biography
| name: |
Cleese, John (Marwood)
|
pronunciation:
[kleez]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1939– )
|
| biography:
| Comic actor and writer, born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, SW England, UK. As a student at Cambridge he joined the Footlights Revue (1963). He appeared in the Broadway production of Half a Sixpence (1965) and returned to Britain to write and perform in such television series as The Frost Report (1966). He joined Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–74), an anarchic series that changed the face of British television humour with its inspired lunacy, surreal comedy, and animated graphics. The troupe subsequently collaborated on such films as The Life of Brian (1979), and The Meaning of Life (1983). Tall and angular, he specialized in explosive, manic eccentricity and physical humour. He enjoyed spectacular success as the co-writer and star of the series Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979) and the film A Fish Called Wanda (1988, BAFTA best actor). Later films include Splitting Heirs (1993) and Fierce Creatures (1997), the not-quite-sequel to Wanda, The World is Not Enough (1999), and Isn't She Great (2000). He also founded Video Arts Ltd, producing industrial training films, and, with Robin Skynner (1922–2000), wrote the best-seller Families and How to Survive Them (1983). He married the actress Connie Booth in 1968 (dissolved, 1978). |
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