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John Cleese
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John Cleese is a British actor who went from being "the tall one" on Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-74) to being a ubiquitous presence in films, television and advertising. Cleese started out in the 1960s as a member of Cambridge's comedy troupe The Footlight Society. He wrote for television and magazines, and in the late '60s co-founded the Monty Python comedy group. Cleese was especially good at portraying prim, rigid characters who seemed about to explode into insanity at any moment, a trait he exploited as Basil Fawlty, the main character of the BBC comedy series Fawlty Towers (1975-79). Always involved as an actor and writer in the Monty Python film projects (including 1975's Monty Python and the Holy Grail and 1979's Life of Brian), Cleese branched out into other films in the '80s. His biggest box office success came with the movie A Fish Called Wanda (1988), which he ... co-wrote and co-produced.
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John Cleese was an outsider in school, and generally sat back and observed, developing his knack for subversive mockery. His mother was an acrobat, and his father sold insurance. As an alleged grown-up, Cleese worked as a math teacher, then studied law at Cambridge, but quit his studies to join the Footlights comedy troupe, where he first met Graham Chapman. Cleese wrote for the original British That Was the Week That Was (not the less-inspired American copy), and worked with Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin on David Frost's satirical Frost Report. In 1968 Cleese pioneered the mockumentary with How to Irritate People, and he later wrote for Doctor in the House and The Two Ronnies.
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For over 30 years John Cleese has left an indelible impression as one of the most ingenious British comics since Chaplin. From Monty Python to Fawlty Towers and beyond, Cleese's timing and developed sense of satire, remain as fresh today as they ever were. Whether he is promoting the re-release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail or his upcoming, scene-stealing performance in the farcical Rat Race, Cleese remains a unique presence - both on and off the screen - as Paul Fischer discovered when he recently met the esteemed actor.
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John Cleese first appeared on British television in the Frost Report in 1966 and 1967. During the same period he appeared in At Last The 1948 Show. In 1969 he co-created Monty Python's Flying Circus, which produced three series. In 1975 he created the first series of Fawlty Towers and followed this with the second series in 1979. In 1980, John Cleese played Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew as part of the BBC Shakespeare season. He ... appeared as Lacrobat in Whoops Apocalypse for LWT in 1981.
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John Cleese first appeared on British television in the Frost Report in 1966 and 1967. Two years later he co-created and starred in Monty Python's Flying Circus which later led to the production of four films by the Python team: And Now For Something Completely Different (1971); Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974); The Life of Brian (1979); and The Meaning of Life (1983). During the mid 1970s he created and starred in the popular British series, Fawlty Towers. This was followed by performing the role of Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew as part of the BBC Shakespeare season.
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After graduating Cambridge with a law degree, John Cleese was immediately side-tracked into the entertainment world, where he developed a strong sense of the inefficiencies of business. In 1971, Cleese and three reknowned entertainment personalities formed a company to sell training films. Based on the principle that humour could be used as an effective training tool, Video Arts still sells many of the original films (a large number of which feature Cleese as an actor, director, or writer), even though Cleese sold his interests in the firm ten years ago.
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John Cleese