Hugh Laurie Admits the One Regret That Still Haunts Him
Despite becoming one of television’s highest-paid actors, Hugh Laurie says success hasn’t erased a quiet guilt he has carried for decades. The star of House, who earned $700,000 per episode in the show’s final season, recently revealed that he still feels like a “fraud” for playing a doctor instead of becoming one — a dream once held by his late father, Dr. William “Ran” Laurie.
A Career That Changed Course
Born in 1959, Laurie expected to follow his father into medicine after rowing at Cambridge. But everything shifted when he joined the famed Footlights troupe, meeting Stephen Fry and Emma Thompson. Comedy roles, films, and Hollywood opportunities followed — eventually leading to his iconic role as Dr. Gregory House, which earned him global fame and multiple awards.
Success Filled With Struggle
Though admired for his brilliance on screen, Laurie quietly battled emotional exhaustion during House. Yet the deepest burden, he admits, came from abandoning medicine. As he once said, “It seemed appropriate that I wound up being a fake version of a doctor.”
Even today, Laurie’s success can’t fully silence the expectations he still wishes he had met.
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