Biographic - Sunday October 27, 2019 Comic Strip Licensing and Permissions

Transcript

John Cleese: The legendary funnyman turns 80 this weekend! "And now for something completely different..." Born in Weston-super-mare, Someret, England, on October 27, 1939, John Cleese studied law at Cambridge University, where his involvement with drama club led to appearances in comedy shows in London and New York. He found success as a comedy writer and performer of British tv, which led to the creation of the anarchic, innovative "Monty Python's Flying Circus" in 1969. The show was first broadcast in the states in 1975 and quickly developed a cult following on PBS, fueled by such movies as 1975's "Monty Python and The Holy Grail" and 1979's controversial "Monty Pythin's Life of Brain" the '70s saw Cleese star opposite his first wife, Connie Booth, in two seasons of "Fawly Towers" the show, which they co-created, is still hailed as one of the U.K's favorite sitcoms. From 1970 to 1973, Cleese served as rector of Scotland's University of St. Andrews. He subsequently concentrated on movies, with credits that included "Time Bandits" "Silverado" and "Clockwise." 1988's "A Fish Called Wanda" which he wrote and in which he starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin, was a huge commercial and critical success. His credits in the 1990s, ranged from animated fare such as "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West" to "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" Cleese has appeared in three of the biggest movie franchises of all time- as a quartermaster in two James Bond movies, Nearly Headless Nick in the Harry Potter films, and voicing King Harold in three Shrek movies. AS he enters his eighties, Cleese continues to work in both movies and tv- his recent credits include voicing a role in 2018's animated "charming" and starring in the british sitcom "Hold The Sunset." Four times married, Cleese has repeatedly declined honors from the british establishment.

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