John Cleese

John Cleese
Cleese at the 1989 Academy Awards
Birth name	John Marwood Cleese
Born	(1939-10-27) October 27, 1939 Weston-Super-Mare, England
Genres	Surreal comedy
Spouse	Alyce Faye Eichelberger (1992–2008) Barbara Trentham (1981–1990) Connie Booth (1968–1978)
Website	www.thejohncleese.com

John Marwood Cleese (/ˈkliːz/; born October 27, 1939) is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer and singer, who is known as being a member of Monty Python, a group of comedians responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus and for four films; And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life. Apart from Monty Python, with his then wife Connie Booth he also co-created, co-wrote and starred in the critically-acclaimed sitcom Fawlty Towers and has also co-starred with Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and former Python colleague Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures, and made significant appearances in many films, including two James Bond films, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day, and two Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets.

Personal life

Early life

Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, the son of Muriel (née Cross), an acrobat, and Reginald Francis Cleese, who worked in insurance sales. His family's surname was previously "Cheese", but his father changed his surname to "Cleese" in 1915, upon joining the army.

Cleese was educated at St Peter's Preparatory School, Weston-super-Mare where he was a star pupil, receiving a prize for English and doing well at sports including cricket and boxing. At 13 he received an exhibition to Clifton College, an English public school in Bristol. He was a tall child and was well over 6ft when he arrived there. Whilst at the school he is said to have defaced the school grounds for a prank by painting footsteps to suggest that the school's statue of Field Marshal Earl Haig had got down from his plinth and gone to the toilet. Cleese played cricket for the first team and after initial indifference he did well academically, passing 8 O levels and 3 A levels in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.

After leaving school he went back to his prep school to teach science before taking up a place he had won at Downing College, Cambridge where he read Law and joined the Cambridge Footlights Revue. It was there that he met his future writing partner Graham Chapman. Cleese wrote extra material for the 1961 Footlights Revue I Thought I Saw It Move, and was Registrar for the Footlights Club during 1962, as well as being one of the cast members for the 1962 Footlights Revue Double Take! He graduated from Cambridge in 1963 with a 2:1 classification in his degree.

Cleese had started his acting career as part of the Cambridge Footlights revue cast of 1963 and later on went to the US to perform on and off-Broadway. While working there, he not only met future Python member Terry Gilliam, but also American actress Connie Booth, whom he married on 20 February 1968.

1970s to 1980s

In 1971, Booth gave birth to Cynthia Cleese, their only child. With Booth, Cleese also wrote the scripts for and co-starred in both series of the TV series Fawlty Towers, even though the two were actually divorced before the second series was finished and aired. Cleese and Booth are said to have remained close friends since.

Cleese remarried in 1981, to American actress Barbara Trentham. Their daughter Camilla, Cleese's second child, was born in 1984. The marriage began to collapse after the success of Cleese's 1988 film A Fish Called Wanda, and in 1990, he and Trentham divorced. It was also during this time that Cleese moved from the United Kingdom to California in the US.

1990s to present

On 28 December 1992, he married American psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger. In January 2008, the couple announced they had split. The divorce proceedings were brought to public attention when Cleese's friend Michael Winner dedicated two consecutive issues of his The Sunday Times columns to a "divorceymoon" he and Cleese had spent in Switzerland. These articles revealed that Cleese is, until the divorce is settled, paying £900,000 a year to Eichelberger, who allegedly demands half of his earnings since their 1992 wedding as well as half of his nine properties. Cleese has since stated that he has started dating a 34-year-old American marketing representative, Veronica Smiley.

Cleese expressed support for U.S. Senator Barack Obama's candidacy for President, donating US$2,300 to his campaign and offering his services as a speech writer.

In 2008, Cleese confirmed that he has been learning German for a while and described himself as "speaking simple German fluently now." Referring to the famous Fawlty Towers episode "The Germans", he explained "Everybody thinks that was a joke about the Germans but they missed it. It was a joke about English attitudes to the war and the fact that some people were still hanging on to that rubbish." At the German theme park, Movie Park Germany, he plays a time-travelling scientist who greets the visitors entering the attraction. During the ride, he can be heard commentating to the audience. Cleese has also starred in a Polish bank advertisement.

Cleese currently lives in Santa Barbara, California, while not working in London.

Career

Pre-Python

Cleese was one of the script writers, as well as being a member of the cast for the 1963 Footlights Revue A Clump of Plinths, which was so successful during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that its name was changed to Cambridge Circus, was taken to West End in London, and then on a tour of New Zealand and Broadway, with the cast also appearing in some of the revue sketches on The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1964.

After Cambridge Circus, Cleese decided to stay on in America, performing on and off-Broadway. While performing in the musical Half a Sixpence, Cleese met not only future Python Terry Gilliam but also American actress Connie Booth, whom he married on 20 February 1968.

As Cleese's comic reputation grew, he was soon offered a position as a writer with BBC Radio, where he worked on several programmes, most notably as a sketch writer 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.

After his return to England, Cleese 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. In many episodes, he is credited as "John Otto Cleese".

In 1965, Cleese and Chapman began writing on The Frost Report. The writing staff chosen for The Frost Report consisted of a number of 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 while working on The Frost Report, in fact, that the future Pythons developed the writing styles that would make their collaboration significant. Cleese and Chapman's sketches often involved authority figures, some of which were performed by Cleese, while Jones and Palin were both infatuated with filmed scenes that open with idyllic countryside panoramas. 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.

Such was the popularity of the series that in 1966 Cleese and Chapman were invited to work as writers and performers with Brooke-Taylor and 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 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 Idle and 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.

Monty Python

Monty Python's Flying Circus ran for four series from October 1969 to December 1974 on BBC Television. Cleese's two primary characterizations were as a sophisticate and a stressed-out loony. He portrayed the former as a series of announcers, TV show hosts, government officials (qv. "The Ministry of Silly Walks"), et al. The latter is perhaps best represented in the "Cheese Shop", and by Cleese's Mr Praline character, the man with a dead Norwegian Blue parrot and a menagerie of other animals all named "Eric". He was also known for his working-class "Sergeant Major" character, who worked as a Police Sergeant, Roman Centurion, etc. he is also seen as the opening announcer, with the now famous line: "And now for something completely different".

Partnership with Graham Chapman

Along with Gilliam's animations, Cleese's work with Chapman provided Python with its darkest and angriest moments, and many of his characters display the seething suppressed rage that later characterised his portrayal of Basil Fawlty. Many critics naturally make a connection with Cleese's own self-confessed neuroses (he has spoken openly about receiving psychoanalysis).

Unlike Palin and Jones, Cleese and Chapman actually wrote together, in the same room; Cleese claims that their writing partnership involved him sitting with pen and paper, doing most of the work, while Chapman sat back, not speaking for long periods, then suddenly coming out with an idea that often elevated the sketch to a different level. A classic example of this is the "Dead Parrot" sketch, envisaged by Cleese as a satire on poor customer service, which was originally to have involved a broken toaster, and later a broken car (this version was actually performed and broadcast, on the pre-Python special How To Irritate People). It was Chapman's suggestion to change the faulty item into a dead parrot, as well as suggesting that the parrot be specifically a Norwegian Blue, giving the sketch a surreal air which made it far more memorable.

Their humour often involved ordinary people in ordinary situations behaving absurdly for no obvious reason. Like Chapman, Cleese's poker face, clipped middle-class accent and imposing height allowed him to appear convincing as a variety of authority figures - which he would then proceed to undermine. Many of his characters have a kind of incipient madness, but remain utterly straight-faced and impassive while behaving in a ludicrous fashion. Most famously, in the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch (actually written by Palin and Jones), Cleese exploits his extraordinary stature as the crane-legged civil servant performing a grotesquely elaborate walk to his office.

Chapman and Cleese also specialised in sketches where two characters would conduct highly articulate arguments over completely arbitrary subjects, such as in the "cheese shop", the "dead parrot" sketch and, perhaps most notably, "The Argument Sketch", where Cleese plays a stone-faced bureaucrat employed to sit behind a desk and engage people in pointless, infuriatingly trivial bickering. All of these roles were opposite Palin (who Cleese often claims is his favourite Python to work with) – the comic contrast between the towering Cleese's crazed aggression and diminutive Palin's shuffling inoffensiveness is a common feature in the series. Occasionally, the typical Cleese-Palin dynamic is reversed, as in "Fish Licence", wherein Palin plays the bureaucrat with whom Cleese is trying to work (though it is still Cleese who plays the "loony" half of the duo).

Though the programme lasted four series, by the start of series 3, Cleese was growing tired of coping with Chapman's alcoholism. According to Gilliam, Cleese was the "most Cambridge" of the Cambridge-educated members of the group (Cleese, Chapman, and Idle), by which Gilliam meant that Cleese was the tallest (6'4") and most aggressive of the whole group. 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 officially left the group before the fourth season. Despite this, he remained friendly with the group, and all six began writing Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Cleese received a credit on episodes of the fourth series which used material from these sessions, and even makes a brief appearance in one episode, though he was officially unconnected with the fourth series. Cleese returned to the troupe to co-write and co-star in the Monty Python films Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, and would participate in various live performances over the years.

Post-Python

From 1970 to 1973 Cleese served as rector of the University of St Andrews. While his election by the students might have seemed a prank, it proved a milestone for the University, revolutionising and modernising the post. For instance, the Rector was traditionally entitled to appoint an "Assessor", a deputy to sit in his place at important meetings in his absence. Cleese changed this into a position for a student, elected across campus by the student body, resulting in direct access and representation for the student body for the first time in over 500 years. This was but one of a host of improvements that Cleese swept in as a true wind of change.

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 his wife 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 person, Donald Sinclair, whom he encountered in 1970, when he and the rest of the Monty Python team were staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay while 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 Sinclair's widow has since said her husband was totally misrepresented in the comedy.

During the Pythons' stay, Sinclair allegedly threw Idle's briefcase out of the hotel "in case it contained a bomb", complained about 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 first series began on 19 September 1975, and while not an instant hit, soon gained momentum. However, the second series did not air until 1979, by which time Cleese's marriage to Booth had ended. The two nevertheless reprised their writing and performing roles in the second series. Fawlty Towers consisted of only 12 episodes; Cleese and Booth both maintain that this was to avoid compromising the quality of the series.

File:Tv muppet show john cleese.jpg

Cleese as a Mexican macara soloist as part of his 1977 guest appearance on The Muppet Show

In December 1977, Cleese appeared as a guest star on The Muppet Show. Cleese was a longtime fan of the show, and co-wrote much of the episode. He appears in a "Pigs in Space" segment as a pirate trying to hijack the spaceship Swinetrek, and also helps Gonzo restore his arms to "normal" size after Gonzo's cannonball catching act goes a bit wrong. During the show's closing number, Cleese refuses to sing the famous show tune from Man of La Mancha, The Impossible Dream. Kermit The Frog apologizes and the curtain re-opens with Cleese now costumed as a Viking trying some Wagnerian opera as part of a duet with Sweetums. Once again, Cleese protests to Kermit, and gives the frog one more chance. This time, as pictured opposite this text, he is costumed as a Mexican macara soloist. He's finally had enough and protests that he's leaving the show, saying "You were supposed to be my host. How can you do this to me? Kermit - I am your guest!". The cast all joins in with their parody of The Impossible Dream singing "This is your guest, to follow that star...".

During the crowd's applause that follows the song, he pretends to strangle Kermit until he realizes the crowd loves him and accepts the accolades. During the show's finale, as Kermit thanks him, he shows up with a pretend album, his own new vocal record John Cleese: A Man & His Music, and encourages everyone to buy a copy of the album.

This would not be Cleese's final appearance with The Muppets. In their 1981 movie The Great Muppet Caper, Cleese does a cameo appearance as Neville, a local homeowner. As part of the appearance, Miss Piggy borrows his house as a way to impress Kermit The Frog

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

1980s and 1990s

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 Cleese played Petruchio, in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew in the BBC Television Shakespeare series. He also participated in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and starred in The Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International.

Timed with the 1983 UK elections, he appeared in a video promoting proportional representation.

During the 1987 UK general election, he recorded a nine minute party political broadcast for the SDP-Liberal Alliance, which talks about the similarities and failures of the other two parties in a more humorous tone than the standard political broadcast. He has since supported the Alliance's successor, the Liberal Democrats, narrating a radio election broadcast for the party during the 2001 UK general election.

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

Chapman was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1989; Cleese, Michael Palin, Peter Cook and Chapman's partner David Sherlock, witnessed Chapman's passing. Chapman's death occurred one day before the 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of Flying Circus with Jones commenting, "the worst case of party-pooping in all history." Cleese gave a stirring eulogy at Chapman's memorial service, in which he "became the first person ever at a British memorial service to say 'fuck'".

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, the Group Analyst (Group Analysis) and family therapist, 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). The follow-up to A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures - which again starred Cleese himself alongside Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Palin - was also released this year, but was greeted with mixed reception by critics and cinema-goers. Cleese has since often stated, that making that second movie had been a mistake. When asked by his friend, director and restaurant critic Michael Winner, what he would do differently if he could live his life again, Cleese responded, "I wouldn’t have married Alyce Faye Eichelberger and I wouldn’t have made Fierce Creatures."

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. In 2004, Cleese was featured as Q in the video game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, featuring his likeness and voice. Cleese did not appear in the subsequent Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, and it is unknown whether Cleese will reprise the role in future Bond films.

2000-present

He is currently Provost's Visiting Professor at Cornell University, after having been Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large from 1999-2006. He makes occasional, well-received appearances on the Cornell campus, but he lives in the town of Montecito, California.

In a 2005 poll of comedians and comedy insiders The Comedian's Comedian, Cleese was voted second only to Peter Cook. Also in 2005, a long-standing piece of Internet humour, "The Revocation of Independence of the United States", was wrongly attributed to Cleese.

In 2006 Cleese hosts an A–Z look at soccer’s greatest kicks, goals, saves, bloopers, plays and penalties of all time, as well as soccer’s influence on culture (including the famous Monty Python sketch, “Philosophy Football”). Featuring interviews with pop culture icons Dave Stewart, Dennis Hopper and Henry Kissinger, as well as soccer greats, including Pelé, Mia Hamm and Thierry Henry. The Art of Soccer with John Cleese is being released in North America on DVD in January of 2009 by BFS Entertainment & Multimedia.

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 as savages in need of enlightenment. His armour has the design of a fork stuck in a piece of cheese on it.

He also had a cameo appearance in the computer game Starship Titanic as "The Bomb" (credited as "Kim Bread"), designed by Douglas Adams. When the bomb is activated it tells the player 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 (35 km)". When the player tries to disarm the bomb, it says "Well, you can try that, but it won't work because nobody likes a smartarse!"

In 2002, Cleese made a cameo appearance in the movie The Adventures of Pluto Nash, where he played "James", a computerized chauffeur of a hover car stolen by Nash (played by Eddie Murphy). The vehicle is subsequently destroyed in a chase, leaving the chauffeur stranded in a remote place on Mars.

In 2003, Cleese also appeared as Lyle Finster in long-running US sitcom Will & Grace.

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 as a writer and actor (the shows were directed by Australian Bille Brown.) His 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". His voice can be downloaded for directional guidance purposes as a downloadable option on some personal GPS-navigation device models by company TomTom.

In June 2006, while 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. This was an erroneous story, the result of an interview with The Times of London (the piece was not fact checked before printing).

Cleese with Eric Bruno Borgman on the set of The Pink Panther 2 in Boston, 2007

In 2007, Cleese is appearing in ads for Titleist as a golf course designer named "Ian MacCallister", who represents "Golf Designers Against Distance".

In 2007, he started filming the sequel to The Pink Panther, titled The Pink Panther 2 with Steve Martin and Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai.

On 27 September 2007, The Podcast Network announced it had signed a deal with Cleese to produce a series of video podcasts called HEADCAST to be published on TPN's website. Cleese released the first episode of this series in April 2008 on his own website, Headcast.co.uk

According to recent reports, Cleese is currently working on a musical version of A Fish Called Wanda with his daughter Camilla. He also said that he is working - for the first time since 1996's Fierce Creatures - on a new film screenplay. Cleese collaborates on it with writer Lisa Hogan, under the current working title "Taxing Times". According to him, it is "about the lengths to which people will go to avoid tax. [...] It's based on what happened to me when I cashed in my UK pension and moved to Santa Barbara."

Radio credits

• I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again
• I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (1972-3)

Television credits

• The Frost Report (1966)
• Frost on Sunday
• At Last the 1948 Show
• The Avengers (1968), guest appearance as Marcus Rugman (egg clown-face collector) in the episode Look (Stop Me if You've Heard this One)...
• The Goodies (1973), guest cameo appearance as a Genie in the episode The Goodies and the Beanstalk
• Doctor Who (1979), guest cameo appearance as an Art Lover in the episode City of Death as a favour to writer / script editor Douglas Adams
• How to Irritate People (1968) with Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Connie Booth and Tim Brooke-Taylor
• Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974)
• Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979)
• The Muppet Show (1977)
• The Taming of the Shrew (1980) as Petruchio
• Cheers (episode "Simon Says") (1987), he won an Emmy Award for best actor in a guest starring role
• 3rd Rock from the Sun (1998–2001) as recurring character Dr. Liam Neesam.
• The Human Face (2001), host
• Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central) (2002) as Red
• Will & Grace (2003-2004) as recurring character Lyle Finster.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus, John Cleese's Personal Best (At the beginning of the episode, the show was dedicated to "Mr. John Cleese, who has recently died". A lot of Monty Python fans were saddened for his demise. It turned out it was just part of a skit; John Cleese was portraying himself as a 97-year-old, senile, old man who is being interviewed by a newswoman before succumbing to a heart attack.)
• Hosted the TV show Wine for the Confused
• Numerous commercials, including for supermarket chain Sainsbury's, snack firm Planters and a British government Stop Smoking campaign
• Party political broadcasts for the Liberal Democrats and predecessor, the SDP-Liberal Alliance
• Song "Don't Mention The World Cup" animated video played on ITV, BBC and Channel 4 News June 2006
• Host of the PBS series The Human Face (2007)
• True Stories: Peace in our time? as Neville Chamberlain
• Batteries Not Included - gadget show on UK TV channel Dave (2008)
• We Are Most Amused: Master of Ceremonies for a stand-up comedy show celebrating Prince Charles's 60th Birthday.

Filmography

• Interlude (1968)
• The Magic Christian (1969) (had written w/ Chapman an earlier version of the script, of which only the scenes they appear in survived)
• The Best House in London (1969)
• The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970) (writer and actor)
• And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) (writer and actor)
• Romance with a Double Bass (1974) (writer and actor)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) (writer and actor: Sir Lancelot, Tim the Enchanter, swallow obsessed guard #2, Peasant #1, Black Knight, French Taunter, body cart customer)
• Meetings, Bloody Meetings (1976) (a humorous business-oriented training video)
• The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977) (Arthur Sherlock Holmes, a descendant of the original)
• Monty Python's 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)
• Yellowbeard (1983) (Blind Pew)
• 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))
• Erik the Viking (1989) (as Halfdan the Black)
• Bullseye! (1990) (as Man on the Beach in Barbados Who Looks Like John Cleese)
• An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) (Cat R. Waul)
• Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? (1992) (Narrator)
• Splitting Heirs (1993) (Raoul P. Shadgrind)
• Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
• Disney's Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994) (Dr. Julien Plumford)
• The Swan Princess (1994) (Jean-Bob)
• The Wind in the Willows (1996) (as Mr. Toad's lawyer)
• Fierce Creatures (1996) (as Rollo Lee, manager of an English zoo; the novelisation suggests that he is actually the twin brother of Archie Leach from A Fish Called Wanda, with a slight change of surname)
• George of the Jungle (1997) (as the voice of an ape named Ape)
• In the Wild: Operation Lemur with John Cleese (1998) Host and narrator
• The Out-of-Towners (1999 film) (1999) (as Mr. Mersault, the hotel manager)
• The World Is Not Enough (1999) (a James Bond film) (as Q's assistant, nicknamed R by Bond)
• Isn't She Great (2000)
• Quantum Project (2001) (as father of Stephen Dorff's character)
• Here's Looking at You: The Evolution of the Human Face narrator
• Rat Race (2001) (as eccentric millionaire Donald P. Sinclair)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) ("Nearly Headless Nick")
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) ("Nearly Headless Nick")
• Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio (Talking Cricket's voice in English version)
• Die Another Day (2002) (second appearance in a James Bond film; replaces Desmond Llewelyn as Q in the series)
• The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) (as James, a computerized car chauffeur)
• Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) (Father of Alex)
• Scorched (2003) (Local Millionaire)
• George of the Jungle 2 (2003) (as the voice of an ape named Ape)
• Shrek 2 (2004) (voice of Princess Fiona's father, King Harold)
• Around the World in 80 Days (2004) (Grizzled Sergeant)
• Valiant (2005) (voice of captured pigeon, Mercury)
• Charlotte's Web (2006) (voice of Samuel the sheep)
• Man About Town (2006) (Dr. Primkin)
• Shrek the Third (2007) (King Harold) (voice)
• Igor (2008) (Dr. Glickenstein) (voice)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) (Dr. Barnhardt)
• Crood Awakening (2008) (Alvan) Voice (also writer)
• The Pink Panther 2 (2009) (Inspector Charles Dreyfus)
• Planet 51 (2009) (voice)

Video game credits

• Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time (1994) 7th Level
• Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail (1996) 7th Level
• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1997) Panasonic
• Starship Titanic (1998) Simon & Schuster Interactive (voice of the Bomb) — (Credited as Kim Bread)
• 007 Racing (2000) Electronic Arts
• The World Is Not Enough (video game) (2000) Electronic Arts
• Everything or Nothing (2004) Electronic Arts
• Trivial Pursuit: Unhinged (2004) Atari
• Jade Empire (2005) BioWare (as Sir Roderick Ponce von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard)

Awards

• Academy Awards -

(1988) Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda (shared with Charles Crichton)

• Golden Globe Awards -

(1988) Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy / A Fish Called Wanda

• BAFTA Awards -

(1970) Nominated - BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Monty Python's Flying Circus

(1971) Nominated - BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Monty Python's Flying Circus

(1976) Nominated - BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Fawlty Towers

(1980) Won - BAFTA Television Award for "Best Light Entertainment Performance" / Fawlty Towers

(1989) Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda

(also 1989) Won - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role

Primetime Emmy Awards -

(1987) Won - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series / Cheers (as Dr. Simon Finch-Royce)

(1998) Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series / 3rd Rock from the Sun (as Dr. Liam Neesam)

(2002) Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Nonfiction Special" / The Human Face

(2004) Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series / Will & Grace (as Lyle Finster)

Writers Guild of America -

(1989) Nominated - Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay / A Fish Called Wanda (shared with Charles Crichton]])

Other credits

• In 2003, John Cleese took part in Mike Oldfield's re-recording of the 1973 hit Tubular Bells, Tubular Bells 2003. He took over the "Master of Ceremonies" duties in the ‘Finale’ part, in which he announced the various instruments eccentrically, from the late Vivian Stanshall.
• Cleese recorded the voice of God for Spamalot, the musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• In an episode of Will & Grace, he referred to the maid character, Rosario, as Manuel, a homage to his previous television show Fawlty Towers.
• Cleese narrated the audio version of C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters.
• In the late-1990s Cleese appeared in a set of poorly-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.
• Is a vegetarian.
• 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" and "Bear right..Beaver left."
• He plays the voice of Samuel the Sheep in the 2006 adaptation of Charlotte's Web. Samuel keeps on telling the other sheep to be individuals, not sheep. This is a reference to Monty Python's Life of Brian.
• He has a speaking part at the end of the Alan Parsons song "Chomolungma" from the album A Valid Path.
• In 2008 John Cleese appeared in a humorous TV commercial in Poland advertising a bank loan.
• From 2006-2008 John Cleese has appeared in humorous TV commercials in Iceland advertising Kaupþing.

Honours and tributes

• 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 "New Scientist"—and John Cleese's response to the honour.
• An asteroid, 9618 Johncleese, is named in his honour.
• Cleese declined a CBE (Commander of The British Empire) in 1996.
• There is a municipal rubbish heap of 45 metres (148 ft) in altitude that has been named Mt Cleese at the Awapuni landfill just outside Palmerston North after he dubbed the city "suicide capital of New Zealand".
• The "Unamunda" skit from All in the Timing, a collection of short plays by David Ives, centers around a fictional language (Unamunda) in which the word for the English language is "johncleese".

Bibliography

• The Rectorial Address of John Cleese, Epam, 1971, 8 pages
• Foreword for Time and the Soul, Jacob Needleman, 2003  ISBN 1-57675-251-8 (paperback)
• The Human Face (with Brian Bates) (DK Publishing Inc., 2001, ISBN 978-0789478368)

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)

See also

• List of people who have declined a British honour

External links

• Official web site
• Official Podcast
• John Cleese on Twitter
• Podcast to celebrate The Life of Brian (March 2008)
• Daily Llama: John Cleese Visits Lemurs at San Francisco Zoo
• John Cleese — Museum of Broadcast Communication website
• John Cleese — BBC Guide to Comedy
• John Cleese at IMDb
• John Cleese at the Internet Broadway Database

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