Stephen Fry

Born: August 24 1957
Where: Hampstead, England

The middle child of a physicist father and housewife mother, Stephen was a curious child, who constantly sought knowledge to the point of reportedly memorising the Guinness Book of World Records.

Thanks in part to dyslexia, his education proved troublesome and he was asked to leave several of the boarding schools he attended.

Acknowledging his homosexuality at an early age also led to conflict with his father, a suicide attempt at age 16 and a scrape with the law the following year when he ran away from home only to be caught using stolen credit cards.

Having received probation after a few months in jail, Stephen got serious about his education and buckled down to win a scholarship to Cambridge.

It was there that he came into his own as an actor and writer.

Following some stage work, he went on to land good roles on TV such as the snivelling Lord Melchett opposite Rowan Atkinson in Blackadder II before co-writing and starring in A Bit of Fry and Laurie.

Now a columnist for The Daily Telegraph, he again teamed with Hugh Laurie for Jeeves & Wooster, adapted from the P G Wodehouse stories.

In movies, Stephen actually began his career as a screenwriter contributing to 1983's Gossip before moving in front of the cameras in 1986 with The Good Father.

Working with several of his Cambridge colleagues, he got his first major role as the host of a reunion of college chums in Kenneth Branagh's drama Peter's Friends.

For much of his life, Stephen had been told of his passing resemblance to the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde and he got to portray the writer, a role he was born to play, in Brian Gilbert's 1997 biopic Wilde.

In addition to his acting career, Fry has found modest success as an author, penning three novels: The Liar, The Hippopotamus and Making History.