Elizabeth Hurley Biography While Elizabeth Hurley might be most known for her acting abilities and profile as well as her lengthy relationship with Brit actor Hugh Grant, she is also a fashion model, producer, and designer who has made quite a name for herself in the world of fashion. Elizabeth Jane Hurley was born in Hampshire, England, on June 10, 1965, to her mother, a teacher, and an army major father. She has one older sister, Katie, and a younger brother, Michael. Hurley took ballet as a young child but then decided to go into modeling. She won a Face of the Year contest for a local newspaper in her early twenties and garnered herself a modeling contract as first prize with a firm in London. She also began an acting career at this time, appearing in various lesser-known and low-budget English and made-for-TV films in the beginning. Her film debut Aria, was written and directed by Robert Altman and Bruce Beresford in 1987.
Probably the film that put Elizabeth Hurley on the map was 1992’s thriller Passenger 57, which starred Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne, where she played a terrorist. She went on to act in various TV, British, and Hollywood movies, and is probably most renowned for her role as female lead Vanessa Kensington in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in 1997 and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999, with Mike Myers. Elizabeth Hurley garnered substantial media attention when she wore a black dress merely held together by gold safety pins to the 1994 premier of Four Weddings and a Funeral, starring then-beau Hugh Grant and actress Andie MacDowell. A year later Hurley gained further popularity when she began to work with and model for cosmetics company Estée Lauder and then launched the perfume Pleasures. She has also actively participated in the cosmetic company’s breast cancer charity. Hurley’s contract with Estée Lauder was renewed for the twelfth year with extension in 2006. After her success with Austin Powers, Hurley went on to appear and star in such films as EdTV in 1999, starring Matthew McConaughey and Jenna Elfman; Bedazzled in 2000, with Brendan Fraser, in which she played The Devil; and Serving Sara in 2002, opposite Friends actor Matthew Perry.
As a producer, Elizabeth Hurley and Hugh Grant created the production company Simian Films, through which she produced Extreme Measures in 1996 and Mickey Blue Eyes three years later, both starring Hugh Grant. In 2004 they produced the film Method, in which she starred with Jeremy Sisto and Oliver Tobias. Two years later the company disbanded as both Hurley and Grant focused their careers elsewhere. Elizabeth Hurley’s relationship with Hugh Grant lasted fourteen years, from 1987 to 2001; arguably longer than most Hollywood relationships. Afterward, she began dating multimillionaire film producer Stephen Bing and in 2002 had a child, Damian Charles Hurley, with him despite claims from Bing that he was not the father. A DNA test later proved Bing is in fact Damian’s father. In March 2007, at the age of 41, Elizabeth married Arun Nayar. The wedding took place over a period of two weeks with countless ceremonies, celebrations and outfits. Nayar is the eldest son of Vinod Nayar, a Bombay businessman, and Gunnar, his German mother who set up a lucrative textiles company in the Bombay 30 years ago. The marriage was based around the traditional Indian style wedding. YUDDY |
