[6] Everett's break came in 1981 at the Greenwich Theatre and later West End production of Another Country, playing a gay schoolboy opposite Kenneth Branagh.

[7] His first film was the Academy Award-winning short A Shocking Accident (1982), directed by James Scott and based on a Graham Greene story.

Following on with Dance With a Stranger (1985), Everett began to develop a promising film career until he co-starred with Bob Dylan in the unsuccessful Hearts of Fire (1987).

The shift was short-lived, and he only returned to pop indirectly by providing backing vocals for Madonna many years later, on her cover of "American Pie" and on the track "They Can't Take That Away from Me" on Robbie Williams' Swing When You're Winning in 2001.

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.

[9][10] In 2006, Everett published a memoir, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, in which he reveals his six-year affair with British television presenter Paula Yates.

[12] Since the revelation of his sexuality, Everett has participated in public activities (leading the 2007 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras), played a double role in the film St. Trinian's, and has appeared on TV several times (as a contestant in the special Comic Relief Does The Apprentice; as a presenter for Live Earth; and as a guest host on the Channel 4 show The Friday Night Project, among others).

[17] Also in 2009, Everett presented two Channel 4 documentaries: one on the travels of Lord Byron, the Romantic poet, broadcast in July 2009,[18][19] and another on British explorer Sir Richard Burton.

[20][21] Everett then returned to his acting roots, appearing in several theatre productions: his Broadway debut in 2009 at the Shubert Theatre received positive critical reviews; he performed in a Noël Coward play Blithe Spirit, starring alongside Angela Lansbury, Christine Ebersole and Jayne Atkinson, under the direction of Michael Blakemore.

[25] During the summer of 2010, Everett performed as Professor Henry Higgins, with English actress Honeysuckle Weeks and Stephanie Cole, in a revival of Pygmalion at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

[26] He reprised the role in May 2011 at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End, starring alongside Diana Rigg and Kara Tointon.

[28] Released in late 2010, the comedy film Wild Target features Everett as an art-loving gangster, and also starred Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt.

[30] Everett then starred as Oscar Wilde in The Judas Kiss, a stage play which was revived at London's Hampstead Theatre[31] beginning 6 September 2012, co-starring Freddie Fox as Bosie, and directed by Neil Armfield.

It ran at the Hampstead through 13 October 2012,[32] toured the UK and Dublin,[33][34][35] then transferred to the West End at the Duke of York's Theatre on 9 January 2013, in a limited run through 6 April 2013.

[31][44] In 2015, it was announced that he would play the part of Philippe Achille, Marquis de Feron, the corrupt Governor of Paris, Head of the Red Guard and illegitimate brother to Louis XIII in the third series of the BBC One drama The Musketeers.

[47] In the 1990s, Everett had a six-year-long affair with television presenter and writer Paula Yates, who was married to Bob Geldof at the time.

[54] In 2006, as a homeowner in the central London area of Bloomsbury, he supported a campaign to prevent the establishment of a local Starbucks branch and referred to the global chain as a "cancer".

[56] Everett continued his participation in the sex-work legislation debate in 2014, writing a long-form piece for The Guardian and appearing on the BBC One programme This Week.