Born May 29: Rupert Everett

Bitter about his stalled film career (thirty years since Another Country opposite a baby Colin Firth), sourly against gay marriage ("beyond tragic"), Rupert Everett at 55 has finally settled into the dual careers he was always meant to have, stage actor and author. Last year he was nominated for an Olivier Award for playing Oscar Wilde in a West End revival of The Judas Kiss, and he is writing a biopic covering Wilde's final years. Also last year he co-starred with Benedict Cumberbatch, Janet McTeer, and Rebecca Hall in a five-part minseries of Parade's End. He has published two novels, which I expected to be charming and frivilous and found to be charming and affecting: Hello Darling, Are You Working? and The Hairdressers of St.Tropez. His two memoirs, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins and Vanished Years, are spiced with sharper flavors. He shifts between politely savaging the egomania of his more famous co-stars and dutifully recording the wisdom of his family: 'You were such a solitary child,' Granny says dreamily. 'Very quiet. You always played alone. You hated birthday parties. Now I read in Hello! that you're the life and soul of every party. What happened?'