mayall and playwright Simon Gray.[225] Fry went missing for several days and contemplated suicide. He later said that he would have killed himself if he had not had "the option of disappearing".[225] He abandoned the idea and left the United Kingdom by ferry, eventually resurfacing in Belgium.[226] Fry has attempted suicide on a number of occasions, most recently in 2012.[227] In an interview with Richard Herring in 2013, Fry revealed that he had attempted suicide the previous year while filming abroad. He said that he took a "huge number of pills and a huge [amount] of vodka" and had to be brought back to the UK to be "looked after".[228]
In January 2008, Fry broke his arm while filming Last Chance to See in Brazil.[229] While climbing aboard a boat, he slipped between it and the dock, and, stopping himself from falling into the water, his body weight snapped his right humerus. The resulting vulnerability to his radial nerve – which affects use of the arm – was not diagnosed until he saw a consultant in the UK.[230]
Appearing on the BBC's Top Gear in 2009, Fry had lost a significant amount of weight, and explained that he had shed a total of 6 stone (84 lb; 38 kg). He attributed the weight loss to walking while listening to audiobooks.[231] Fry is between 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) in height.[232][233] Fry has stated that he is allergic to champagne[234] and bumble bee stings.[235] Fry also has prosopagnosia ("face blindness").[236][237]
In February 2018, Fry announced that he was recovering from an operation to treat prostate cancer, involving the removal of the prostate and 11 adjacent lymph nodes. He described the cancer as aggressive and said that early intervention had saved his life.[238][239] In December 2020, Fry said he was having some radiotherapy, as is sometimes required after removal of the prostate to mop up remaining prostate cancer cells.[240]
On 14 September 2023, Fry was taken to hospital after he fell about 6 ft (1.8 m) onto a concrete floor, when exiting the stage following a conference on artificial intelligence at The O2 Arena in Greenwich; he had sustained injuries to his ribs and legs.[242][243] After a recovery period he was reported to be back at work on 9 December.[244]
Views on religion
Fry has repeatedly expressed opposition to organised religion, and has identified himself as an atheist and humanist, while declaring some sympathy for the ancient Greek belief in gods.[245] In his first autobiography, he described how he once considered ordination to the Anglican priesthood, but came to the conclusion that he "couldn't believe in God, because [he] was fundamentally Hellenic in [his] outlook".[246] He has stated that religion can have positive effects: "Sometimes belief means credulity, sometimes an expression of faith and hope which even the most sceptical atheist such as myself cannot but find inspiring."[247] Fry claims to have been expelled from Salt Lake City, Utah, because of a joke made about doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[248]
In 2009, The Guardian published a letter from Fry addressing his younger self, explaining how his future is soon to unfold, reflecting on the positive progression towards gay acceptance and openness around him, and yet not everywhere, while warning on how "the cruel, hypocritical and loveless hand of religion and absolutism has fallen on the world once more".[249] Later that year, he and Christopher Hitchens participated in an "Intelligence Squared" debate in which they argued against Ann Widdecombe and Archbishop John Onaiyekan, who supported the view that the Catholic Church was a force for good. Fry and Hitchens argued that the church did more harm than good, and were declared the victors after an audience vote. Fry attacked the Catholic Church's teachings on sexuality and denounced its wealth.[250]
When interviewed in 2015 by the Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne, Fry was asked what he would say if he came face-to-face with God, to which he replied: "Bone cancer in children: what's that about? How dare you? How dare you create a world where there is such misery that's not our fault? It's utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?"[255] Within days, the video was viewed over five million times.[256] Fry later stated he did not refer to any specific religion: "I said quite a few things that were angry at this supposed God. I was merely saying things that Bertrand Russell and many finer heads of the mind have said for many thousands of years, going all the way back to the Greeks."[257] "Because the God who created this universe, if it was created by God, is quite clearly a maniac, utter maniac."[258] In May 2017, it was announced that Fry, along with broadcaster RTÉ, were under criminal investigation for blasphemy under the Defamation Act 2009, following a complaint from a member of the public about the broadcast: the case was dropped after Gardaí confirmed that they had not been able to locate a sufficient number of offended people.[259] The following year, in 2018, the article on blasphemy was removed from the Irish Constitution following a referendum.
He has praised Anglican priest Michael Coren's book The Rebel Christ, saying: "Integrity, wit and passion. A fine advocate for the best of Christian thought and a faith that encompasses the human as well as the divine."[260]
Fry wielded a considerable amount of influence through his use of Twitter.[263][264] He was frequently asked to promote various charities and causes, often inadvertently causing their websites to crash because of the volume of traffic generated by his large number of followers; as Fry noted on his website: "Four thousand hits a second all diving down the pipeline at the same time for minutes on end."[265] He used his influence to recommend underexposed musicians and authors (who often saw large increases in web hits and sales)[266][267] and to raise awareness of contemporary issues in the world of media and politics, notably the dropping of an injunction against The Guardian[268][269] and public anger over Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir's article on the death of Boyzone member Stephen Gately.[270][271]
In November 2009, Fry's Twitter account reached one million followers. He commemorated the million-followers milestone with a humorous video blog in which a 'Step Hen Fry' clone speaks from the year 2034, where MySpace, Facebook and Twitter have combined to form 'Twit on MyFace'.[272] In November 2010, he welcomed his two-millionth follower with a blog entry detailing his opinions and experiences of Twitter.[273] On 11 March 2012, Fry noted his passing of the four-million-followers mark with a tweet: "Lordy I've breasted the 4 million followers tape. Love you all. Yes even YOU. But let's dedicate today to Douglas Adams's diamond jubilee".[274] As of June 2021[update] he had 12.4 million followers.[275]
Fry had a history of temporarily distancing himself from the social networking site which began when he received criticism in October 2009. However, he retracted the announcement that he would be leaving the following day.[276] In October 2010, Fry left Twitter for a few days, with a farewell message of "Bye bye", following press criticism of a quote taken from an interview he had given. After returning, he explained that he had left Twitter to "avoid being sympathised with or told about an article" he "would otherwise never have got wind of".[277] The methods Fry uses on Twitter have been criticised.[278] On 15 February 2016, Fry deleted his Twitter account after receiving criticism for a tweet commenting on Jenny Beavan's outfit choice at that year's BAFTAs where she received an award for costume design.[279] Fry alluded to this on an April 2016 episode of The Rubin Report in which he criticised groupthink mentality and stated that his return to Twitter was a "maybe".[280][281] He returned to Twitter in August 2016.[282] He left Twitter again in November 2022,[283] joining Mastodon that same month.[284]
Sport
In August 2010, Fry joined the board of directors at Norwich City Football Club. A lifelong fan of "the Canaries" and a regular visitor to Carrow Road, he said, on being appointed, "Truly this is one of the most exciting days of my life, and I am as proud and pleased as I could be."[285] Fry stepped down from his Board position in January 2016, to take up a new position as "Norwich City Ambassador".[286] Fry said, "My five years in the role have been an honour and a privilege beyond almost anything I can remember. I wish I could take credit for ushering the club up from League One to the Premiership during that time on the Board. Actually, I'm going to. It was all me. It can't have been a coincidence ... But now I'm so happy to relinquish my seat on the board to Thomas Smith and to engage as fully as I can in the role of ambassador for Norwich City."[286] In February 2014, Fry became the honorary president of Proud Canaries, a new supporters' group for Norwich City's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender fans.[287]
In 2008, Fry formed SamFry Ltd, with long-term collaborator Andrew Sampson to produce and fund new material and to manage his official website.[290] Fry is the co-owner, with Gina Carter and Sandi Toksvig, of Sprout Pictures, an independent film and television company.[291]
In 2016, Fry launched Pindex, "a self-funded online platform that creates and curates educational videos and infographics for teachers and students," founded and run by a four-person team.[292]
In 2008, Fry appeared in a film made by the Free Software Foundation to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the GNU Project to create a completely free operating system.[293] In the film, Fry explains the principles of software freedom central to the development of the Linux and GNU software projects.[294] For the Comic Relief telethon in 2011, Fry was one of four celebrities who represented a new flavour of Walkers crisps: Stephen Fry Up, with the flavour inspired by the full English breakfast (also known as a 'fry up').[295] In 2014, Fry designed a Paddington Bear statue, one of fifty located around London prior to the release of the film Paddington, which was auctioned to raise funds for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).[296]
In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fry appeared in a sketch alongside Prince William for a charity show titled The Big Night In on BBC One.[303] In the lighthearted sketch, Fry reprises his Blackadder character Lord Melchett, who is on a Zoom call with the then Duke of Cambridge as they talk about television shows such as EastEnders and Tiger King as well as homeschooling.[304] The sketch had been put together by Comic Relief and Children in Need to raise money and keep people entertained during the lockdown.[305] In March 2021, Fry narrated a short film for Cambridge Children's Hospital.[306]
Fry has been the patron of UK audiobook charity, Listening Books, since 2005.[307]
Whittard, Tim, ed. (2020). Mental & Behavioural State Examination: Theory into Practice – A Nurse's Perspective on Psychiatric Assessment. The Choir Press. ISBN978-1789630954.
^Elton, Matt (29 June 2009). "Stephen Fry". Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
^Visitation of England and Wales vol. 20, 1919, ed. Frederick Arthur Crisp, pp 41–44, 'Fry of Finchley, co. Middlesex' pedigree
^"Review of Latin!". Notesfromtheunderground.co.uk. Archived from the original on 27 July 2009. Retrieved 11 November 2009. Archived at Wayback Engine.
^"The Young Ones – Bambi". Transcription of the "Young Ones" episode "Bambi" as it aired on American MTV in the mid-'80s. Archived from the original on 9 March 2007. Retrieved 10 February 2007.
^Roberts, Jem (2018). Soupy Twists!: The Full Official Story of the Sophisticated Silliness of Fry and Laurie. Unbound Publishing.
^Stephen Fry, The Spectator Lecture at the Royal Geographical Society, reprinted as "Would I live in America? In a heartbeat", The Spectator, 9 May 2009, p. 28.
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