Withnail's star cannot actually drink alcohol
Richard E. Grant made his screen debut as Withnail, one of cinema's most famous drunks, despite an alcohol intolerance that keeps him teetotal. Director Bruce Robinson made him get drunk once, on champagne and vodka, purely as research. Three decades later the Swaziland-raised actor was an Oscar nominee for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
He was born Richard Grant Esterhuysen on 5 May 1957 in Mbabane, in what was then the British protectorate of Swaziland and is now Eswatini. His Afrikaner father ran education for the colonial administration; his mother was of German descent. After school at Waterford Kamhlaba near Mbabane he studied English and drama at the University of Cape Town from 1976 and acted with the Space Theatre Company there.
In 1982, a year after his father died, he moved to London, shortened his Afrikaans surname to a single initial and joined Equity. Growing up in a place he described as stuck in a 1960s mindset had left him with an old-fashioned accent; the director Charles Sturridge told him he sounded like someone from the 1950s. He is a citizen of both Eswatini and Britain, and for years wore two watches, one a gift from his dying father kept on Swaziland time.
Withnail and I in 1987 opened Hollywood's doors, leading to work ranging from Bram Stoker's Dracula to Gosford Park. On L.A. Story he and Steve Martin swapped faxes; Martin kept a pile more than two inches thick. Television brought several turns on Doctor Who, including the villain Walter Simeon from the 2012 Christmas special. His portrayal of Jack Hock in the 2018 film Can You Ever Forgive Me? brought Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations and a New York Film Critics Circle win.
Grant also writes and directs. Wah-Wah, released in 2005 and loosely drawn from his childhood, took more than seven years and starred Nicholas Hoult; a clash with its producer even obliged him to seek clemency from the King of Eswatini over filming permissions. He married the voice coach Joan Washington in 1986, and after her death in 2021 published the memoir A Pocketful of Happiness, written largely in her final year. He also runs a perfume brand, JACK, with their daughter.
Source: Richard E. Grant
