John Cleese Biography

John Marwood Cleese (born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, writer and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he became a member of Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus and the four Monty Python films: And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.

In the mid-1970s, Cleese and his first wife, Connie Booth, co-wrote and starred in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. Later, he co-starred with Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and former Python colleague Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. He also starred in Clockwise, and has appeared in many other films, including two James Bond films, two Harry Potter films, and the last three Shrek films.

With Yes Minister writer Antony Jay he co-founded Video Arts, a production company making entertaining training films.

Early life and education

Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, the only child of Reginald Francis Cleese, an insurance salesman, and his wife Muriel Evelyn (née Cross). His family's surname was originally Cheese, but his father had thought it was embarrassing and changed it when he enlisted in the Army during World War I.

Cleese was educated at St Peter's Preparatory School, where he received a prize for English studies and did well at cricket and boxing. When he was 13, he received an exhibition to Clifton College, an English public school in Bristol. He was already more than 6 feet tall by then. He allegedly defaced the school grounds for a prank by painting footprints to suggest that the statue of Field Marshal Earl Haig had got down from his plinth and gone to the toilet. Cleese played cricket for the First XI team and did well academically, passing 8 O-Levels and 3 A-Levels in mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

He could not go straight to Cambridge University as the ending of conscription in the United Kingdom meant there were twice the usual number of applicants for places, so he returned to his prep school for two years where he taught science, English, geography, history and Latin (he drew on his Latin teaching experience later for a scene in Life of Brian, in which he corrects Brian's badly written Latin graffiti). He then took up a place he had won at Downing College, Cambridge, where he read Law. He was also admitted to the Cambridge Footlights. He recalled that he went to the Cambridge Guildhall where each university society had a stall and went up to the Footlights stall where he was asked if he could sing or dance. He replied "no" as he was not allowed to sing at his school because he was so bad and if there was anything worse than his singing it was his dancing. He was then asked "Well, what do you do?", to which he replied "I make people laugh".

At the Footlights theatrical club he spent a lot of time with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie and 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!

Cleese graduated from Cambridge in 1963 with a 2:1. Despite his successes on The Frost Report, his father would send him cuttings from The Daily Telegraph offering management jobs in places like Marks and Spencer.

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 Festival Fringe that it was renamed Cambridge Circus and taken to the West End in London and then on a tour of New Zealand and Broadway, with the cast also appearing in some of the revue's sketches on The Ed Sullivan Show in October 1964.

After Cambridge Circus, Cleese briefly stayed in America, performing on and Off-Broadway. While performing in the musical Half a Sixpence, Cleese met future Python Terry Gilliam, as well as American actress Connie Booth, whom he married on 20 February 1968.

He was soon offered work 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, that were so popular the BBC commissioned a regular series with the same title that ran from 1965 to 1974. Cleese returned to Britain and joined the cast. In many episodes, he is credited as "John Otto Cleese" (according to Jem Roberts, this may have been due to the embarrassment of his actual middle name Marwood.)

Also 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 co-performers from I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and 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.

It was as an actual performer on The Frost Report that Cleese achieved his breakthrough on British television as a comedy actor, appearing as the tall, patrician figure on the classic class sketch, contrasting comically in a line-up with the shorter, middle class Ronnie Barker and the even-shorter, working class Ronnie Corbett. 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). Cleese and Chapman also wrote episodes for the first series of Doctor in the House (and later Cleese wrote six episodes of Doctor at Large on his own in 1971). These series were successful, and in 1969 Cleese and Chapman were offered their very own series. However, owing 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, with Terry Gilliam creating the animations. The four of them had, on the back of the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set, been offered a series for Thames Television, 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 seasons from October 1969 to December 1974 on BBC Television, though Cleese quit the show after the third. Cleese's two primary characterisations were as a sophisticate and a stressed-out loony. He portrayed the former as a series of announcers, TV show hosts, and government officials (for example, "The Ministry of Silly Walks"). 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", although in its premiere in the sketch "Man with Three Buttocks", the phrase was spoken by Eric Idle.

Partnership with Graham Chapman

Along with Gilliam's animations, Cleese's work with Graham 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.

Unlike Palin and Jones, Cleese and Chapman actually wrote together"?in the same room; Cleese claims that their writing partnership involved his 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, and he also suggested 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 convincingly as a variety of authority figures, such as policemen, detectives, Nazi officers or government officials"?which he would then proceed to undermine. Most famously, in the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch (actually written by Palin and Jones), Cleese exploits his 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 "The Argument Sketch", where Cleese plays a stone-faced bureaucrat employed to sit behind a desk and engage people in pointless, 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 the shorter 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 the programme lasted four series, by the start of series 3, Cleese was growing tired of dealing 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 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 three episodes of the fourth series which used material from these sessions, 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 participated in various live performances over the years.

Post-Python

From 1970 to 1973, Cleese served as rector of the University of St Andrews. His election 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.

Around this time, Cleese worked with comedian Les Dawson on his sketch/stand-up show Sez Les. The differences between the two physically (the tall, lean Cleese and the short, stout Dawson) and socially (the public school, and then Cambridge-educated Cleese and the working class, self-educated Mancunian Dawson) were marked, but both worked well together from series 8 onwards until the series ended in 1976.

Fawlty Towers

See Fawlty Towers for more information Cleese achieved greater prominence 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 three BAFTA awards when produced and in 2000, it topped the British Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. The series also featured Prunella Scales as Basil's acerbic wife Sybil, Andrew Sachs as the much abused Spanish waiter Manuel ("...he's from Barcelona"), and Booth as waitress Polly, the series' voice of sanity. Cleese based Basil Fawlty on a real person, Donald Sinclair, whom he had encountered in 1970 while the Monty Python team were staying at the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay while filming inserts for their television series. Reportedly, Cleese was inspired by Sinclair's mantra, "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 said her husband was totally misrepresented in the series. 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 was screened from 19 September 1975 on BBC 2, initially to poor reviews, but gained momentum when repeated on BBC 1 the following year. Despite this, a second series did not air until 1979, by which time Cleese's marriage to Booth had ended, but they revived their collaboration for 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.

The Muppet Show

In December 1977, Cleese appeared as a guest star on The Muppet Show. Cleese was a 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 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 apologises 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, he is costumed as a Mexican maraca soloist. He has finally had enough and protests that he is 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 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 realises the crowd loves him and accepts the accolades. During the show's finale, as Kermit thanks him, he shows up with a fictional album, his own new vocal record John Cleese: A Man & His Music, and encourages everyone to buy a copy.

This would not be Cleese's final appearance with the Muppets. In their 1981 film 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"79.

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. In 1981 he starred with Sean Connery and Michael Palin in the Terry Gilliam-directed Time Bandits as Robin Hood. He also participated in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982), and starred in The Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International. In 1985, Cleese had a small dramatic role as a sheriff in Silverado, which had an all-star cast that included Kevin Kline, with whom he would star with in A Fish Called Wanda three years later. In 1986, he starred in Clockwise as an uptight school headmaster obsessed with punctuality and constantly getting into trouble during a journey to a headmasters' conference.

Timed with the 1987 UK elections, he appeared in a video promoting proportional representation.

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 was a commercial and critical success, and Cleese was nominated for an Academy Award for his script. Cynthia Cleese starred as Leach's daughter.

Graham Chapman was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1989; Cleese, Michael Palin, Peter Cook, and Chapman's partner David Sherlock, witnessed Chapman's death. Chapman's death occurred a 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's eulogy at Chapman's memorial service"?in which he "became the first person ever at a British memorial service to say 'fuck'""?has since become legendary.

Cleese would later play a supporting role in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein alongside Branagh himself and Robert De Niro. He also produced and acted in a number of successful business training films, including Meetings, Bloody Meetings and More Bloody Meetings. These were produced by his company Video Arts.

With Robin Skynner, the group analyst 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 alongside Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Michael Palin"?was also released that year, but was greeted with mixed reception by critics and audiences. Cleese has since often stated that making the second film 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 film, 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, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall and was replaced by Ben Whishaw.

2000"present

Cleese is 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. He sold his home in the town of Montecito, California in 2008 and planned on moving to Bath, in the UK, where he has a home on the Royal Crescent. In 2011 Cleese was quoted as saying that for tax purposes he might have to live in Switzerland or Monaco.

In 2001, Cleese was cast in the comedy Rat Race as the eccentric hotel owner Donald P. Sinclair, the name of the Torquay hotel owner on whom he had based the character of Basil Fawlty. In 2002, Cleese made a cameo appearance in the film The Adventures of Pluto Nash in which he played "James", a computerised chauffeur of a hover car stolen by the title character (played by Eddie Murphy). The vehicle is subsequently destroyed in a chase, leaving the chauffeur stranded in a remote place on the moon. In 2003, Cleese appeared as Lyle Finster on the US sitcom Will & Grace. His character's daughter, Lorraine, was played by Minnie Driver. In the series, Lyle Finster briefly marries Karen Walker (Megan Mullally). In 2004, Cleese was credited as co-writer of a DC Comics graphic novel titled 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. The show 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 a 2005 poll of comedians and comedy insiders, The Comedians' 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 hosted a television special of football's greatest kicks, goals, saves, bloopers, plays, and penalties, as well as football'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 football greats including Pelé, Mia Hamm, and Thierry Henry. The Art of Soccer with John Cleese was released in North America on DVD in January 2009 by BFS Entertainment & Multimedia.

Cleese 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. He also had a cameo appearance in the computer game Starship Titanic as "The Bomb" (credited as "Kim Bread"), designed by Douglas Adams.

In 2007, Cleese appeared in ads for Titleist as a golf course designer named "Ian MacCallister", who represents "Golf Designers Against Distance". Also in 2007, he started filming the sequel to The Pink Panther, titled The Pink Panther 2, with Steve Martin and Aishwarya Rai. On 27 September 2007 Cleese announced he was to produce a series of video podcasts called HEADCAST. Cleese released the first episode of this series in April 2008 on his own website, headcast.co.uk.

Cleese collaborated with Los Angeles Guitar Quartet member William Kanengiser in 2008 on the text to the performance piece "The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha". Cleese, as narrator, and the LAGQ premiered the work in Santa Barbara. 2008 also saw reports of Cleese working on a musical version of A Fish Called Wanda with his daughter Camilla.

At the end of March 2009, Cleese published his first article as 'Contributing Editor' to The Spectator: "The real reason I had to join The Spectator". Cleese has also hosted comedy galas at the Montreal Just for Laughs comedy festival in 2006, and again in 2009. Towards the end of 2009 and into 2010, Cleese appeared in a series of television adverts for the Norwegian electric goods shop chain, Elkjøp. In March 2010 it was announced that Cleese would be playing Jasper in the video game Fable III.

In 2009 and 2010, Cleese toured Scandinavia and the US with his Alimony Tour Year One and Year Two. In May 2010, it was announced that this tour would extend to the UK (his first tour in UK), set for May 2011. The show is dubbed the "Alimony Tour" in reference to the financial implications of Cleese's divorce. The UK tour started in Cambridge on 3 May, visiting Birmingham, Nottingham, Salford, York, Liverpool, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Oxford, Bristol and Bath (the Alimony Tour DVD was recorded on Sat 2 July, the final Bath date).

Later in 2011 John took his Alimony Tour to South Africa. He played Cape Town on the 21 & 22 October before moving over to Johannesburg where he played from 25th to the 30th October.

In October 2010, Cleese was featured in the launch of an advertising campaign by The Automobile Association for a new home emergency response product. He appeared as a man who believed the AA could not help him during a series of disasters, including water pouring through his ceiling, with the line "The AA? For faulty showers?" During 2010, Cleese appeared in a series of radio advertisements for the Canadian insurance company Pacific Blue Cross, in which he plays a character called "Dr. Nigel Bilkington, Chief of Medicine for American General Hospital".

In January 2012 he took his one man show to Australia, starting in Perth on 22nd Jan and throughout the next 4 months visited Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Newcastle, New South Wales, Melbourne, Sydney, and finished up during April in Canberra.

In May 2012 he did a week run of shows in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Entitled 'An Evening with John Cleese' he was at the Madinat Theatre, Souk Madinat Jumeirah from Wednesday 23rd to Saturday 26th.

In 2012, Cleese was cast in Hunting Elephants, an upcoming heist comedy by Israeli filmmaker Reshef Levi. Cleese had to quit just prior to filming due to heart trouble and was replaced by Patrick Stewart.

In November 2012, Cleese was filmed and interviewed by filmmaker Gracie Otto for the upcoming documentary film Chalky, about Cleese's longtime friend and colleague Michael White, who produced Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Cleese's pre-Python comedy production Cambridge Circus.

In early 2013 it was announced that Cleese would embark on his first ever cross Canada comedy tour. Entitled 'John Cleese: Last Time to See Me Before I Die tour', visiting Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria and finishing in Vancouver.

It was also announced that his return to the stage in Dubai would be postponed until November 2013.

Admiration for black humour

In his Alimony Tour Cleese explained the origin of his fondness for black humour, the only thing that he inherited from his mother. Examples of it are the Dead Parrot sketch, "The Kipper and the Corpse" episode of Fawlty Towers, his clip for the 1992 BBC2 mockumentary "A Question of Taste", the Undertakers sketch, the Vomit episode in The Meaning of Life and his eulogy at Graham Chapman's memorial service.

Personal life

1960s"1980s

Cleese met Connie Booth in the US during the late 1960s and the couple married in 1968. In 1971, Booth gave birth to Cynthia Cleese, their only child. With Booth, Cleese 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 married American actress Barbara Trentham in 1981. Their daughter Camilla, Cleese's second child, was born in 1984. He and Trentham divorced in 1990. During this time, Cleese moved from the United Kingdom to Los Angeles.

1990s"present

On 28 December 1992, he married American psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger. In January 2008 the couple announced they had split. The divorce was settled in December 2008. The divorce settlement left Eichelberger with £12 million in finance and assets, including £600,000 a year for seven years. Cleese stated that "What I find so unfair is that if we both died today, her children would get much more than mine".

Admiration for lemurs

Cleese has a passion for lemurs. Following the 1997 comedy film Fierce Creatures, in which the ring-tailed lemur played a key role, he hosted the 1998 BBC documentary In the Wild: Operation Lemur with John Cleese, which tracked the progress of a reintroduction of Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs back into the Betampona Reserve in Madagascar. The project had been partly funded by Cleese's donation of the proceeds from the London premier of Fierce Creatures. Cleese is quoted as saying, "I adore lemurs. They're extremely gentle, well-mannered, pretty and yet great fun... I should have married one."

Political views

Currently a member of the Liberal Democrats after previously being a Labour party voter, Cleese switched to the SDP after their formation in 1981, and during the 1987 general election, Cleese recorded a nine-minute party political broadcast for the SDP-Liberal Alliance, which spoke about the similarities and failures of the other two parties in a more humorous tone than standard political broadcasts. Cleese has since appeared in broadcasts for the Liberal Democrats, in the 1997 general election and narrating a radio election broadcast for the party during the 2001 general election. In April 2010, Cleese tweeted his support for the Lib Dems after Nick Clegg performed strongly in the first leaders' debate on ITV1, stating: "Well, well, well. First leaders debate, and LibDems do so well. Good luck to them."

In 2011, Cleese declared his admiration for Britain's coalition government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, saying: "I think what's happening at the moment is rather interesting. The Coalition has made everything a little more courteous and a little more flexible. I think it was quite good that the Liberal Democrats had to compromise a bit with the Tories." He also criticised the previous Labour government, commenting: "Although my inclinations are slightly left-of-centre, I was terribly disappointed with the last Labour government. Gordon Brown lacked emotional intelligence and was never a leader." Cleese also declared his support for proportional representation.

In April 2011, Cleese revealed that he had declined a life peerage for political services in 1999. Outgoing leader of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown, had put forward the suggestion shortly before he stepped down, with the idea that Cleese would take the party whip and sit as a working peer, but the actor quipped that he "realised this involved being in England in the winter and I thought that was too much of a price to pay."

Cleese expressed support for Barack Obama's presidential candidacy, offering his services as a speech writer. He also criticised Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin"?saying that "Michael Palin is no longer the funniest Palin""? and wrote a satirical poem about Fox News commentator Sean Hannity for Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Radio credits

• I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again
• I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (1972"73)

Television credits

Major roles

• The Frost Report (1966)
• Frost on Sunday
• At Last the 1948 Show
• How to Irritate People (1968) with Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Connie Booth and Tim Brooke-Taylor
• Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969"74)
• Sez Les (1971, 1974)
• Fawlty Towers (1975, 1979)
• Cheers (episode "Simon Says") (1987), he won an Emmy Award for best actor in a guest starring role
• The Taming of the Shrew (1980) as Petruchio
• True Stories: Peace in our Time? as Neville Chamberlain

As host

• The Human Face
• Wine for the Confused
• We Are Most Amused: Master of Ceremonies for a stand-up comedy show celebrating Prince Charles's 60th birthday.

Guest appearances

• 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
• Ripping Yarns (1979), guest cameo appearance as "Passer-by" in the episode Golden Gordon
• 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
• The Muppet Show (1977)
• Cheers (Season 5, Episode 21, Simon Says) as Dr. Simon Finch-Royce, an acquaintance of Kelsey Grammer's character Frasier Crane and fellow psychiatrist, who offers pre-marriage advice to Sam and Diane, much to his later chagrin.
• Last of the Summer Wine (1993), guest cameo appearance in the episode Welcome to Earth.
• 25 Years of Last of the Summer Wine (1997).
• 3rd Rock from the Sun (1998"2001) as recurring character Dr. Liam Neesam.
• Casper & Mandrilaftalen (1999) both as the repairman of the purple Gunrack, and as the Danish soccer coach Bosse Bo Johansson.
• Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central) (2002) as Red
• Will & Grace (2003"2004) as recurring character Lyle Finster.
• 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.
• In November 2009 commercials, in which he appears for Swedish electrical appliance chain "Elgiganten", began broadcasting in Sweden, as well as broadcasting in Denmark in late 2010.
• Song "Don't Mention The World Cup" animated video played on ITV, BBC and Channel 4 News, June 2006.
• Batteries Not Included"?gadget show on UKTV channel Dave (2008).
• Entourage as himself, season 7 finale (2010).
• Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain as Himself.
• Whitney as Dr. Grant (2013).

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	Interlude	TV Publicist
1969	'	Mr. Dougdale (director in Sotheby's)
	'	Jones	Uncredited
1970	'	Pummer	Writer
1971	And Now for Something Completely Different	Various Roles	Writer
	The Statue	Harry
1973	Elementary, My Dear Watson	Sherlock Holmes
1974	Romance with a Double Bass	Musician Smychkov	Writer
1975	Monty Python and the Holy Grail	Various Roles	Writer
1976	Meetings, Bloody Meetings	Tim	Writer/Executive Producer Documentary Short
1977	'	Sherlock Holmes
1979	Monty Python's Life of Brian	Various Roles	Writer
1980	'	Himself-Various Roles
1981	'	Neville
	Time Bandits	Gormless Robin Hood
1982	Privates on Parade	Major Giles Flack
1983	Yellowbeard	Blind Pew
	Monty Python's The Meaning of Life	Various Roles	Writer
1985	Silverado	Langston
1986	Clockwise	Mr. Stimpson	Evening Standard British Film Awards Peter Sellers Award for Comedy
1988	'	Lawyer Archie Leach	Writer/Executive Producer BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated"?Academy Award For Best Original Screenplay Nominated"?BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1989	Erik the Viking	Halfdan the Black
	The Big Picture	Bartender
1990	Bullseye!	Man on the Beach in Barbados Who Looks Like John Cleese
1991	An American Tail: Fievel Goes West	Cat R. Waul	Voice Only
1992	Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?	Narrator
1993	Splitting Heirs	Raoul P. Shadgrind
1994	Frankenstein	Professor Waldman
	'	Dr. Julius Plumford
	'	Jean-Bob	speaking Voice Only
1996		Mr. Toad's Lawyer
	Fierce Creatures	Rollo Lee	Writer/Producer
1997	George of the Jungle	An Ape Named 'Ape'	Voice Only
1998	In the Wild: Operation Lemur with John Cleese	Host	Narrator
1999	'	Mr. Mersault
	'	R
2000	Isn't She Great	Henry Marcus
	'	Albert, The Magic Pudding	Voice Only
2001	Quantum Project	Alexander Pentcho
	Here's Looking at You: The Evolution of the Human Face	Narrator
	Rat Race	Donald P. Sinclair
	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone	Nearly Headless Nick
2002	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets		Nominated"?Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble Acting
	Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio	The Talking Crickett	Voice Only: English Version
	Die Another Day	Q	Second appearance in a James Bond film, replaces Desmond Llewelyn as Q in the series three years after Llewelyn's death in 1999
	'	James
2003	Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle	Mr. Munday
	Scorched	Charles Merchant
	George of the Jungle 2	An Ape Named 'Ape'	Voice Only
2004	Shrek 2	King Harold
	Around the World in 80 Days	Grizzled Sergeant
2005	Valiant	Mercury	Voice Only
2006	Charlotte's Web	Samuel the Sheep
	Man About Town	Dr. Primkin
2007	Shrek the Third	King Harold	Voice Only
2008	Igor	Dr. Glickenstein
	'	Dr. Barnhardt
2009	'	Chief-Inspector Charles Dreyfus
	Planet 51	Professor Kipple	Voice Only
2010	Spud	The Guv	Awaiting international release
	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole	Ghost	Voice Only
	Shrek Forever After	King Harold
2011	The Big Year	Historical Montage Narrator
	Winnie the Pooh	Narrator
2012	God Loves Caviar	McCormick
2013	Chalky	Himself	Appears as himself in this documentary film about Michael White, producer of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
	The Croods		Story credit
	Planes	Bulldog	Voice Only

Video game credits

• Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time (1994) 7th Level
• Storybook Weaver (1994) MECC
• 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 (2000) Electronic Arts
• Storybook Weaver Deluxe (2004) MECC, The Learning Company
• James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2004) Electronic Arts
• Trivial Pursuit: Unhinged (2004) Atari
• Jade Empire (2005) BioWare (as Sir Roderick Ponce von Fontlebottom the Magnificent Bastard)
• Shrek the Third (2007) King Harold, Narrator
• Fable III (2010) Jasper
• Time Troopers (2004) Mr. Cleese

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.
• Cleese narrated the audio version of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters.
• In the mid-1980s, Cleese starred in British advertisements for Compaq computers and Schweppes beverages.
• 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.
• He has enunciated a 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 repeatedly tells 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 to 2008 John Cleese has appeared in humorous TV commercials in Iceland advertising Kaupþing.
• In 2004, Cleese co-wrote the graphic novel Superman: True Brit which reimagines the origin of Superman, by considering how Clark Kent's upbringing would be different if his spaceship had crashed in Weston-super-Mare in England instead of the fictional town of Smallville in Kansas, America.

Television advertisements

Year	Title	Role
1970's	Royal Mail	Pirate / Sir Betty
1975	Texaco	Himself
1978	Accurist	Himself
1980"1982	Sony	Himself
1981	Giroblauw (Holland)	Interviewer
1982	Postbank (Holland)	Himself
1982	EAC Multilist (Australia)	Estate Agent
1982	American Express	Himself
1980's	Compaq	Himself
1980's	Planters Pretzels (Australia)	Himself
1986	Maxwell House	Himself
1988	Talking Pages	Man who wants to marry Princess
1990"91	Schweppes	Himself
1992"93	Talking Pages	Colin
1992"94	Magnavox	Himself
1993	Nestlé Milk Chocolate (Australia)	Himself
1993	Cellnet	Woman
1993"95	Health Education Authority (Smoking Quitline)	Himself
1996	Norwich Union Direct	Himself
1996	Tele Danmark (Denmark)	Himself
1998	Tostitos	French Chef
1998	Lexus	Himself, voice only
1998"99	Sainsbury's	Himself
1999	Melba toast	Himself
1999	ArtistDirect.com	Himself
2001	007: Agent Under Fire	R
2001"08	Titleist	Ian MacCallister
2002	Little Tikes	Himself
2002	Heineken	Himself
2003	Westinghouse Unplugged vacuum cleaner	Himself
2005	Intel	Himself
2006	TBS	Himself
2006	TV Spielfilm (Germany)	Himself
2006"08	Kaupþing (Iceland)	Himself
2008	Bank Zachodni WBK (Poland)	Himself
2009	Elgiganten (Sweden)	Himself
2009	Hashahar Ha'oleh (Israel)	Western general
2009	Accurist	Himself
2010	William Hill (Austria)	Himself
2010"11	AA	Himself
2011	Dogtober (Australia)	Himself, voice only
2012	Czech Olympic Team (Czech Republic)	Himself
2012	DirecTV	Himself
2012	Canadian Club (Australia)	Himself, voice only

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)

Honours and tributes

• A species of lemur, the Bemaraha woolly lemur (Avahi cleesei), has been named in his honour. John Cleese has 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 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 Universal Language" skit from All in the Timing, a collection of short plays by David Ives, centres around a fictional language (Unamunda) in which the word for the English language is "johncleese".
• The post-hardcore rock band I Set My Friends On Fire has a song on their You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter album titled "Reese's Pieces, I Don't Know Who John Cleese Is?".

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 978-0-7894-7836-8)
• Cleese Encounters: The Unauthorized Biography of Monty Python Veteran John Cleese, Jonathan Margolis, St. Martin's Press, 1992, ISBN 0-312-08162-6

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

• Declining a British honour