John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese (born October 27, 1939 in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England) is a British comedian and actor.
Biography
Cleese was educated at Clifton College in Bristol. His talent for comedy emerged as a member of the Cambridge Footlights Revue during the time that he was a law student at Downing College, Cambridge.
His family's surname was previously "Cheese", but his father Reginald Francis Cheese, an insurance salesman, changed his surname to "Cleese" upon joining the army in 1915 [1] (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=John%20Cleese).
He married Connie Booth on February 20 1968 and they divorced in 1978.
He became famous as one of the members of the Monty Python team which created the 1969-74 television series Monty Python's Flying Circus; Cleese is particularly remembered for the "Cheese Shop", "The Ministry of Silly Walks", and "Dead Parrot" sketches. He achieved later success as the awful hotel manager Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, which he also cowrote with then wife Connie Booth. Cleese is noted for his talent for expressing indignation and peevish outrage. In 1988 he wrote and starred in A Fish Called Wanda along with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and fellow python Michael Palin. The film became the most successful British film ever.
With Robin Skynner, Cleese wrote a number of books on dealing with relations: Families and how to survive them, and Life and how to survive it. The books are presented as an ongoing dialogue between Skynner and Cleese.
He also produced and acted in a number of successful business training films, including Meetings, Bloody Meetings and More Bloody Meetings about how to set up and run successful meetings.
In 1996 Cleese declined becoming a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
He is currently an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, his term having been extended until 2006. Although he makes occasional, well-received appearances on the Cornell campus, he lives in the city of Santa Barbara, California. During the years 1973-1975 Cleese was rector of St Andrews University, a position which he left in favour of making Fawlty Towers.
In 1999, Cleese starred in the James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough as Q's assistant, referred to as R. In 2002 Cleese reprised his role in Die Another Day, however, the character was promoted, thus making Cleese the new quartermaster (Q) of MI6.
Radio
TV
- The Frost Report (1966)
- Frost on Sunday
- Do Not Adjust Your Set
- Doctor Who (1979, guest cameo as a favour to script editor Douglas Adams)
- How to Irritate People (1968) with Michael Palin
- Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1974)
- Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979)
- Will & Grace (2003-2004) as recurring character Lestor Finster.
- Numerous commercials
Filmography
- The Magic Christian (1969)
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974) (writer and actor: various roles including Sir Lancelot and Tim the Enchanter)
- The Life of Brian (1979) (writer and actor: various roles including Reg)
- The Secret Policeman's Ball (1980)
- The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
- Time Bandits (1981) (as a gormless Robin Hood)
- Privates on Parade (1982) (Major Giles Flack)
- Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) (writer and actor: various roles)
- Silverado (1985) (plays Langston an English sheriff in a town in the western USA. His first line, as he walks in to a bar to break up a brawl, is, "What's all this, then?")
- Clockwise (1986) (as Mr. Stimpson, a school headmaster)
- A Fish Called Wanda (1988) (writer and actor: as lawyer Archie Leach (Cary Grant's real name))
- Bullseye! 1990 as Man on the Beach in Barbados Who Looks Like John Cleese
- Splitting Heirs (1993) (Raoul P. Shadgrind)
- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
- Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994) (Dr. Julien Plumford)
- Fierce Creatures (1996) (as Rollo Lee, owner of an English zoo; the novelization suggests that he is actually the twin brother of Archie Leach from A Fish Called Wanda, with a slight change of surname)
- The Out-of-Towners (1999)
- The World is Not Enough (1999) (a James Bond film) (as Q's assistant, nicknamed R by Bond)
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) (as the ghost "Nearly Headless Nick" - although he prefers Sir Nicholas, if you don't mind)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) ditto
- Die Another Day (2002) (second appearance in a James Bond film; replaces Desmond Llewelyn as Q in the series)
- Shrek 2 (2004) (voice of Princess Fiona's father, King Harold)
- Around the World in 80 Days (2004) (Grizzled Sergeant)
External links
- Official web site (http://www.thejohncleese.com/)
- IMDb filmography (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000092/)
da:John Cleese de:John Cleese es:John Cleese fr:John Cleese nl:John Cleese ja:ジョン・クリーズ pl:John Cleese sv:John Cleese