He first came to public attention in when he was cast in Julian Mitchell 's play and subsequent film Another Country as a gay pupil at an English public school in the s; the role earned him his first BAFTA Award nomination. Rupert James Hector Everett was born on 29 May , to wealthy parents. When he was 16, his parents agreed that he could leave school and move to London to train as an actor at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. In an interview with US magazine in , he said that he supported himself during this period by doing sex work for drugs and money.
Everett's break came in at the Greenwich Theatre and later West End production of Another Country , playing a gay schoolboy opposite Kenneth Branagh. Following on with Dance With a Stranger , Everett began to develop a promising film career until he co-starred with Bob Dylan in the unsuccessful Hearts of Fire Around the same time, Everett recorded and released an album of pop songs entitled Generation of Loneliness. Despite being managed by Simon Napier-Bell who had steered Wham!
The Italian comics character Dylan Dog , created by Tiziano Sclavi in , is graphically inspired by him. Everett, in turn, appeared in Cemetery Man , an adaptation of Sclavi's novel Dellamorte Dellamore. In Everett published a second novel, The Hairdressers of St. His career was revitalised by his award-winning performance in My Best Friend's Wedding , playing Julia Roberts 's character's gay friend, followed by a role as Madonna 's character's gay best friend in The Next Best Thing Everett was a backup vocalist on her cover of " American Pie ", which is on the film's soundtrack.
For the 21st century, Everett decided to write again. He has been a Vanity Fair contributing editor, written for The Guardian , and he wrote a film screenplay on playwright Oscar Wilde 's final years, for which he sought funding. Since the revelation of his sexuality, Everett has participated in public activities leading the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras , played a double role in the film St. He has also garnered media attention for his vitriolic quips and forthright opinions during interviews that have caused public outrage.
In May , he delivered one of the eulogies at the funeral of fashion director Isabella Blow , his friend since they were teenagers, who had died by suicide. He asked as part of his speech: "Have you gotten what you wanted, Issie? Life was a relationship that you rejected. Also in , Everett presented two Channel 4 documentaries: one on the travels of Lord Byron , the Romantic poet, broadcast in July , [ 18 ] [ 19 ] and another on British explorer Sir Richard Burton.
