‘Notting Hill’ & More Movies That Make Hugh Grant Our Ultimate Romantic Hero

Why do we love Hugh Grant? Let us count the swoony ways. Is it the adorably impish smile and mischievous blue eyes? The floppy hair? Or the self-deprecating charm?

In a word, yes! The dashing British actor has set our hearts (and minds) aflutter ever since his hapless commitment-phobe Charles stumbled through his “I think I love you” speech to Andie MacDowell’s independent American in 1994’s Four Weddings and a Funeral (on Prime Video).

He was adorably tongue-tied again the following year in Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (on Pluto TV) as Edward, whose long-repressed romantic feelings for Elinor Dashwood (Thompson) set up a happy ending. A few years later, we fell just as hard for his diffident, divorced London bookseller as fellow rom-com favorite Julia Roberts’ movie star did in 1999’s Notting Hill (also on Prime Video).

Grant played a naughtier role as Renée Zellweger’s scoundrel boss in 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary (on Paramount+ With Showtime), but he returned to romantic form in the Christmas ensemble Love Actually (2003, on Netflix) as the British prime minister, the nation’s most eligible bachelor, who falls madly in love with a sweet former member of his staff (Martine McCutcheon).

While of late the 63-year-old has reveled in playing dastardly or comic characters—see his Wonka Oompa Loompa—Hugh will always be our ultimate romantic hero!