Biography of Elizabeth HurleyElizabeth Jane Hurley (born June 10, 1965) is an English beachwear designer, former fashion model, and sometime actress and producer. She is best known as an exemplary "professional celebrity" and for her long term relationship with Hugh Grant.
Early life
Hurley was born as a middle child in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England.[1] Her father, a lapsed Catholic of Irish descent, was a major in the British Army, while her mother, an Anglican, was a schoolteacher at Kempshott Infant School. Her older sister Debbie is a literary agent and younger brother Michael works as an engineer.
Hurley took ballet classes as a child. She went to Kempshott Junior and Infants school and the Harriet Costello School, now known as Costello Technology College. She later attended Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke, for one year, followed by Basingstoke College of Technology, and later won a scholarship to the London Studio Centre.
Whilst in her teens and before she was in the public eye, she became involved with punk fashion, dying her hair pink and piercing her nose.[3] She associated with New Age Travellers, who sat under The Buttercross monument and the grounds of the Cathedral in Winchester, near Hurley's home.
Rise to fame
Hurley gained early recognition for her beauty in the early 1980s when she won a Face of the Year competition at a local newspaper in Winchester, securing a year's modeling contract with a prestigious London firm as the first prize. She made her first film appearance in Aria (1987), and attracted some media attention in the late 1980s for portraying the title character in a four-part television drama, Christabel, written by Dennis Potter. She appeared in several low-budget British and Hollywood films, including a performance as a stewardess in the 1992 thriller Passenger 57. She also appeared on television on both sides of the Atlantic, working in the British series Rumpole of the Bailey and the George Lucas-produced The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. In 1987, working on a Spanish production called Remando Al Viento, she met actor Hugh Grant and they started a long romantic relationship.
In 1994, Grant's film Four Weddings and a Funeral was an international box office success and by the time it premiered in London, Grant was the focus of much media attention. Hurley attended the premiere in a black plunging Versace dress held together with gold safety pins, due to which she was relentlessly photographed at the event. This appearance propelled her to recognition in the modeling world, especially catching the attention of cosmetics giant Estée Lauder. It has often been referred in popular media simply as "that dress".[6] According to the New York Times, for many years, she was recognized chiefly as Hugh Grant's girlfriend, until their separation in 2000.
Fashion
In 1995, Hurley began working with top cosmetics company Estée Lauder as their main spokesmodel. Within her first month with the company, Hurley launched the best-selling perfume, Pleasures. In 2007, Hurley's contract with Estée Lauder was renewed for the 13th year, with a subsequent contract extension.
She has appeared several times on the covers of renowned fashion magazine ,Vogue, and hosted the first season of the British reality series Project Catwalk, featuring novice fashion designers. In 2005, Hurley's beachwear line Elizabeth Hurley Beach debuted in select Saks Fifth Avenue stores in the United States, Harrod's in the UK, various other locations worldwide and through her website. In 2006, the line expanded its distribution in Europe, the Middle East, Australia and Asia. In 2007, Hurley was voted best "British Body Idol" in New Woman magazine, for which 5,000 women reportedly cast votes.
As well as Hurley's work as an actress, she has experience as a film producer. Hugh Grant, who was then her boyfriend, founded and directed UK-based production company, Simian Films Ltd, in 1994, and he appointed Hurley as the head of development to secure film projects for him. Hurley then served as producer for two Grant vehicles, Extreme Measures (1996) and Mickey Blue Eyes (1999). Grant gradually cut off involvement from the company due to lack of interest, closing the company's U.S. office in 2002 and legally resigning as director in 2005.
Hurley was cast as Vanessa Kensington in Mike Myers's hit spy comedy Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in 1997; after the success of that original film, she reprised the role of Vanessa in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). Hurley has also essayed several lead characters in mostly ignored films such as EdTV, Bedazzled, Double Whammy, Serving Sara (2002), which was her last Hollywood film, and the 2004 thriller Method. Critics such as Julie Burchill, who wrote in The Times about Hurley's acting being a notch above pornography in 2004, have largely dismissed her cinematic performances.
Hurley was publically criticised in 2000 when she fell foul of U.S. acting unions. She filmed a fashion advertisement for Estée Lauder that year, breaking a five-month acting strike. She was subsequently fined £70,000 by the Screen Actors Guild. Hurley apologised for breaking the strike, but stated that she had been unaware of the strike due to her life in the UK and the union had not informed her of the industrial action. She was later confronted by a protest of angry actors at the U.S. première of her film Bedazzled in October, where protesters brandished banners stating "Elizabeth Scably".
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