Everett, Rupert 1959(?)-

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Everett, Rupert 1959(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1959 (some sources say 1960 or 1961), in Norfolk, England; father was in the British army. Education: Attended Ampleforth Central School for Speech and Drama.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Duncan Heath, 162 Wardour St., London WI 4AB, England.

CAREER:

Actor and writer. Apprenticed with Glasgow's Citizen's Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland. Appeared on stage in plays, including Another Country and The Vortex. Appeared in films, including Another Country, 1984; Real Life; Dance with a Stranger; The Comfort of Strangers, 1991; Remembrance of Things Fast: True Stories Visual Lies, 1994; The Madness of King George, 1994; My Best Friend's Wedding, 1997; Shakespeare in Love, 1998; A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1999; The Next Best Thing, 2000; South Kensington, 2001; The Importance of Being Earnest, 2002; Unconditional Love, 2002; To Kill a King, 2003; Quiet Flows the Don, 2004; Stage Beauty, 2004; Separate Lies, 2005; and Stardust, 2007. Provided the voice for animated characters in movies, including The Wild Thornberrys Movie, 2002; Shrek 2, 2004; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 2005; and Shrek the Third, 2007. Appeared on British television in the film Arthur, the King, and on American cable television in the miniseries Far Pavilions and Princess Daisy, a television adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons for the Women's Entertainment network, 2004; and Boston Legal, 2005.

WRITINGS:

Hello Darling, Are You Working? (novel), Morrow (New York, NY), 1992.

Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins: The Autobiography, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor of articles to periodicals, including Vanity Fair.

SIDELIGHTS:

British actor Rupert Everett performed on stage in his native land before making his acclaimed film debut as Guy Bennett, the "rebellious and openly gay English prep school student" in 1984's Another Country, as Deborah Caulfield described the character in the Los Angeles Times. Since then Everett has performed in many other motion pictures, including Real Life, Dance with a Stranger, and The Comfort of Strangers. He is known to audiences in the United States for his roles in the cable miniseries Princess Daisy and The Far Pavilions. In 1992, he expanded into another field of creative endeavor when his first novel, Hello Darling, Are You Working?, was published.

Hello Darling, Are You Working? is the story of homosexual actor Rhys Waveral, who experiences great success as an American soap opera star, even achieving a coveted guest appearance on The Tonight Show. But when his show is cancelled, Rhys falls on hard times and returns to his old standby—serving as a male prostitute—to supplement his income. In fact, the book's title comes from a traditional English phrase used to solicit prostitutes. Richard Dyer in the Boston Globe appraised the characters in Hello Darling, Are You Working? as modern, but, according to Dyer, the novel has a quaint 1920s ambience. "What makes the book oddly memorable is the clash between current realities and frivolous, period charm," Dyer claimed. He also commented on the paradoxes between humor and misery in the novel, noting that "the comedy is muted by designer drugs, alcohol, AIDS and death." Chris Goodrich in the Los Angeles Times Book Review added that "Hello Darling is full of eccentric characters … but the relationships … are hopelessly static, limited to one-line jokes and mutual misunderstandings." Despite some bad reviews, the novel proved enormously popular in England, reaching best-seller lists.

Although some reviewers have described Hello Darling, Are You Working? as autobiographical, Everett told Dyer in the Boston Globe that he does not agree with this label. "It is not a documentary and it is not a book about me." Everett is also displeased by critics who refer to his book as a gay novel. "What is a gay book?," he asked Dyer. "Where is the humor in everybody? This response is pathetic…. In the future people are going to think what stupid little jerks we were, obsessing about the differences in humanity when the point about being human is that we are all the same."

Everett continued his turn as a writer with the 2007 Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins: The Autobiography, in which he provides a candid look behind the scenes at Hollywood, filmmaking, and his own life in films. Writing in the Bookseller, Gregg Kilday described Everett's approach in his memoir: "Everett belongs to the long tradition of English raconteurs like David Niven who are more interested in spinning a good anecdote than in puffing up their own contributions to the history of cinema." His work does not focus solely on Hollywood; rather he takes the reader to Paris, where he spent years as a teenager, and to Miami, New York, and Russia, as well, recounting scenes from parties and productions. He details events from movies he has made and provides tales of personalities from Elizabeth Taylor to Gore Vidal. Entertainment Weekly reviewer Tim Stack offered a mixed assessment of Everett's book, noting, "Interesting anecdotes … make the book worthwhile, despite some tedious and overwritten spots." People contributor Joanna Powell was more enthusiastic, as she found Everett's memoir "rich in character and deliciously told." A Kirkus Reviews critic also had praise for Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, concluding: "The funny, unromantic side of an actor's life: eternally unfulfilled, vacillating between giggly highs and malicious lows." For Nicholas Haslam, writing in the Spectator, the same work is a "highly entertaining and self-deprecating autobiography." Neil Pendock, writing in London's Financial Mail, observed that Everett can write well, turning "from the smutty to the sublime in the turn of a page." Pendock went on to note of Everett's memoir: "Not a Christmas present for your mother, but for the broadminded, a fabulous, glittering waste of time."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Everett, Rupert, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins: The Autobiography, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2007.

PERIODICALS

Advocate, November 9, 2004, "Rupert's Return: Coming Back to the Advocate after a Nearly Seven-year Absence, Rupert Everett Talks about Playing Stage Beauty's King in Drag, Trying to Make a Gay James Bond Movie, and Killing John Schlesinger," p. 46.

Bookseller, May 20, 2005, Gregg Kilday, "Everett Auction," p. 15; May 27, 2005, Nicholas Clee, "Time Warner Wins Gossipy Star," p. 17.

Boston Globe, October 29, 1992, Richard Dyer, review of Hello Darling, Are You Working?, p. 53.

Current Biography, January, 2005, Karen E. Duda, "Rupert Everett, Actor," p. 25.

Daily News Record, April 1, 2002, "The Importance of Being Rupert," p. 16.

Entertainment Weekly, January 19, 2007, Tim Stack, review of Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, p. 85.

Financial Mail (London, England), November 3, 2006, Neil Pendock, "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know."

Hollywood Reporter, February 15, 2007, Gregg Kilday, "Everett Pulls Red Carpet out from under the Biz," p. 2.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2006, review of Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, p. 999.

Los Angeles Times, August 19, 1985, Deborah Caulfield, review of Another Country, p. V1; October 6, 1992, review of Hello Darling, Are You Working?, p. E10.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, February 24, 1991, Chris Goodrich, review of Hello Darling, Are You Working?, p. 42.

People, January 29, 2007, Joanna Powell, review of Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, p. 57.

Rolling Stone, April 18, 1991, review of Hello Darling, Are You Working?

Spectator, October 7, 2006, Nicholas Haslam, review of Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins.

Time, April 22, 1991, review of Hello Darling, Are You Working?, p. 84.