John Cleese
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
John Cleese was born on October 27, 1939, in Weston-Super-Mare,
England, to Muriel Evelyn (Cross) and Reginald Francis Cleese. He was
born into a family of modest means, his father being an insurance
salesman; but he was nonetheless sent off to private schools to obtain
a good education. Here he was often tormented for his height, having
reached a height of six feet by the age of twelve, and eventually
discovered that being humorous could deflect aggressive behavior in
others. He loved humor in and of itself, collected jokes, and, like
many young Britons who would grow up to be comedians, was devoted to
the radio comedy show, "The Goon Show," starring the legendary
Peter Sellers,
Spike Milligan, and
Harry Secombe.
Cleese did well in both sports and academics, but his real love was
comedy. He attended Cambridge to read (study) Law, but devoted a great
deal of time to the university's legendary Footlights group, writing
and performing in comedy reviews, often in collaboration with future
fellow Python Graham Chapman. Several of
these comedy reviews met with great success, including one in
particular which toured under the name "Cambridge Circus." When Cleese
graduated, he went on to write for the BBC, then rejoined Cambridge
Circus in 1964, which toured New Zealand and America. He remained in
America after leaving Cambridge Circus, performing and doing a little
journalism, and here met Terry Gilliam,
another future Python.
Returning to England, he began appearing in a BBC radio series, "I'm
Sorry, I'll Read That Again", based on Cambridge Circus. It ran for
several years and also starred future Goodies
Tim Brooke-Taylor,
Bill Oddie and
Graeme Garden. He also appeared, briefly,
with Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman and
Marty Feldman in
At Last the 1948 Show (1967),
for television, and a series of collaborations with some of the finest
comedy-writing talent in England at the time, some of whom -
Eric Idle,
Terry Gilliam,
Terry Jones,
Michael Palin, and Chapman - eventually
joined him in Monty Python. These programs included
The Frost Report (1966) and
Marty Feldman's program
Marty (1968). Eventually, however, the
writers were themselves collected to be the talent for their own
program,
Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969),
which displayed a strange and completely absorbing blend of low farce
and high-concept absurdist humor, and remains influential to this day.
After three seasons of the intensity of Monty Python, Cleese left the
show, though he collaborated with one or more of the other Pythons for
decades to come, including the Python movies released in the mid-70s to
early 80s -
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975),
Life of Brian (1979),
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982),
and
The Meaning of Life (1983).
Cleese and then-wife Connie Booth
collaborated in the legendary television series
Fawlty Towers (1975), as the
sharp-tongued, rude, bumbling yet somehow lovable proprietor of an
English seaside hotel. Cleese based this character on a proprietor he
had met while staying with the other Pythons at a hotel in Torquay,
England. Only a dozen episodes were made, but each is truly hilarious,
and he is still closely associated with the program to this day.
Meanwhile Cleese had established a production company, Video Arts, for
clever business training videos in which he generally starred, which
were and continue to be enormously successful in the English-speaking
world. He continues to act prolifically in movies, including in the hit
comedy
A Fish Called Wanda (1988),
in the Harry Potter series, and in the James Bond series as the new Q,
starting with
The World Is Not Enough (1999),
in which he began as R before graduating to Q. Cleese also supplies his
voice to numerous animated and video projects, and frequently does
commercials.
Besides the infamous Basil Fawlty character, Cleese's other well-known
trademark is his rendition of an English upper-class toff. He has a
daughter with Connie Booth and a
daughter with his second wife,
Barbara Trentham.
Education and learning are important elements of his life - he was
Rector of the University of Saint Andrews from 1973 until 1976, and
continues to be a professor-at-large of Cornell University in New York.
Cleese lives in Santa Barbara, California.
England, to Muriel Evelyn (Cross) and Reginald Francis Cleese. He was
born into a family of modest means, his father being an insurance
salesman; but he was nonetheless sent off to private schools to obtain
a good education. Here he was often tormented for his height, having
reached a height of six feet by the age of twelve, and eventually
discovered that being humorous could deflect aggressive behavior in
others. He loved humor in and of itself, collected jokes, and, like
many young Britons who would grow up to be comedians, was devoted to
the radio comedy show, "The Goon Show," starring the legendary
Peter Sellers,
Spike Milligan, and
Harry Secombe.
Cleese did well in both sports and academics, but his real love was
comedy. He attended Cambridge to read (study) Law, but devoted a great
deal of time to the university's legendary Footlights group, writing
and performing in comedy reviews, often in collaboration with future
fellow Python Graham Chapman. Several of
these comedy reviews met with great success, including one in
particular which toured under the name "Cambridge Circus." When Cleese
graduated, he went on to write for the BBC, then rejoined Cambridge
Circus in 1964, which toured New Zealand and America. He remained in
America after leaving Cambridge Circus, performing and doing a little
journalism, and here met Terry Gilliam,
another future Python.
Returning to England, he began appearing in a BBC radio series, "I'm
Sorry, I'll Read That Again", based on Cambridge Circus. It ran for
several years and also starred future Goodies
Tim Brooke-Taylor,
Bill Oddie and
Graeme Garden. He also appeared, briefly,
with Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman and
Marty Feldman in
At Last the 1948 Show (1967),
for television, and a series of collaborations with some of the finest
comedy-writing talent in England at the time, some of whom -
Eric Idle,
Terry Gilliam,
Terry Jones,
Michael Palin, and Chapman - eventually
joined him in Monty Python. These programs included
The Frost Report (1966) and
Marty Feldman's program
Marty (1968). Eventually, however, the
writers were themselves collected to be the talent for their own
program,
Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969),
which displayed a strange and completely absorbing blend of low farce
and high-concept absurdist humor, and remains influential to this day.
After three seasons of the intensity of Monty Python, Cleese left the
show, though he collaborated with one or more of the other Pythons for
decades to come, including the Python movies released in the mid-70s to
early 80s -
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975),
Life of Brian (1979),
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982),
and
The Meaning of Life (1983).
Cleese and then-wife Connie Booth
collaborated in the legendary television series
Fawlty Towers (1975), as the
sharp-tongued, rude, bumbling yet somehow lovable proprietor of an
English seaside hotel. Cleese based this character on a proprietor he
had met while staying with the other Pythons at a hotel in Torquay,
England. Only a dozen episodes were made, but each is truly hilarious,
and he is still closely associated with the program to this day.
Meanwhile Cleese had established a production company, Video Arts, for
clever business training videos in which he generally starred, which
were and continue to be enormously successful in the English-speaking
world. He continues to act prolifically in movies, including in the hit
comedy
A Fish Called Wanda (1988),
in the Harry Potter series, and in the James Bond series as the new Q,
starting with
The World Is Not Enough (1999),
in which he began as R before graduating to Q. Cleese also supplies his
voice to numerous animated and video projects, and frequently does
commercials.
Besides the infamous Basil Fawlty character, Cleese's other well-known
trademark is his rendition of an English upper-class toff. He has a
daughter with Connie Booth and a
daughter with his second wife,
Barbara Trentham.
Education and learning are important elements of his life - he was
Rector of the University of Saint Andrews from 1973 until 1976, and
continues to be a professor-at-large of Cornell University in New York.
Cleese lives in Santa Barbara, California.