John Cleese

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John Cleese
Cleese at the 1989 Academy Awards
Born
(1939-10-27) October 27, 1939 (age 84)
England Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England
Occupation
Actor, writer, comedian
Career milestones
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (1964-73)
The Frost Report (1966)
At Last The 1948 Show (1967-1968)
Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1973)
Fawlty Towers (1974-1979)
A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
Official website
thejohncleese.com

John Marwood Cleese (born 27 October, 1939) is an English comedian and actor best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for co-writing the TV series Fawlty Towers in which he played Basil Fawlty.

He won the TV Times award for Funniest Man On TV - 1978 / 1979.

Biography

John Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England to Reginald Francis Cleese and Muriel Cross. His family's surname was previously "Cheese", but his father, an insurance salesman, changed his surname to "Cleese" upon joining the army in 1915. [1]

As a boy, Cleese was educated at Clifton College in Bristol, from which he was expelled for a humorous defacing of school grounds: he used painted footsteps to suggest that the school's statue of Field Marshal Earl Haig had got down from his plinth and gone to the toilet. His talent for comedy progressed with his membership of the Cambridge Footlights Revue while he was studying for a law degree at Downing College at Cambridge University. Here he met his future writing partner Graham Chapman. As Cleese's comic reputation flourished, he was soon offered a position as a writer with BBC Radio, working on, amongst others, sketches for The Dick Emery Show. The success of the Footlights Revue led to the recording of a short series of half-hour radio programmes, called I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (which was so popular that the BBC commissioned a regular series with the same title). He then joined the Cambridge Revue, Cambridge Circus, for a tour of New Zealand and Broadway, and decided to stay on in America performing on and off-Broadway, including in the musical Half a Sixpence. It was during this time he met future Python Terry Gilliam and his future wife, American actress Connie Booth, whom he married on February 20 1968.

File:ImSorryIllReadThatAgainCast2.jpg
Cleese (front row) with Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, David Hatch and Jo Kendall
in I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again.

After his return to England, he started performing as a cast member of the highly successful BBC Radio show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, which ran from 1965 to 1974. His fellow cast members were Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, David Hatch and Jo Kendall.

On his return to London in 1965, Cleese and Chapman began writing on The Frost Report, an important landmark in satire and British Comedy in the 1960s. The writing staff chosen for The Frost Report were, in many ways, the finest comedy minds of the 1960s United Kingdom, consisting of many writers and performers who would go on to make names for themselves in comedy. They included future Goodies Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor, and also Frank Muir, Barry Cryer, Marty Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick Vosburgh and future Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. It was whilst working on The Frost Report, in fact, that the future Pythons developed their unique writing styles that would become so significant later. Cleese and Chapman's sketches often involved authority figures (some of which were performed by Cleese). Terry Jones and Michael Palin were both infatuated with filmed scenes that open with idyllic countryside panoramas. Eric Idle was one of those charged with writing David Frost's monologue. It was during this period that Cleese met and befriended influential British comedian Peter Cook.

File:Pining.PNG
Cleese (right) unsuccessfully attempting to return his dead parrot, which he bought not half an hour ago, to Michael Palin in And Now For Something Completely Different.

Such was the popularity of the series that, in 1966, John Cleese and Graham Chapman were invited to work as writers and performers with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman on At Last the 1948 Show, during which time the Four Yorkshiremen sketch was written by all four writers/performers (the Four Yorkshiremen sketch is now better known as a Monty Python sketch). John Cleese and Graham Chapman also wrote episodes of Doctor in the House. These series were successful and, in 1969, Cleese and Chapman were offered their very own series. However, due to Chapman's alcoholism, Cleese found himself bearing an increasing workload in the partnership and was therefore unenthusiastic about doing a series with just the two of them. He had found working with Michael Palin on The Frost Report an enjoyable experience, and invited him to join the series. Palin had previously been working on Do Not Adjust Your Set, with Eric Idle and Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam doing animations. The four of them had, on the back of the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set, been offered a series for ITV, which they were waiting to begin when Cleese's offer arrived. Palin agreed to work with Cleese and Chapman in the meantime, bringing with him Gilliam, Jones and Idle. This union led to the creation of Monty Python. Many have suggested that this important landmark in comedy was brought about by Cleese's desire to work with Palin, who Cleese has maintained is his favourite Python to work with. Monty Python's Flying Circus ran for four series from October 1969 to December 1974 on BBC. Cleese is particularly remembered for the "Cheese Shop", "The Ministry of Silly Walks", and "Dead Parrot" sketches. Though the programme lasted four series, by the start of series 3, Cleese, who was probably the best known and most experienced member of the group, was growing tired of coping with Chapman's alcoholism. He felt, too, that the show's scripts had declined in quality. For these reasons, he became restless and decided to move on. Though he stayed for the third series, he did not appear in the fourth, and received only a minor writing credit. Cleese returned to the troupe to co-write and co-star in the Monty Python films Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.

File:Fawlty towers.jpg
Cleese (back) as Basil Fawlty with the rest of the Fawlty Towers cast.

In 1971, Connie Booth gave birth to Cynthia Cleese, their only child.

From 1970 to 1973 Cleese also served as rector of the University of St Andrews.[1]

Having left Monty Python, Cleese went on to achieve possibly greater success in the United Kingdom as the neurotic hotel manager Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, which he co-wrote with Connie Booth. The series won widespread critical acclaim and is still considered one of the finest examples of British comedy, having won three BAFTA awards when produced and recently topping the British Film Institute list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. The series also featured Andrew Sachs as the much abused Spanish waiter Manuel ("...he's from Barcelona"), Prunella Scales as Basil's fire-breathing dragon of a wife Sybil, and Booth as waitress Polly. Cleese based Basil Fawlty on a real character, Donald Sinclair, whom he encountered in 1971, when he and the rest of the Monty Python team were staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay whilst filming Monty Python's Flying Circus. Cleese was reportedly inspired by Sinclair's mantra of "I could run this hotel just fine, if it weren't for the guests." He later described Sinclair as "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met", although Mr Sinclair's widow has since said her husband was totally misrepresented in the comedy.

During the Pythons' stay, Sinclair threw Eric Idle's briefcase out of the hotel "in case it contained a bomb", complained about Terry Gilliam's "American" table manners, and threw a bus timetable at another guest after they dared to ask the time of the next bus to town. The series portrayed stereotypical British attitudes towards sex, death, complaining, violence towards employees and unhappy marriages, often simultaneously embodied in Cleese's madcap physical performances. [citation needed]

The first series began on 19 September 1975, and whilst not an instant hit, soon gained momentum. However, the second series did not appear until 1979, by which time Cleese's marriage to Booth had broken down. Despite this the two reprised their writing and performing roles in the second series. Fawlty Towers consisted of only twelve episodes. Cleese and Booth both maintain that this was to avoid compromising the quality of the series.

In 1978 Cleese appeared as guest star on The Muppet Show. Instead of singing along, he showed up a pretend album, his own new vocal record "John Cleese: A Man & His Music", and finally strangled Kermit the Frog.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Cleese focused on film, though he did work with Peter Cook in his one-off TV special Peter Cook and Co. in 1980. In the same year a theatrical piece for TV was released, with Cleese playing a remarkable Petruchio, in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. He also rejoined the Pythons for Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and starred in The Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International. He married Barbara Trentham on 15 February 1981. Their daughter Camilla was born in 1984.

In 1988 he wrote and starred in A Fish Called Wanda, as the lead, Archie Leach, along with Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and fellow python Michael Palin. Wanda became the most successful British film ever, and Cleese was nominated for an Academy Award for his script. Cynthia Cleese starred as Leach's daughter.

File:Tv muppet show john cleese.jpg
John Cleese on The Muppet Show

However, his marriage was in trouble and in 1990 he and Trentham divorced. On 28 December 1992 he married Alyce Faye Eichelberger, his third blonde American actress wife.

Cleese gave a stirring eulogy at Graham Chapman's memorial service, in which he "became the first person ever at a British memorial service to say 'fuck'". Many considered this to be the perfect tribute to his friend and comedic partner. [2]

Cleese 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. These were produced by his company Video Arts.

With Robin Skynner, Cleese wrote two books on relationships: Families and how to survive them, and Life and how to survive it. The books are presented as a dialogue between Skynner and Cleese.

In 1996, Cleese declined the British honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Cleese has been a strong supporter of the UK Liberal Democrats, and it is believed his refusal was politically motivated.

John Cleese as R in the 20th James Bond film Die Another Day.

In 1999, Cleese appeared in the James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough as Q's assistant, referred to by Bond as R. In 2002, when Cleese reprised his role in Die Another Day, the character was promoted, making Cleese the new quartermaster (Q) of MI6. Cleese does not reprise his role in the newest James Bond film, Casino Royale, where Daniel Craig replaces Pierce Brosnan in the leading role.

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 town of Montecito, California. He has also been appointed a Provost's Visiting Professor through 2009.

In a 2005 poll of comedians and comedy insiders The Comedian's Comedian, Cleese's peers showed their appreciation of his talent when he was voted second only to Peter Cook. Also in 2005, a long-standing piece of internet humor, "The Revocation of Independence", was wrongly attributed to Cleese.

John Cleese recently lent his voice to the BioWare video game Jade Empire. His role was that of an "outlander" named Sir Roderick Ponce von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard, stranded in the Imperial City of the Jade Empire. His character is essentially a British colonialist stereotype who refers to the people of the Jade Empire (effectively like the ancient Chinese) as a lot of savages in need of enlightenment. While perhaps a small role in John Cleese's respect, such lines as "half of you can't even grow a decent moustache" and "your idea of honour is outdated, too. (shoots player). PERCIVAL! My towel" were a welcome touch of humour.

He also had a cameo appearance in the computer game Starship Titanic as "The Bomb" (credited as "Kim Bread"), written by Douglas Adams. When the bomb is activated it tells you that, "The ship is now armed and preparing to explode. This will be a fairly large explosion, so you'd best keep back about 22 miles.", and in attempting to disarm it, "Well, you can try that, but it won't work because nobody likes a smartarse!".

In 2003, John also appeared as Lyle Finster in long-running US sitcom Will & Grace. His character eventually ended up having a short-lived marriage to Karen (Megan Mullally) and was Lorraine's (Karen's arch-nemesis, following her affair with Karen's then husband) father.

In 2004, Cleese was credited as co-writer of a DC Comics graphic novel entitled Superman: True Brit. Part of DC's "Elseworlds" line of imaginary stories, True Brit, mostly written by Kim Howard Johnson, suggests what might have happened had Superman's rocket ship landed in Britain, not America.

From 10 November to 9 December 2005, Cleese toured New Zealand with his stage show 'John Cleese — His Life, Times and Current Medical Problems'. Cleese described it as "a one man show with several people in it, which pushes the envelope of acceptable behaviour in new and disgusting ways." The show was developed in New York with William Goldman and includes Cleese's daughter Camilla Cleese as a writer and actor (the shows were directed by Australian Bille Brown.) John's assistant of many years, Garry Scott-Irvine, also appeared, and was listed as a co-producer. It then played in universities in California and Arizona from 10 January to 25 March 2006 under the title "Seven Ways to Skin an Ocelot" [3]

In June 2006, whilst promoting a football (soccer) song in which he was featured, entitled "Don't Mention The World Cup", Cleese appears to have claimed that he decided to retire from performing in sitcoms, instead opting to writing a book on the history of comedy and tutoring young comedians.[4] This was an erroneous story, the result of an interview with the Times of London (the piece was not fact checked before printing). In 2007 John will be spending time reading, thinking about his own writing projects, and trying to grow a decent tomato.

Just For Laughs 2006

John Cleese's most recent live comedic performance was at the 2006 Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Just for Laughs comedy festival is a yearly event that gathers some of the world's best comics. John Cleese was host for one of the galas and performed sketches very reminiscent to his Monty Python days. His first sketch was him performing his own eulogy as he promised to kill himself as the grand finale, remarking "Top that Jason Alexander...you bastard." The second sketch was him as the judge of 'Cleese Idol', where contestants from Montreal would be performing his skits, so he could find his successor. He shot the last contestant as well as the special guest host, Ben Mulroney (the host of Canadian Idol). The gala ended with his 'execution', where he asked people to choose the method of execution by text messaging a number (which was fake). The choices were stoning, electric chair, firing squad, hanging and guillotine. The guillotine won, and John Cleese was beheaded just as he was about to say something to the crowd.

Radio credits

Television credits

Filmography

Video game credits

Bibliography

  • The Rectorial Address of John Cleese, Epam, 1971, 8 pages

Scripts

  • The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation As We Know It, w/Jack Hobbs & Joseph McGrath, 1977  ISBN 0-352-30109-0
  • Fawlty Towers, w/Connie Booth, 1977 (The Builders, The Hotel Inspectors, Gourmet Night)  ISBN 0-86007-598-2
  • Fawlty Towers: Book 2, w/Connie Booth, 1979 (The Wedding Party, A Touch of Class, The Germans)
  • The Golden Skits of Wing Commander Muriel Volestrangler FRHS & Bar, 1984  ISBN 0-413-41560-0
  • The Complete Fawlty Towers, w/Connie Booth, 1988  ISBN 0-413-18390-4 (hardcover), ISBN 0-679-72127-4 (paperback)
  • A Fish Called Wanda: The Screenplay, w/Charles Crichton, 1988  ISBN 1-55783-033-9
  • Fawlty's Hotel: Sämtliche Stücke, w/Connie Booth, (The Complete Fawlty Towers in German), Haffmans Verlag AG Zürich, 1995

Dialogues

  • Families and How to Survive Them, w/A.Robin Skynner, 1983  ISBN 0-413-52640-2 (hardc.), ISBN 0-19-520466-2 (p/back)
  • Life and How to Survive It, w/A.Robin Skynner 1993  ISBN 0-413-66030-3 (hardcover), ISBN 0-393-31472-3 (paperback)

Trivia

  • He is an avid collector of Flat Eric merchandise.
  • In 2003, John Cleese took part in Mike Oldfield's re-release of the original 1973 version of Tubular Bells, in album Tubular Bells 2003. He took over the ‘Finale’ part, in which he announced the various instruments eccentrically, from the late Vivian Stanshall. [5]
  • A species of lemur, Avahi cleesei, has been named in his honour. John Cleese mentioned this in television interviews. Also there is mention of this honour in "The New Scientist" [6] — and John Cleese's response to the honour. [7]
  • In the radio series I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, Cleese (even though he is credited as "John Cleese") is referred to at the close of every episode as "John Otto Cleese". His real middle name is "Marwood", not "Otto". It appears that John Cleese just liked the name. There were various characters named "Otto" in episodes of "Monty Python's Flying Circus", and there is also an "Otto" (played by Kevin Kline) in the film "A Fish Called Wanda" (which was written by John Cleese). John Cleese's mother once stated that her son called himself "Otto", rather than his second name of "Marwood", but she did not know why he called himself "Otto", or where the name "Otto" came from [8].
  • An asteroid, 9618 Johncleese, is named in his honour.
  • Cleese recorded the voice of God for Spamalot, the musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • Height: 6'4 3/4" (1.95 meters) (Peak: 6'5, 1.96 metres)
  • He claims that he reached 6ft (1.83m) by the age of 12, and then grew to 6ft 5" (1.96m) at 13 and hasn't grown since.
  • He supports West Ham United, although he was a Bristol City fan as a boy.
  • In an episode of Will & Grace, he referred to the maid character, Rosario, as Manuel, a homage to his previous television show Fawlty Towers.
  • The Human League have an instrumental track entitled "John Cleese; Is He Funny" on their 1995 album Octopus.
  • He took a shot in comic books when he wrote Superman: True Brit , an Elseworlds DC Comics title.
  • Cleese narrated the audio version of C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters.
  • In the late-1990s Cleese appeared in a set of badly-received commercials for the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's. Around the same time, his Fawlty Towers co-star, Prunella Scales, appeared in more well-received commercials for rival chain Tesco.
  • He has enunciated a very welcome set of directions for the TomTom in-car navigation system. This allows itself humorous notes at non-critical moments, for instance when asking for a U-turn and when signing off: "I'm not going to carry your baggage - from now on, you're on your own"
  • He appeared in a cameo in the Doctor Who episode "City of Death", as an art lover in the Louvre mistaking the TARDIS as one of the exhibits. His character eventually watches The Doctor and Romana enter the TARDIS and dematerialize, all the while in constant admiration of the 'exhibit'.
  • Keith Olbermann, American news anchor and host of MSNBC's Countdown, wrote a fan letter to Cleese at the age of 16, and claims to have received a reply.[9]
  • Cleese was the first person to say the word 'shit' on British television.

See also

References

  1. ^ John Cleese's father
  2. ^ Memorial eulogy by John Cleese for Graham Chapman
  3. ^ Playbill
  4. ^ "Cleese 'retires from performing'". BBC News. 13 June 2006.
  5. ^ Mike Oldfield "Tubular Bells" reaches thirty years old... (information about John Cleese is given towards the end of the second paragraph)
  6. ^ "The New Scientist" comment about the lemur being named after John Cleese
  7. ^ "The New Scientist" and John Cleese's response to the honour
  8. ^ From Fringe to Flying Circus — 'Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960–1980' — Roger Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980, ISBN 0-413-46950-6.
  9. ^ Countdown with Keith Olbermann, October 28 2006

Further reading

Further information about John Cleese can be found in the book:

  • Footlights! — 'A Hundred Years of Cambridge Comedy' — Robert Hewison, Methuen London Ltd, 1983, ISBN 0-413-51150-2.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to John Cleese.


At Last the 1948 Show
Tim Brooke-Taylor — Graham Chapman — John Cleese — Marty Feldman — Aimi MacDonald
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again
Tim Brooke-Taylor — John Cleese — Graeme Garden — David Hatch — Jo Kendall — Bill Oddie


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