 British cinema needs lanky, witty Richard E. Grant (born Richard Esterhuysen in Mbabane, Swaziland) more than he needs it and should use him more and better.
He can be a brilliant comic performer as he showed in the cult favourite, Withnail & I (d. Bruce Robinson, 1987) or as Aguecheek in Twelfth Night (UK/US, d. Trevor Nunn, 1996); he can do the straight romantic lead as in Jack & Sarah (UK/France, d. Tim Sullivan, 1995); he gave a restrained account of aristocratic Warburton in The Portrait of a Lady (UK/US, d. Jane Campion, 1996); savoured the extravagance of Gorgeous Gus in The Match (d. Mick Davis, 1999); and, in the US, enjoyed the malice of Larry Lefferts in The Age of Innocence (d. Martin Scorsese, 1993) and the outrageous campery of Prêt-à-Porter (d. Robert Altman, 1994).
Educated at University of Capetown, he came to England in 1982, worked on stage and TV (he was a surprisingly muted Scarlet Pimpernel in the 1998, 1999 series), and is now in demand for films everywhere.
Autobiography: With Nails - The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant (1996).
Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Cinema
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