TV doc embraces a ‘Dirty’ mind By Inside Track
Monday, January 16, 2006

Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” is Hugh Laurie’s greatest inspiration for his “House M.D.” malcontent, Dr. Gregory House, he says in Playboy magazine’s February 20Q (20 Questions) issue.

“I grew up in the shadow of ‘Dirty Harry,’ the British actor says. “ ‘House’ has elements of ‘Dirty Harry’ in the medical world. There was that line, ‘That’s the one thing about Harry: He doesn’t play favorites. Harry hates everybody.’ ”

Even still, Laurie insists his sardonic character is hero material. “He’s a man in search of some kind of truth, whether it’s scientific or psychological or whatever,” he explains. “Also, he has no friends because of his dedication to discovering and telling the truth. I suppose that’s sort of the definition of hero.”

But would the Brits back home agree? The 47-year-old actor doesn’t think so!

“I don’t think English writers like heroes outside of children’s writing . . . My own theory is that English writers are primarily motivated by revenge.”

And speaking of revenge, Laurie, who forsakes his English accent to star in the U.S.-based Fox series, would like vengeance for thingy Van Dyke’s British diction in the 1964 classic “Mary Poppins”!

“I think every Englishman assumed that the only justification for hiring someone that unsuitable to play a thingyney chimney sweep was that he could dance like the wind,” Laurie says, adding that d**e’s patois could be “construed as a virtual act of war.”