Richard Curtis

Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, producer and film director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known primarily for romantic comedy films, among them ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' (1994), ''Notting Hill'' (1999), ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' (2001), ''Love Actually'' (2003), '' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' (2004), '' About Time'' (2013) and '' Yesterday'' (2019). He is also known for the drama ''War Horse'' (2011) and for having co-written the sitcoms ''Blackadder'', ''Mr. Bean'' and ''The Vicar of Dibley''. His early career saw him write material for the BBC's ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' and ITV's ''Spitting Image''.

In 2007, Curtis received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He is the co-founder, with Sir Lenny Henry, of the British charity Comic Relief, which has raised over £1 billion. At the 2008 Britannia Awards, he received the BAFTA Humanitarian Award for co-creating Comic Relief and for his contributions to other charitable causes.

Curtis was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest figures in British comedy in 2003. In 2008, he was ranked number 12 in a list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture" compiled by ''The Telegraph''. In 2012, he was one of the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork—the cover of The Beatles' 1967 album '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''.

Early life and education

Curtis was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He is the son of Glyness S. and Anthony J. Curtis. His father was a Czechoslovakian refugee who moved to Australia when aged thirteen and became an executive at Unilever. Curtis and his family lived in several different countries during his childhood, including Sweden and the Philippines, before moving to Great Britain when he was 11.

Curtis attended Papplewick School in Ascot, Berkshire (as did his younger brother Jamie). For a short period in the 1970s, he lived in Warrington, Cheshire, where he attended Appleton Grammar School (now Bridgewater High School). He then won a scholarship to Harrow School, where he joined the editorial team of ''The Harrovian'', the weekly school magazine, and this, he asserts, is “where I learned all the skills that made me a sketch writer. I did reviews, comment pieces and funny articles where I’d try to conjure something out of nothing.” While at Harrow, Curtis directed a school performance of Joe Orton's play '' The Erpingham Camp ''; this controversial choice was given the 'green light' by his classics master, James Morwood. Later, Curtis commented that Morwood’s support had helped him understand that it was all right ‘’to push boundaries and to be funny.” Curtis didn’t approve of fagging at the school, and at 18, when he became head of his house, he banned it.

He achieved a first-class Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature at Christ Church, Oxford. At the University of Oxford, he met and began working with Rowan Atkinson, after they both joined the scriptwriting team of the Etceteras revue, part of the Experimental Theatre Club. He appeared in the company's "After Eights" at the Oxford Playhouse in May 1976.

Early writing career

Collaborating with Rowan Atkinson in the Oxford Revue, he appeared alongside him at his breakthrough Edinburgh Fringe show. As a result, he was commissioned to co-write the BBC Radio 3 series ''The Atkinson People'' with Atkinson in 1978, which was broadcast in 1979. He then began to write comedy for film and TV. He was a regular writer on the BBC comedy series ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'', where he wrote many of the show's songs with Howard Goodall and many satirical sketches, often with Rowan Atkinson. Curtis co-wrote with Philip Pope the Hee Bee Gee Bees' single "Meaningless Songs (In Very High Voices)" released in 1980 to parody the style of a series of Bee Gees' disco hits. In 1984 and 1985, Curtis wrote material for ITV's satirical puppet show ''Spitting Image''.

First with Atkinson and later with Ben Elton, Curtis then wrote the ''Blackadder'' series from 1983 to 1989, each season focusing on a different era in British history. Atkinson played the lead throughout, but Curtis was the only writer who participated in every episode of ''Blackadder''. The pair continued their collaboration with the comedy series ''Mr. Bean'', which ran from 1990 to 1995.

Curtis had by then already begun writing feature films. His first was ''The Tall Guy'' (1989), a romantic comedy starring Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson and Rowan Atkinson and produced by Working Title films. The TV movie ''Bernard and the Genie'' followed in 1991.

In 1994, Curtis created and co-wrote ''The Vicar of Dibley'' for comedian Dawn French, which was a great success. In an online poll conducted in 2004 Britain's Best Sitcom, it was voted the third-best sitcom in British history and ''Blackadder'' the second-best, making Curtis the only screenwriter to create two shows in the poll's top 10 programmes.

Film career

Curtis achieved his breakthrough success with the romantic comedy ''Four Weddings and a Funeral.'' The 1994 film, starring Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell, was produced on a limited budget by the British production company Working Title Films. Curtis chose Mike Newell to direct the film after watching his TV film '' Ready When You Are, Mr. McGill''. ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' proved to be the top-grossing British film in history at that time. It made an international star of Grant, and Curtis' Oscar nomination for the script catapulted him to prominence (though the Oscar went to Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary for ''Pulp Fiction''). The film was also nominated for Best Picture, but lost to ''Forrest Gump''.

Curtis' next film was also for Working Title, which has remained his artistic home ever since. 1997's ''Bean'' brought Mr. Bean to the big screen and was a huge hit around the world. He continued his association with Working Title writing the 1999 romantic comedy ''Notting Hill,'' starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, which broke the record set by ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' to become the top-grossing British film. The story of a lonely travel bookstore owner who falls in love with the world's most famous movie star was directed by Roger Michell.

Curtis next co-wrote the screen adaptation of the international bestseller ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' for Working Title. Curtis knew the novel's writer Helen Fielding. Indeed, he has credited her with saying that his original script for ''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' was too upbeat and needed the addition of the titular funeral.

Two years later, Curtis re-teamed with Working Title to write and direct ''Love Actually''. Curtis has said in interviews that the sprawling, multi-character structure of ''Love Actually'' owes a debt to his favourite film, Robert Altman's ''Nashville''. The film featured a "Who's Who" of UK actors, including Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Andrew Lincoln, Alan Rickman and Keira Knightley, in a loosely connected series of stories about people in and out of love in London in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Its regular festive screening has seen it labelled as being arguably a modern-day Christmas staple.

Curtis followed this in 2004 with work as co-writer on '' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'', the sequel to ''Bridget Jones's Diary''. Curtis then wrote the screenplay to ''The Girl in the Café'', a television film directed by David Yates and produced by the BBC
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